For schools

School setup & permissions

Everything teachers and heads of department need to know, from creating the first class to reading class data and managing your licence.

School roles

Every school account uses one of three roles. Roles are set during onboarding, and can be changed afterwards by any Head of Department from the School page; a teacher cannot promote themselves.

Teacher: Creates and manages their own classes. Views class-level data: accuracy by topic, individual student detail, session history. Runs live sessions and sets homework. Cannot see other teachers' classes or school-wide data.
Head of Department (HoD): All teacher permissions, plus: access to the school-wide /school dashboard (cross-class engagement, per-class comparison, the school-wide student roster, and an SLT report), archive or unarchive any class in their subject, see the school invite code to add new teachers, approve or decline teachers who ask to join the school, and start or pay for subject licences. There is exactly one HoD per subject at a time.
Student: Practises cards, earns XP, tracks their own stats, and joins a class using a join code. Students cannot see other students' detailed stats, other classes, or any teacher views.

Promoting a teacher to HoD: go to the School page (nav item visible to HoDs) and use the designate HoD form to assign a staff member as HoD for a subject. Because there is only ever one HoD per subject, designating someone new for that subject silently removes it from whoever currently holds it - if it was their only subject, they are demoted back to teacher. Designate a colleague for a subject you currently hold, and you lose it yourself; if it was your last subject, you lose access to the School page too. Check who currently holds a subject before reassigning it.

Setting up your school

The first teacher from your school to sign up creates the school record and becomes its first Head of Department. Everyone after that joins the school that already exists.

Sign up at educator-labs.com. Select Teacher when asked who you are.
Create your school. Enter your school name and an optional region. That's it; you'll also set up your first class in the same onboarding flow. Creating the school makes you its Head of Department automatically, so you can start trials, see the invite code and designate other HoDs straight away. There is no support ticket to raise.
Add other teachers. Colleagues have two routes in, and you should know about both. Either share the school invite code from your School page, which adds them instantly, or let them find the school themselves and approve the request. Both are covered below.

How colleagues join

Onboarding asks every teacher “Is your school already on Educator?” and offers three answers: Yes, I have a school invite code, Yes, find my school in the directory, and No, I'll set it up. A teacher who picks the third and types a name that already exists is stopped and pointed back at the first two, which is what keeps a department from ending up split across two school records.

The invite-code route is instant: the teacher is attached to your school the moment they finish onboarding. The directory route is not. It files a request that a Head of Department has to approve, and until then the teacher sits on an awaiting-approval screen with no access to the school's classes or students. That is deliberate, because approving someone gives them sight of other people's pupils.

Approving join requests (HoD duty)

When a teacher requests to join, Educator emails every Head of Department at the school (“[Name] wants to join [School]”) and a Join requests panel appears near the top of your School page. It lists each person's name, email address and the date they asked, with Approve and Decline buttons. Both ask you to confirm first. The panel is hidden entirely when there is nothing waiting.

Approving attaches the person to your school as a teacher and emails them to say so. Declining releases them to start onboarding again, so they can try a different school or set up their own. They are notified by email, but not given a reason. Only approve people you recognise as colleagues: an approved teacher can see the school's classes and student progress. Student accounts cannot request staff access, and cannot be approved into it.

This queue needs watching. A colleague who used the directory route cannot do anything at all until an HoD acts. If nobody checks the School page, they stay stranded on the awaiting-approval screen indefinitely. The notification email is your prompt.

Creating a class

Your first class is created during onboarding. For additional classes, go to your Class page and click + Create another class. Each class is scoped to one subject. If you teach the same group for two subjects, create two classes and give students both codes.

Subject: pick the GCSE or KS3 subject. KS3 subjects show no exam board picker (board filtering doesn't apply to KS3).
Exam board (GCSE only): AQA, Edexcel, OCR, Eduqas, or CCEA depending on the subject. Scopes practice sessions to cards on that board's spec. You can change it later in class settings.
Science route (GCSE Science only): Combined (the default), a single separate science (Biology, Chemistry, or Physics), or Triple (all three at full depth). One Science licence covers every route; it scopes which cards the class sees and composes with the exam board (e.g. AQA Triple). Change it later in class settings. KS3 Science has no route picker.
Class name and year group: anything your students will recognise, e.g. “10A Food”. Year group helps with pacing calculations.
Foundation / Higher tier: this is not set at creation. Go to class settings after the class is created to choose Foundation, Higher, or Both. The default is Both.
Copy the class code and share it with your students. It appears on the class page at any time. Students enter it once during sign-up and are added instantly.

Topic & subtopic filter: once the class is set up, the Topics this class covers tree in class settings lets you restrict practice down to the individual subtopic. Each topic expands to show its subtopics; tick a whole topic, or expand it and tick just the subtopics you've taught, which is handy for narrowing to the single unit you're covering this week. Cards from unticked subtopics are hidden from student sessions, live classes and the homework picker. One exception: the Beta Mark it (evaluate) cards live in their own extended-response section that the tree does not show, so Mark it mode scopes a class by topic instead, serving evaluate cards from any topic that has at least one ticked subtopic. Leave everything ticked for the full subject (new content is then auto-included). Switching the class's exam board or Science route re-scopes the tree automatically. Update it as the term progresses.

Launch screen

Creating a class drops you straight onto a projector-ready launch screen: the join code in large type, a QR code that opens the join page with the code pre-filled, and a three-step “how to join” list for students. The intent is to run the first session together in the room, right away. You can skip it with I'll do this later, and reopen it any time from the Launch screen button in the class page header. From the launch screen a single button starts a live class session with the group.

Your dashboard

Teachers and Heads of Department land on a staff dashboard at /dashboard after signing in. It is a summary across all your classes, written to answer one question: what needs your attention today. Class management still happens on the Class page, which the dashboard links into.

This week: A headline count of how many of your students practised, alongside class accuracy and the percentage of homework in. A fortnight of daily session counts sits beside it as a small bar chart.
Your next move: One suggestion, picked as the class with the most students who have not practised this week, with a link straight into it. When everyone has practised it says so and suggests setting next week's homework instead.
What to do today: Up to three concrete jobs, derived from your own data: set homework for a class that has none, review cards students have flagged, start a live session. Each is a link to the page that does it.
This week at a glance: Students active out of the total, homework completion, live sessions run, and how many cards have been flagged for review.
Your classes: One row per class with the subject, student count, the percentage active this week, and the homework position (done out of the class, plus the due date, or not set). The action reads Set when no homework is running and Open when it is.
Top misconceptions this week: The wrong answers your classes are actually holding onto, with the topic, the answer students gave, the correct one, and how many gave it. This is the reteach list: it names the confusion rather than just flagging a hard card.

Heads of Department see the same dashboard with a department band across the top: teachers, classes and students in the department, the percentage active this week, the number of students at risk, and a per-teacher table. For the full cross-class view, including department-wide struggling topics and the SLT report, use the School page described below.

Your class this week

The class page opens with a Your class this week card, a headline summary that sits above the stat tiles. It shows 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 so you can act on what you see. All figures are 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 choose Save as PDF, to hand to a line manager or forward to SLT.

Aggregate only, no student names. The weekly summary carries the same class-level figures as the on-page week card and deliberately contains no student names anywhere, so it is safe to share outside the classroom. It is distinct from the weekly digest email (a Sunday teacher email covering all your classes, described below) and from the print pack (wall poster, revision cards, and a streak-and-join-code sheet, all of which do name students): the summary is the single-class evidence page you print on demand.

Managing students

Once students have joined, the class roster is your main view for monitoring the group.

Class roster

Lists every student in the class with their current XP, streak, and sessions this week. Click any student to open their detail page. You can also download the roster as a CSV from the roster header.

Student detail page

Shows an individual student's mastery level per topic, session history, streak, XP, and achievements. Useful for a one-to-one conversation about revision gaps.

Adding students

Students typically join by entering the class code during sign-up, or by clicking a direct invite link the teacher shares (which pre-fills the code). If you need to add students manually, the class page has two options: Import students (CSV) for bulk uploads from a spreadsheet, or Add students one by one for individual additions.

Credential management

A credential management page at /teach/[classId]/credentials lets teachers reset individual student passwords. Resetting is destructive: each student's old password stops working the moment you do it, so only reset students who actually need a new one. The CSV / copy-as-list download only appears after a reset, and only covers the students you just reset - there is no way to look up or export a student's existing password. Save the result straight away; the page warns you it won't show the new passwords again.

CSV export

Download class progress as a spreadsheet at any time. Three date-range buttons in the roster header (7 days / 28 days / All time) generate a CSV containing student name, email, sessions, cards seen, cards correct, accuracy %, mastered count, and last active date. The file is named after the class and the range, so successive downloads do not overwrite each other. Useful for department reports and SLT conversations.

Class accuracy by topic

Below the student roster on your class page, the Class accuracy by topic section shows every topic with a colour-coded accuracy bar and a percentage.

Green (≥80%): the class is answering this topic well.
Pink (50–79%): some students are struggling; consider a targeted homework or live session.
Red (<50%): the class is weak here. More classroom time or intervention is likely needed before expecting independent recall.
Click any topic to drill into per-question stats, useful for identifying the specific cards your class is consistently getting wrong.

Scheme of work: a Set up scheme of work link at the top of this section opens a per-class pacing editor where you set a month range for each topic. Once set, each topic row shows a timing pill: Currently teaching, Covered, or a future date range (e.g. Mar 25–Jun 25), based on today's date relative to your plan. Use the Fill from suggested timeline button to pre-populate dates from the subject's default sequence, then adjust to match your school's term.

Live sessions

Run a real-time class quiz where every student answers cards simultaneously and you watch the leaderboard update live on the projector.

Open your class page and click Start a live class.
Choose a topic scope: a single topic, multiple topics, or Mixed (draws from across the class's whole scope, honouring its board, Science route and topic or subtopic filter). Set a card count using the range slider.
Students see a banner headed Live class · in progress on their dashboard the moment you start, with no separate code needed. They tap Join and open a simplified live runner: everyone gets the same cards, tapping multiple choice and true/false, and typing recall, cloze and calculation answers. Match-pairs, scaffold and Mark it cards are not dealt in a live class.
The teacher host board shows a live leaderboard updating as students answer. This is the one place in Educator where ranked competitive signals are intentional: it's teacher-controlled and classroom-contextualised.
Click End live class when you're ready, or leave it: a session closes itself after 30 minutes with no answers, and everyone who took part still gets their XP. Student answers feed into their XP normally. Mastery (the spaced-repetition intervals) and daily streak are not updated by live sessions; students need a regular practice session to maintain their streak.

Only one live class can run per class at a time, and starting a new one ends any that was left open. Past sessions are kept: See last scoreboard reopens the most recent, and See all opens the full history for the class. See Live sessions for the detail.

Homework assignments

Set targeted homework scoped to specific topics or subtopics. Students see their assignment on their dashboard the moment you publish it.

Setting an assignment: From the class page, click Set homework. Pick the scope from the same topic-and-subtopic tree as class settings: tick whole topics, or expand and tick the exact subtopics you want to test. Set the card count (5–50, default 20), and enter a due date. The assignment replaces any currently active homework and is published immediately. Homework can't be set on a paused (unlicensed or expired) subject: the form says so and refuses to publish.
Streak freeze reward: The first time a student completes a homework assignment they earn a +1 streak freeze. Subsequent completions of the same assignment do not award another freeze.
Completion tracking: The class page shows who has completed the assignment and who hasn't, up to date every time you load the page.
Overdue assignments: When one or more assignments are past their due date and some students still haven't completed them, a red N overdue chip appears on that class's card on the Class page, not on your dashboard. Open the class, then the homework, to see exactly which students have not completed each overdue assignment.
Student notifications: Publishing an assignment emails every student in the class immediately, with the topics, the card count, the due date and a link into the session. Separately, a push notification goes out 24–48 hours before the deadline to students who have not completed it and have not practised in the last day. Both are automatic; neither needs teacher action, and each fires once per assignment per student.

Weekly digest email

Teachers can opt in to a weekly digest email sent every Sunday evening. It covers all active classes in one email: session counts, XP, top students, streak drops worth a nudge, and the top struggling card per class. Opt in from your account settings. Once opted in, it arrives automatically, with no action needed each week.

Print pack

Click Print pack on any class page to generate a printable set of three sheets in a new browser tab. All three are A4 portrait, because a browser prints one paper size per job:

Wall poster: the class name and school, XP earned this week as the headline figure with sessions, cards seen and accuracy beneath it, a Top 3 this week podium, class accuracy across the five most-practised topics, and the join code with its QR code.
Revision cards: up to five cards the class is currently struggling with, prompt above the fold line and answer below. Cut along the dotted lines and fold. When nothing is tripping the class up, the sheet says so rather than printing filler.
Streak heroes and join code: the students on the longest active streaks, plus a join-code panel with a QR code to cut out and pin up. Scanning it takes a student straight to sign-up with the class code pre-filled.

These sheets show student names. The podium and the streak list use each student's display name, which for students you imported is the name you typed in. Treat the print pack as classroom display material, for your own wall or noticeboard, rather than something for a public corridor or an open evening. Email addresses are never printed: a student with no display name shows as Student 1, Student 2 and so on. If you need a class document with no names at all, use the weekly summary described above, which is aggregate-only by design.

Print directly from the browser using your printer's Print dialog, with no PDF library or third-party tool needed. In Chrome, set Margins: None and tick Background graphics so the colours come through; the page reminds you on screen.

HoD dashboard & SLT report

Heads of Department have access to a school-wide dashboard at /school showing every class in the school - not just your own subject(s) - alongside the full school-wide student roster, with no need to drill into each class one by one. Subject scoping applies when you open an individual class: you can only drill into a class in a subject you are HoD for.

Cross-class engagement: Total students, active this week, sessions in the last 7 days, and cards answered correctly in the last 7 days, added up across every class in the school. Individual per-student mastery trend sparklines appear beside each student on the class roster; a school-wide mastery trend (a monthly total of cards mastered, not an average) is on the SLT report below.
Per-class comparison table: Each class shown with student count, active/total ratio, sessions, and accuracy this week. Click any class to drill in.
Struggling cards vs. struggling topics: There is no card-level struggling view at the school level - that stays class-scoped (“Cards the class is struggling with” on each class page). The school-wide equivalent works at the topic level: the SLT report below lists Topics to revisit - the topics where the most students last answered incorrectly, across every class in the school.
SLT report: A one-page summary report at /school/report designed for Senior Leadership Team conversations. Print-to-PDF from your browser. Covers headline engagement stats, per-class accuracy, mastery trend, and Topics to revisit, with no manual compilation needed.
Spec alignment / procurement pack: A board-native card-to-spec-point alignment report at /spec-mapping: every card mapped to its exact section of your board's published specification, for every live subject and every board they offer. Print to PDF for an SLT or MAT procurement pack. HoD/admin only.

Archiving a class

At the end of the academic year, or when a class is no longer active, HoDs can archive it to keep the Class page tidy without losing any historical data.

Who can archive: Head of Department only. Teachers cannot self-archive their own classes; this prevents accidental archiving during term and keeps HoDs in control of the class list.
What archiving does: the class disappears from the default Class page view. Session history, mastery data, and student records are fully preserved.
Unarchiving: HoDs can unarchive a class at any time. All history and membership is restored immediately.

Note: archiving a class does not remove students' accounts or their practice data. If a student was in multiple classes, only this class is affected.

School licensing

Educator is priced per school, not per student or per class. All prices are +VAT. Each subject starts with a free four-week trial, with no card required.

Department tier: £400/yr for your first subject and £350/yr for each additional subject, not just the second. Three subjects is £400 + £350 + £350. Unlimited students, unlimited classes, all teacher tools. KS3 is bundled free with the matching GCSE.
Whole-school tier: £2,000/yr for all Educator subjects: every department, every year group. Includes any new subjects that launch during your subscription.
MAT pricing: 25% off the Whole-school rate per school for MATs of three or more schools. Centralised billing and MAT-wide reporting available. Contact us for a quote.

Starting and paying for a licence

You do not need to email anyone to get going. The Subject licences panel on your School page lists every GCSE subject with its current state, and Heads of Department can run the whole thing from there.

Start free trial: Opens a four-week trial for that subject with no card and no commitment. The status pill switches to Trial with a day countdown that changes colour in the last three days, and you get a confirmation email. Trials are per subject, so you can trial Food this term and Geography next.
Creating a class: The button is not the only way in. Creating the first class in a subject the school has no licence for starts that subject's four-week trial automatically, and the person who created the class gets the trial confirmation email. A trial that runs out cannot be restarted (only one you cancel can), so a teacher setting up a class just to try things out starts that subject's one trial clock for the whole school. Creating further classes in a subject that already has a trial or licence changes nothing. Pilot schools are exempt.
Subscribe: Takes you to Stripe checkout for that subject at the price shown under the row, which already reflects whether it is your first subject or an additional one. Pay by card and the licence flips to Active immediately. Subscribing part way through a trial starts the paid year from that point, so there is no reason to rush it.
Manage: Opens the Stripe billing portal for a live subscription: change the card, read past invoices, or cancel. A scheduled cancellation shows on the row as the date access ends, and can be undone from the same place until then.
Cancel trial: Ends a trial you have not paid for. It can be restarted afterwards from the same row. A paid licence cannot be cancelled this way, deliberately: it has to go through the billing portal so the billing actually stops rather than leaving you paying for a locked subject.
Whole-school by invoice: Below the subject list, Request invoice takes a billing email and an optional PO number and sends your finance team an invoice for the whole-school tier, payable by BACS or card. Every subject unlocks automatically when payment clears.

Educator emails the relevant Heads of Department three weeks, two weeks and one week before a trial ends. If nothing is paid, the licence locks on the day it expires and students lose access to that subject: their work is not deleted, and paying restores it. Pilot schools are exempt from all of this and see a simple complimentary-access panel instead.

Watch the due dates. When you set homework with a due date after your trial ends, the homework form warns you, because students will not be able to practise once the subject locks.

Questions? Email hello@educator-labs.com. We're happy to arrange a demo or supply a quote for your finance team.