Realsmart Help

All guides / Administration

Getting Started with Realsmart

5 steps 5 min Updated 3 November 2026

Overview

Your school website runs on WordPress with the Realsmart plugins added. They give you school-specific tools — alerts for closures, staff vacancies, calendars, notices, cookie consent and more — plus the SmartLogin sign-in used by staff, pupils and governors.

This guide shows where those tools live in the WordPress admin and suggests an order for setting up a site. Most Realsmart settings pages are only shown to administrators.

Getting set up

Step 1: Start from the Dashboard

When you sign in to the WordPress admin you land on the Dashboard. The first box you see is Ofsted website alerts, headed "Who should we email if Ofsted may be reviewing your website?" — it is the only Dashboard box that asks you to do something: enter up to five email addresses and select Save alert addresses so the right people hear about a possible inspection visit. See Ofsted website alerts. Alongside WordPress's Activity and Quick Draft boxes, Realsmart also adds realsmart Latest: (news from Realsmart). The left-hand sidebar lists everything else, in groups: Content (posts, pages, media and the like), Realsmart (Compliance, Realsmart's tools, Smart Plugins and smartOptions), Site admin (Appearance, Users, Tools, Settings) and Add-ons — other plugins' set-up screens, folded into one row until you select it.

The WordPress Dashboard: on the left an Activity box listing three recently published example news posts and a Website Activity Monitoring box reading "No recent activity detected."; on the right a realsmart Latest: box reading "No news to display" and an empty Quick Draft form with a Save Draft button; and the admin sidebar listing Dashboard, Posts, Media, smartNotices, Pages, Comments, Arbor Statistics, Policy Manager, Staff Vacancies, Parents Evening, Smart WP Calendar, Requirements, Appearance, Plugins, Users, Tools, Settings, Advanced Smart Blocks, Smart Plugins, Configuration, Smart Cookie Kit and smartOptions. The admin toolbar at the top shows Cache and smartOptions links, and a red Help button sits in the bottom-right corner

Step 2: Turn on the features you need in Smart Plugins

Click Smart Plugins in the sidebar. Each card is a Realsmart feature with an On / Off switch; turn on what your school uses, click Save changes, then click Open settings on a card to set it up. See Smart Plugins.

The Smart Plugins page with a card for each feature, most with On and Off buttons and an Open settings link, and the sidebar's Smart Plugins menu expanded to show Post Reminder, Smart Lock, Smart Approvals, Smart Panel, Smart Cookies, Smart Houses, Smart Alert, Smart Alert Plus, Smart Menus, Smart Blocks, Smart Twitter, Smart Helper, Smart FAQ, Smart Maintenance, Smart Popup and Smart Redirect

Step 3: Set your school's details and branding in smartOptions

Click smartOptions (in the REALSMART group of the sidebar, and also in the toolbar at the top). Fill in School details — name, strapline, logo and contact details — then set your colours under Brand & colours and choose what appears in the header under Header & menu. Click Save changes at the bottom of the page. See Smart Theme Options.

Step 4: Work through Website compliance

Click Compliance in the sidebar. It checks your website against what the Department for Education says your school must and should publish, finds your school on Get Information about Schools so the list matches your type of school, and shows what is in place, out of date or missing. It can create a template page for anything missing. See Website compliance.

Step 5: Check the login bar

Visit your website while signed out. The bar at the top with the Login button is Smart Panel, which is how staff and pupils sign in through SmartLogin. You can change how the button looks for visitors under Smart Plugins → Smart Panel. See Smart Panel.

Features

Where Realsmart features live

Which items you see depends on which Realsmart plugins your school uses and on your account's role, so your menu may have fewer entries than this.

What you want to do Where to find it Guide
Turn Realsmart features on or off Smart Plugins Smart Plugins
School name, logo, colours, header, slideshow, SmartLogin roles smartOptions Smart Theme Options
Put an urgent message on every page Smart Plugins → Smart Alert Smart Alert
Show a popup announcement Smart Plugins → Smart Popup Smart Popup
Cookie consent banner Smart Plugins → Smart Cookies Smart Cookies
Send people to the right page when they log in Smart Plugins → Smart Redirect Smart Redirect
Change how the login button looks for visitors Smart Plugins → Smart Panel Smart Panel
Stop the homepage being edited by accident Smart Plugins → Smart Lock Smart Lock
Get an email reminder to review a post or page Smart Plugins → Post Reminder Post Reminder
Post-it style notices Smart Notices Smart Notices
Job vacancies Staff Vacancies Staff Vacancies
Events calendar Smart Trust Calendar Smart WP Calendar
School policies Smart Policy Manager Smart Policies
Parents' evening bookings Smart Parents' Evening Smart Parents Evening
Arbor data on your website (needs an Arbor connection) Smart Plugins → Smart Arbor Statistics Smart Arbor Statistics
Reusable collections of content blocks Smart Plugins → Advanced Smart Blocks Advanced Smart Blocks
Check your website against what the DfE says schools must publish Compliance Website compliance
Record of media uploads and deletions Smart Plugins → Smart Media Logs Smart Media Logs
Browser tab icon Smart Plugins → Favicon Settings Favicon Settings
An email when an inspector may be reading your website Dashboard → Ofsted website alerts Ofsted website alerts
Clear the website's page cache Cache in the toolbar, or Tools → Cache Page Cache
Share posts between a trust's school websites (trusts only) Smart Plugins → Multi Site MAT Multisite

The Configuration, Smart CSS, Smart JS and Access tokens pages under Smart Plugins are only shown to Realsmart staff accounts. See Configuration.

Getting help while you work

The red Help button in the bottom-right corner of the admin is Smart Helper. It shows help articles relevant to the screen you are on. Administrators can turn it on or off under Smart Plugins → Smart Helper. See Smart Helper.

For anything else, contact Realsmart support at [email protected]. Say which page or feature you were using and what you were trying to do.

Who sees what: SmartLogin roles

Staff, pupils and others sign in through SmartLogin, and several Realsmart features behave differently depending on who is signed in. The account types are:

  • Visitors who are not signed in, such as parents
  • Learners — pupils
  • Mentors — staff
  • Admins — school administrators
  • Governors
  • Ofsted — inspection accounts
  • Observers

Smart Menus, Smart Redirect, Smart Alert and Smart Visibility use these to show the right content to the right people. The WordPress roles that staff and admins are given when they sign in are set under smartOptions → Advanced → SmartLogin.

Troubleshooting

Why it happens: The feature is switched off on the Smart Plugins page, your school does not use that plugin, or your account is not an administrator.

How to fix it:

  1. Check the feature is On under Smart Plugins and click Save changes.
  2. If it is still missing, ask an administrator at your school, or contact Realsmart support.

I cannot see Smart Plugins or smartOptions

Why it happens: Both are only shown to administrators.

How to fix it: Ask an administrator at your school to make the change, or to give your account the administrator role.

Administration Cache Administration Configuration Administration Smart Helper Administration Smart Media Logs