Let someone manage the school website

3 steps 4 min Updated 4 November 2026

Website admin lets a member of staff manage your school's website as a WordPress administrator, without making them an admin in ADAdmin. Use it for the people who look after the website, such as marketing, communications or office staff, who don't need to manage users, groups or settings.

What a website admin gets

At a school: they sign in to the school's website as an administrator.
At a trust (the person's account belongs to the trust itself): they sign in to the trust's website and every school website in the trust as an administrator. The school switcher in the bar at the top of the website lists the trust's schools, so they can move between them. Trust Hub, and the website compliance scores in the switcher where your trust has them, are theirs too, as they are for the trust's admins.

What they don't get:

Any admin access in ADAdmin. They keep their own role, for example Mentor, everywhere else.
At a school in a trust, website admin covers that school's own website only, not the trust's website or the other schools'.

Everyone else keeps the WordPress role their account type gives them: mentors sign in as contributors, unless your website is set to give them a different role.

Before you start

You must be an admin for the school the person belongs to.
The person needs a staff role: Mentor, Observer, Governor or Ofsted. Admins already manage the website, and learners can't be website admins.
For a website admin across the whole trust, open the person in the trust's own school, not in one of its schools.

Steps

Step 1: Open the person

In the left sidebar, open Users (under Users & Groups) and select Users. Find the person and select their name. The page opens on the Details tab.

Step 2: Tick Website admin

Under the profile fields, tick Website admin. The hint underneath says what it covers at your school.

If the person is an admin only so that they can manage the website, change their Role to Mentor (or another staff role) at the same time.

Step 3: Save

Select Save changes. The change is recorded in the admin audit trail, and the header of the page shows Website admin next to their role.

They become an administrator the next time they sign in to the website. If they're signed in to it already, they should sign out of the website and back in. The trust's schools can take up to 10 minutes to appear in the switcher.

Removing it

Untick Website admin and select Save changes. The next time they sign in to the website they go back to the role their account type gives them. Changing their role to Learner or Admin clears it too, and so does moving them to another school with Move users: tick it again at their new school if they still need it.

2FA

Website admins follow your school's staff 2FA setting, like any other member of staff. They aren't held to the rule that admins always use 2FA. If you require 2FA for staff they use it too, and exemptions and trusted IP addresses apply to them as to the rest of your staff. See Require MFA for staff and students.

Troubleshooting

I can't see the Website admin tick box. It's only offered for Mentor, Observer, Governor and Ofsted accounts, so change the Role first: the tick appears as soon as one of those roles is selected. It isn't offered for admins or learners, or at Realsmart's own school.
They still have the wrong role on the website. It applies from their next sign-in to the website. Ask them to sign out of the website and back in. At a trust, the school list in the switcher can take up to 10 minutes to update.
A trust's website admin can't see one school's website. Check the box is ticked on the person's account in the trust's own school, not in one of its schools: a website admin at a school in a trust only covers that school's own website. If it is, and a school is still missing after 10 minutes, ask Realsmart support to check how your schools are linked to the trust.

Did this work for you?

If a step looked different on your site, tell us and we'll update the screenshots.