Teacher guide

Creating or joining your school

Signing up as a teacher asks one question before anything else: 'Is your school already on Educator?' Nothing is pre-selected, so you have to answer it. There are three routes:

• Yes - I have a school invite code: paste the 6-character code a colleague sent you and you join their school as a Teacher immediately. Quickest, and the only route with no waiting.

• Yes - find my school in the directory: type the school name, pick it from the results, and send a request. Every Head of Department at that school is emailed. Until one approves you, your Class page shows a 'Request sent' screen: no classes, no student data. You can withdraw the request from that screen and set up a different way.

• No - I'll set it up: enter the school name and an optional region. You become the school's first Head of Department automatically, and you get an invite code to share.

If the school name you type already exists, Educator stops and names the existing school rather than creating a second one. A duplicate splits your classes, licences, and leaderboard across two schools. If yours genuinely is a different school with the same name, tick the override box and the create goes through.

Adding colleagues

The school invite code lives on the School page and is visible to Heads of Department. Send a colleague the code, or the invite link of the form educator-labs.com/join-school/RC5SV4, which fills the code in for them. Either way they join as a Teacher with no approval step. If a colleague signs up without the code and uses the directory search instead, their request appears on the School page for a Head of Department to approve or decline, and they are emailed the outcome.

Creating a class

Your first class is created as part of the onboarding flow. For additional classes, go to your Class page and click + Create another class. You'll set:

• Subject: e.g. GCSE History, Food GCSE, Combined Science

• Exam board: AQA, Edexcel, OCR, Eduqas, CCEA (where available; not shown for KS3)

• Class name: anything that helps you identify the group

• Year group: Y7–Y11

• Science route (Combined Science only): Combined, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, or Triple, defaulting to Combined - changeable later in class settings

Once created, your class gets a unique 6-character class code. Share this with students. They enter it during onboarding to join your class.

Tip: Foundation/Higher tier is not set at creation. You can configure it any time from the class settings page.

Launch screen

The launch screen is a projector-ready page: the class code in large type, a QR code that opens the join page for your class, and a short 'how to join' list. It is built for running the first session together in the room. Your first class, made during sign-up, opens on its class page with a welcome panel instead; classes you add later with + Create another class drop you straight onto the launch screen. Choose 'I'll do this later' to skip it, and reopen it any time from the Launch screen button in the class page header.

The join page a student reaches from the QR code or a /join/<code> link names the class and school so they can check it before creating an account, and a code that doesn't match any class is caught there, with a box to try again.

Importing students instead of sharing the code

Import students on the class page creates pupils' accounts for you from a spreadsheet (download the .xlsx template, fill in names and, optionally, emails, and upload; up to 100 per import). A pupil with no email is given a placeholder sign-in address. Imported pupils skip the sign-up questions, so no date of birth is asked for, and they land in your class ready to practise.

The import finishes with a credentials sheet: each pupil's sign-in email and a temporary password. It is shown once and not stored anywhere readable, so download the CSV, copy it, or print it before you leave the page. Lost it? Reset student passwords on the class page issues fresh temporary passwords the same way.

Two limits to know. Pupils who sign in with Google or Microsoft keep that sign-in and are never given a password, so their row reads '(unchanged - uses existing sign-in)'. And an email that already has an Educator account outside your school is refused: that person should join with the class code instead.

Topic filter

The topic filter lets you restrict which topics - or individual subtopics - appear in students' practice sessions to only those you've already taught. The picker is a collapsible tree: tick a whole topic, or expand it and tick just the subtopics you've covered, which narrows the scope further than ticking the whole topic. Update it as the term progresses. Students on a filtered class won't see cards from topics or subtopics outside the filter, useful for not overwhelming them with content they haven't covered yet.

Multiple subjects

Each class is linked to one subject. If you teach the same group for two subjects, create two classes. Students can belong to multiple classes.

Your dashboard

Signing in lands you on /dashboard, the staff home screen. It aggregates every class you teach into one view, so it answers 'what needs me this week?' before you open a class. Five things sit on it:

• The week headline: how many of your students practised this week, out of the total, with class accuracy and homework-in percentages beside it. Under it, 'Your next move' names the class with the most students who haven't practised and links straight to it. A sessions sparkline to the right plots daily sessions across the last fortnight.

• What to do today: at most three derived jobs, each a link. A class with no homework set, any flagged cards waiting to be reviewed, and a suggestion to start a live session. When there is nothing, it says so.

• This week at a glance: students active, homework completion, live sessions run, and cards flagged, across all your classes.

• Your classes: one row per class with the subject, student count, percentage active this week, and homework done out of total with its due date. The action reads 'Set →' when no homework is set and 'Open →' when it is.

• Top misconceptions this week: per card, the single wrong answer most of your students are currently holding, with the correct answer beside it and how many students hold it. The misconception is scoped to the subject of the class it appears in, so a Food teacher never sees a History card. Reteach the confusion, not just 'this was tricky'.

The dashboard is a summary, not a control panel. Class management, creating classes, live sessions, homework, the roster, the print pack, and the CSV export all live on the Class page at /teach.

Your class this week

The class page opens with a 'Your class this week' card: how many of the class practised this week (with the change on last week), the homework completion percentage where homework has been set, class accuracy against the term-start baseline, and any weak topics that recovered this week. A Set homework link sits alongside it. Every figure is aggregate; the week card never singles out or ranks individual students.

Printable weekly summary

A weekly summary link on the week card opens a one-page, print-optimised version of the same figures with a school-and-class header, at /teach/[classId]/week-summary. Print it or Save as PDF to hand to a line manager or forward to SLT. It is aggregate-only and contains no student names anywhere, so it is safe to share outside the classroom. It is distinct from the weekly digest email (a Sunday email covering all your classes) and the print pack (wall poster + revision cards + join-code card): the summary is the single-class evidence page you print on demand.

Class accuracy by topic

On your class page, the 'Class accuracy by topic' section lists every topic with a colour-coded accuracy bar: green (≥80%), amber (50–79%), and red (<50%). Each topic shows the class accuracy percentage and total review count. Click any topic to drill into per-question stats, useful for identifying the specific cards your class is getting wrong. A 'Set up scheme of work' link at the top lets you add pacing dates so each topic shows a timing pill.

Student detail page

Click any student's name from your class roster to see their individual mastery by topic, their session history, and card-level detail. You can see which specific cards they've got wrong repeatedly, useful for targeted support conversations.

Class leaderboard

The class leaderboard shows all students ranked by XP for your subject. It's a tool for classroom moments, a quick 'let's see where everyone is' display. It is not pushed at students; they'd need to navigate to it themselves. School student names are never visible on public leaderboards.

CSV export

Export class progress as a CSV at any time from the roster header. The download includes each student's name, email, sessions, cards seen, cards correct, accuracy %, mastered count, and last active date, ready to paste into a department report or share with SLT.

Print pack

Click Print pack on your class page to open a print-ready page with three A4 portrait sheets: a wall poster (top 3 this week, accuracy by topic, and the join QR), cut-and-fold revision cards (prompt front / answer back), and a join-code and streak card. Use your browser's Print dialog. No extra software needed.

One thing to know before you pin it up: the poster shows students' display names, and for students you imported that display name is their real name. Treat it as a classroom document rather than something for a public corridor. A student with no display name set shows as 'Student 1', 'Student 2' and so on; email addresses never appear.

Scheme of work pacing

Set a per-class topic timeline at /teach/[classId]/pacing. Assign a month range to each topic. Once set, each topic in the class accuracy table shows a pill: Currently teaching, Covered, or Upcoming, so you can see at a glance whether student accuracy matches where you are in the curriculum. Use 'Fill from suggested timeline' to pre-populate from the subject default, then adjust for your term.

Weekly digest email

Opt in from account settings to receive a Sunday evening email summarising all your active classes: session counts, XP, streak drops, top struggling card, and a medal table. Useful for keeping an eye on engagement without logging in daily.

Custom class events

Create a short-run event scoped to your class from the 'Class events' section on the class page: click '+ New event' there. Set a name, badge emoji, date range, topic scope, and card count, and optionally make it a boss battle, which pays +10 bonus XP per correct card. Students see the event on their dashboard and earn any bonus XP during the event window.

Starting a live session

From your class page, click Start a live class. You can select specific topics and a card count. The session opens in waiting mode. Students see a Join button appear on their dashboard when a live session is active for their class.

During the session

The host view (on your screen, typically a classroom projector) shows a real-time leaderboard updating as students answer. Each student works at their own pace; there's no forced synchronisation. You can see who has joined and who is still working.

Ending the session

Click End session on the host screen. Results are saved, so you can review the session later from the class live session history.

Streak and mastery after live sessions

Live sessions earn XP but do not count toward a student's daily streak and do not update mastery levels. Students who only attend a live session that day still need to complete a regular practice session to protect their streak.

Setting homework

From the class page, click Set homework. Choose one or more topics, or expand a topic to pick individual subtopics, how many questions to set, and a due date. The assignment appears on each student's dashboard with the due date clearly shown.

One fixed set of questions

Each homework is one fixed batch of questions, the same for every student, so you can go through it with the whole class afterwards. Open the homework from your class page to see every question in the batch, grouped by topic and subtopic, and untick any you don't want: an unticked question is dropped for everyone, without reshuffling the rest. Match-pairs cards are left out of homework.

Printable worksheet

Print worksheet on the homework page produces a paper version of the same questions, with the answer key on a separate last sheet so you can hold it back. The same questions print every time, so one answer key marks the whole set. It carries no student names, which makes it handy for anyone doing the homework on paper.

Completion incentive

The first time a student completes a homework assignment, they earn +1 streak freeze. This is a deliberate design choice: homework completion is rewarded with protection for their streak rather than extra XP. It makes the assignment feel consequential without adding pressure.

Tracking completion

The homework view on your class page shows who has completed the assignment and who hasn't, updated in real time as students work.

Overdue homework

When an assignment passes its due date with students still to complete it, a red 'N overdue' chip appears on the class card on your Class page (/teach), and the homework strip under it switches to 'Homework overdue'. Open the class to see exactly which students have not completed each overdue assignment, by name.

HoD permissions

Heads of Department have all teacher permissions plus:

• School-wide /school dashboard: a 7-day stat grid (total students, active this week, sessions, cards correct), plus Classes, Staff, Department heads, Students, School events, and renaming the school - department-wide struggling topics and the mastery trend are on the SLT report instead

• SLT report: one-page printable summary at /school/report

• Spec alignment tool: printable card-to-spec-point mapping per board at /spec-mapping. Useful for procurement documentation.

• Archive and unarchive any class in their subject (teachers cannot self-archive)

• School invite code to add new teachers

• Approve or decline teachers who found the school through the directory search: pending requests appear in a panel at the top of /school, and every HoD is emailed when one arrives. Until someone acts, the colleague is stuck on an awaiting-approval screen, so this is a real duty, not a notification

• A department rollup on the dashboard: teacher count, class count, student count, percentage active this week, students at risk, and a per-teacher table

Archiving a class

When a class finishes (e.g. end of year), HoDs can archive it. Archived classes disappear from the default dashboard view, but all session history and student data are preserved. They can be unarchived at any time.

School licensing

Educator is licensed per subject, not per student. A Department licence covers one subject for unlimited students and classes. Creating the first class in a subject your school doesn't license yet starts a free four-week trial for that subject automatically. From there, a Head of Department manages licences from the Subject licences panel on the School page (/school):

• Start free trial: four weeks for a subject nobody has started yet, no card needed

• Subscribe: pay for a subject by card through Stripe, and Manage afterwards to update billing

• Request invoice: for the Whole-school licence, your finance team is sent an invoice payable by BACS or card, and every subject unlocks when payment clears

Prefer to arrange it with us, or need a quote for a purchase order? Email hello@educator-labs.com.