GradeForge How-to Guide

Guide version: v1.0.0 · covers GradeForge v1.0.0 · last updated 2026-07-18.

This is the complete, step-by-step manual for GradeForge. It is written for a member of staff who has never opened the app before, and it explains every function and exactly how to use it. Start with Chapter 0 to get set up and to learn the layout, then use the contents list below to jump to whatever you need. Nothing here assumes any technical knowledge, and you cannot break anything by exploring.

0. Getting started and finding your way around

This chapter gets you from a blank machine to a working classroom in about fifteen minutes. Read it once, then keep it open for your first lesson. You do not need to be technical, and you cannot break anything by clicking around.

What GradeForge is

What it does: GradeForge is your markbook, planner, feedback studio, resource maker, marking assistant, reporting tool, pastoral tracker, Mathematics starter box and classroom-tools box, all in one Windows program. It works fully offline. Your pupil data stays encrypted on your own machine and is never sent to a company server. You buy it once and own it: a one-off price, no subscription, and no separate pupil app to manage.

Good to know: everything is bilingual. You can switch the whole app between Welsh (Cymraeg) and English at any time, and Curriculum for Wales is built in.

Getting GradeForge (buy, download, install)

What it does: gets the app onto your Windows PC.

How to use it:

1. Buy your licence. Go to gradeforge.co.uk and buy GradeForge: a one-off £30 per teacher, yours to keep, with no subscription. Schools can buy a site licence for a whole department or staff by invoice. (If your school has already bought it and handed you the installer, skip to step 3.)
2. Download it. After buying you land on a welcome page with a Download button; you can also download the latest installer at any time from gradeforge.co.uk. The file is named like GradeForge-1.0.0-setup.exe.
3. Install it. Double-click the installer. Windows may show a blue "Windows protected your PC" box, because the installer is not yet certificate-signed. Click More info, then Run anyway. This is expected and safe. Follow the prompts; when it finishes, GradeForge opens on its own and adds Start-menu and desktop shortcuts.

Good to know: future versions update themselves through the built-in update channel, so you install once and keep your copy. A future version 2 will be a separate purchase for anyone who wants its new features; version 1 stays yours.

Your first few minutes

What it does: sets your language and gets a class and pupils in place so the rest of the app has something to work with.

How to use it:

1. Pick your language. Open Settings (the cog, at the bottom of the left sidebar) and set the language to Cymraeg or English. You can change this any time, even mid-lesson.
2. Add your first class. Class screens (Gradebook, Attendance, Seating, Students) sit behind a class. Use the class panel (the coloured class chips near the top of those screens) and its add option to create a class, giving it a name, subject and year group. See Chapter 9 for the full detail.
3. Add your pupils. Open Classes > Students and add pupils to the class, typing them in or pasting a list. See Chapter 9.
4. That is the minimum. You can now take a register, build a markbook column, plan a lesson or record feedback.

Good to know: you do not have to set everything up at once. Add classes and pupils as you need them.

Finding your way around (the layout)

What it does: the left sidebar is how you move between every part of GradeForge. It is grouped so related tools sit together.

Where to find it: the vertical bar down the left of the window.

How to use it: the groups are:

1. Primary: Today, Workload, Form Time, Lesson Diary, Schemes of Learning, Timetable, Calendar. Your day-to-day planning and overview.
2. Assess: Gradebook, Attendance, Assessments, AI Batch Mark, Oracy, QLA, Coursework, Exam Season, Vocational, Qualifications, Moderation, Grade Boundaries. Everything to do with marks and assessment.
3. Classes: Students, Seating Plans, Rewards, Pupil Support. The people in front of you.
4. Plan: Resources, Quizzes, Homework, Teaching Library, Toolkit, Notes. Making and storing teaching materials.
5. Insights: Overview, Progress and Gaps, Reports, Book Samples, Report Writer, Email and Notify, Analytics, Frameworks. Reporting and analysis.

Good to know: screens that need a class (Gradebook, Attendance, Seating, Students) will ask you to pick a class first from the class panel. Pick the class once and it stays selected as you move between those screens.

The command palette (the fastest way to jump anywhere)

What it does: jumps straight to any screen or class without hunting through the sidebar.

Where to find it: press Ctrl and K together (or Cmd and K on a Mac-style keyboard) from anywhere.

How to use it:

1. Press Ctrl+K.
2. Start typing the name of what you want (for example "seating", "report", "toolkit").
3. Use the arrow keys to highlight the result and press Enter to go there.

Good to know: this is the quickest way to work once you know the screen names. If you ever feel lost, press Ctrl+K and type where you want to be.

Turning on the optional AI (and what "PII-shielded" means)

What it does: GradeForge works fully without AI. If you switch AI on, extra helpers appear (drafting feedback, marking against a scheme, writing report comments, and more). AI is always optional and always the teacher's assistant, not the decision maker.

Where to find it: Settings, in the AI section, where you add your chosen AI provider and key.

How to use it:

1. Open Settings and find the AI section.
2. Follow the on-screen steps to enable AI and add a provider (this is your own account with an AI provider).
3. AI helpers now light up across the app. Anything AI can be ignored if you prefer to work by hand.

Good to know: before any AI request that involves pupils, GradeForge replaces pupil names with stand-in labels ("PII-shielded"), sends only that, then restores the real names on your machine. A "what was sent" panel lets you see exactly what left the device. You approve every AI mark or draft before it is saved. The one exception is reading an actual photo of pupil work: an image cannot be name-shielded, so photo-reading features send the picture to your AI provider only when you choose to use them. See Chapters 3, 6 and 17.

Connecting Google (optional)

What it does: links GradeForge to your own Google account so you can import your Google Classroom classes and pupils, post assignments and announcements, push grades back, pull in pupils' submitted work to mark, save feedback and podcasts to your Drive, and sync your GradeForge data across your own devices. It is optional: the whole app works without it.

Where to find it: Settings, in the Google section.

How to use it:

1. Open Settings, find the Google section, and click Sign in with Google. There is nothing to set up first: just sign in.
2. Your web browser opens Google's own sign-in. Choose your school or work Google account and approve the permissions. GradeForge only ever acts on your behalf, through your account; nothing is stored on a GradeForge server.
3. A note for launch: while Google finishes verifying the app, you may see a "Google hasn't verified this app" screen. Click Advanced, then Go to GradeForge. This is safe, your data stays on your device, and the screen disappears once verification completes.
4. Back in GradeForge, the Google features light up: import a class, post homework, push grades, and more.

Reading a pupil's work: when you mark a pupil's Google Classroom submission (for feedback or AI marking), GradeForge opens Google's own "Select pupil work" window so you pick the file. For a whole class, select them all in one pass and GradeForge unlocks them together. It only ever sees the files you pick, never your wider Drive.

Good to know: a school can connect its own Google set-up instead; ask your GradeForge administrator. Everything Google-related runs through your own account, and pupil data still lives encrypted on your device (see Chapter 17).

The golden rules

What it does: the few things that keep your data safe and your work saved.

Good to know:

1. Your data lives on your machine, encrypted. Nothing is sent anywhere unless you press a Google button (to post to Classroom or Drive) or an AI button.
2. Your work saves as you go; there is no "save" button to remember. GradeForge also keeps snapshots and can recover after a crash (Chapter 18).
3. To move your data to another machine, or to be safe, take a backup (Chapter 18).
4. If a screen looks empty, check you have a class selected in the class panel.

1. Markbook and assessment

This chapter is about your markbook: the big grid where you record marks, and every tool that grows out of it. Almost everything here starts from the Gradebook, so if you learn that one screen first, the rest will feel familiar. Most of these tools are class-scoped, which means you pick a class first and then the screen fills with that class's pupils. Where a tool lives behind a button inside another screen, the steps below tell you exactly which button.

A quick word before you start: some tools (anything labelled AI) only appear once you have switched AI on in Settings. If a button says something like "Turn on AI in Settings", that is why. Everything else works fully offline, with no login and no internet.

Gradebook

What it does: This is your register-style markbook: pupils down the left, assessments across the top, one mark per box. Columns can hold many kinds of mark, not just numbers, and you can split a class's markbook into tabs (for example one tab per term) and export the whole thing to Excel or CSV.

Where to find it: Left sidebar, under Assess, choose Gradebook. If you have not picked a class yet, choose one first and the grid appears.

How to use it:

1. Open Gradebook and select your class.
2. To add a pupil, click + Student (Myfyriwr), type their name and an optional ID, then click Save.
3. To add a column of marks, click the green + Add column button (or one of the quick chips just above the grid: 123 Number, A to G Letter, Check, Rubric, P/F Pass/Fail).
4. In the add-column bar, type a title, then pick a type from the dropdown. The types are: number (123), letter grade (A to G), icon (a star or flag), check (a tick box), pass/fail, date, scale (your own labels like Emerging, Developing, Secure), rubric, formula, colour swatch, plain text, timer (a stopwatch you start and stop), and text-with-icon (a short note plus a flag). For a number column, also set the max mark and an optional weight.
5. Click Save. The column appears on the right of the grid.
6. Click any box and type to enter a mark. For tick, pass/fail, colour, icon and scale columns you just click the box to cycle through the options. For a timer box, click the play arrow to start and again to stop.
7. Move around with the keyboard: the arrow keys move between boxes, and Enter moves down to the next pupil (or across to the next column if you have set that direction, see the arrow toggle above the grid).

Good to know: Click a column heading to open its editor (rename, change type, delete, freeze, and more). Drag a column heading sideways to reorder it. The row along the bottom shows a class average or, if you click it, max, min or sum. A strip at the top shows class average, how many are at or above target, and how many are below.

Markbook tabs

What it does: Splits one class's markbook into named tabs, so you can keep autumn, spring and summer (or units, or paper types) on separate pages instead of one endless grid.

Where to find it: Gradebook, in the tab strip just above the grid. You only see it once at least one tab exists or you create one.

How to use it:

1. In the tab strip, click + New tab (Tab newydd) and give the tab a name.
2. The new tab is now selected. Add columns as usual and they belong to this tab.
3. Click All (Pob un) to see every column at once, or click a tab name to see just that tab's columns.
4. To rename a tab, double-click its name and type a new one.
5. To move an existing column into a tab, click its heading and set the Tab field in the column editor.

Good to know: The All tab always shows everything, so nothing is ever hidden for good.

Export the markbook to Excel or CSV

What it does: Saves your markbook as a spreadsheet file you can open in Excel or Google Sheets, keeping the marks exactly as you see them (including formula results and rubric totals).

Where to find it: Gradebook, the Export (Allforio) button near the top left, with the down-arrow icon.

How to use it:

1. Click Export.
2. Choose Export XLSX (Excel) or Export CSV. If you are inside a tab you will also see a this tab option and, when you have several tabs, an all tabs option.
3. The file downloads to your computer, named after the class.

Good to know: The Export menu also holds the route to your school MIS, described next.

Export to MIS (SIMS or Bromcom)

What it does: Turns one column of grades or marks (or an attendance summary) into an import-shaped CSV file for your school's management system, so you can get data into SIMS or Bromcom without any server or manual retyping.

Where to find it: Gradebook, click Export, then Export to MIS at the bottom of the menu.

How to use it:

1. Click Export, then Export to MIS.
2. In the first dropdown, choose A gradebook column or Attendance summary.
3. For a column, pick which Column, then a Value: Grade, Mark or Percent.
4. Choose the Format: SIMS, Bromcom or Generic.
5. Choose the ID field that identifies each pupil: UPN, Admission number or Name only.
6. Type the Result column name your MIS expects (for example "Result").
7. Check the on-screen preview, then click Download CSV.

Good to know: MIS file formats vary by version, so treat this as a best-effort file: open it and check it before you upload it into your MIS.

Formula columns

What it does: A column that calculates itself from other columns: weighted averages, drop-the-lowest or best-N, averages and maximums, with final-grade rounding and a manual override if you need one.

Where to find it: Gradebook, add a column and set its type to Formula (the ƒ option). Then click the column heading to open its editor and enter the expression.

How to use it:

1. Add a column, choose type Formula, and save it.
2. Click the new column's heading to open the editor.
3. In the Formula expression box, type your calculation. You can reference other columns by name, for example a weighted blend of a mock and coursework, or an average across a folder of columns.
4. Use the clickable chips of column names to insert a name without typing it.
5. Click Save. The column now fills in automatically for every pupil and updates whenever the source marks change.

Good to know: Formula cells are read-only in the grid (the calculation owns them). Hover a cell to see the expression behind it.

What-if goal-seek

What it does: Answers "what does this pupil need next to hit their target?" It looks at a pupil's current average and works out the mark they need on their next assessment.

Where to find it: Gradebook, the What-if button in the top toolbar (the target icon).

How to use it:

1. Click What-if.
2. Pick a pupil from the dropdown. You will see their current average and how many assessments it is based on.
3. Type a Target percentage.
4. Type the out of (maximum marks) for their next assessment.
5. The answer updates on its own: either "already at or above target", or the percentage and raw mark they need next, or a note that a single assessment cannot get them there.

Conditional formatting (RAG heatmaps)

What it does: Colours a column red, amber and green by how each mark compares to thresholds you choose, so weak and strong marks jump out. There is also a whole-grid heatmap toggle.

Where to find it: For a single column, click its heading to open the editor. For the whole grid, use the Heatmap toggle in the chip row above the grid.

How to use it:

1. For one column: click the column heading, tick Conditional colour, then set two thresholds, a green (good) percentage and an amber (ok) percentage. Marks below the amber threshold show red. Click Save.
2. For the whole grid: click the Heatmap button above the grid to shade every number column from red (low) to green (high). Click it again to turn it off.

Fill-down, paste from Excel, and clear column

What it does: Fast bulk entry for a whole column: set every pupil to the same value, paste a column of values straight from Excel, or wipe the column clean.

Where to find it: Click a column heading to open its editor. The fill, paste and clear controls are inside.

How to use it:

1. Click the column heading to open the editor.
2. To set everyone the same: in Fill column, type the value, then click Fill down.
3. To paste from Excel: copy a column in Excel (one value per line, in your pupil-list order), paste it into the Paste a column box, then click Paste into column. Values land pupil by pupil, top to bottom.
4. To empty the column: click Clear and confirm.

Good to know: Because paste goes in pupil-list order, make sure the Excel rows are sorted the same way as your class list before you copy.

Attach evidence

What it does: Attaches a file or photo to a single pupil's single mark, so the proof sits with the grade (a scanned script, a photo of a model, a marked PDF).

Where to find it: Right-click any mark cell in the Gradebook to open its note popover.

How to use it:

1. Right-click the pupil's cell for that assessment.
2. In the note box that opens, type any comment you want.
3. Click Attach file and choose the file or photo.
4. Click Save. A small paperclip appears on the cell; click it any time to reopen the evidence.

Working-at grades, target grades and flightpaths

What it does: Records where each pupil should be (their target) alongside where they are now, so you can see who is on track and who is adrift.

Where to find it: Gradebook, the Targets button in the top toolbar (the target icon), and the residual columns inside QLA and the Cohort view.

How to use it:

1. Click Targets.
2. Set each pupil's target grade (or import targets against a baseline).
3. Close the panel. Pupils tracking below their target are flagged in the grid, and the residual (gap to target) appears in the analysis screens.

Good to know: Standardised baselines you import (see "Standardised-test import" later) can drive these targets, and the Cohort view shows the whole class as a red, amber, green picture against target.

Question Level Analysis (QLA)

What it does: Breaks an assessment down question by question and topic by topic, then shows a red-amber-green heatmap of where the class is weak, ranks the weakest topics, and feeds the revision, homework and reteach tools.

Where to find it: Left sidebar, under Assess, choose QLA. Pick a class first.

How to use it:

1. Open QLA and select your class.
2. Click + New assessment, give it a name, subject and date.
3. On the Questions & marks tab, click Add question for each question and set its topic (or assessment objective) and max marks. You can also click From Question Bank to pull in ready-tagged questions.
4. Type each pupil's per-question marks into the grid, then click Save.
5. Click the Analysis tab to see the topic heatmap, the suggested intervention groups (weakest-topic lists), and each pupil's gap to target.
6. Click the Question analysis & reteach tab for the per-question facility chart and the worst-first reteach plan (covered below).

Good to know: The Exam spec button lets you paste your specification statements and check how well your lessons cover each one.

Personalised revision and exam packs

What it does: Builds a dated, spaced revision schedule for a pupil from their own QLA weak topics and their next exam date (weakest topics come round most often), plus a spaced-retrieval flashcard deck, and exports it all as a single offline HTML pack the pupil keeps. You can do one pupil or a whole class in one go.

Where to find it: From the QLA Analysis tab, click Personal revision. It also opens as the Revision pack tool.

How to use it:

1. Open the revision pack tool.
2. In the Pupil dropdown, pick one pupil or choose Whole class.
3. Set the Exam date.
4. Choose Sessions per week (1 to 5) to set how intense the plan is.
5. To print the plan, click Print schedule.
6. To hand the pupil a file, click Export pupil pack (or Export a pack per pupil for the whole class). The HTML file runs on any device with no app and no login.

Good to know: The exam-season screen can trigger these packs for you as part of getting a class exam-ready.

Study companion (offline HTML)

What it does: A richer single-file study companion the pupil keeps, with tabbed Schedule, Cards, Topics and Progress pages, bundling their targets, weak topics with a revision snippet, the flashcards and schedule, and a self-check tracker that saves the pupil's ticks in their own browser. It has a built-in Welsh and English toggle.

Where to find it: Same tool as the revision pack above (Personal revision or Revision pack).

How to use it:

1. Open the revision pack tool and pick a pupil (or Whole class).
2. Tick what to include: Schedule, Cards and Topic notes.
3. Click Export study companion (or Export a companion per pupil for a whole class).
4. Send the pupil the HTML file. Everything they need lives inside it, offline, with a language toggle.

Interleaved retrieval homework

What it does: Auto-builds a homework that mixes the current topic with the class's earlier weak topics from QLA (weakest first, never two of the same topic in a row), in a ratio you choose, optionally split into support, core and stretch tiers. It then sets a real homework in the tracker and can print it.

Where to find it: From the QLA reteach list, click Homework for a topic, or open Interleaved homework as its own tool.

How to use it:

1. Open Interleaved homework and select your class.
2. Type the current topic(s), comma-separated.
3. Set the number of Questions.
4. Drag the Mix slider to balance current-topic against retrieval (older weak topics).
5. Tick Differentiated tiers if you want separate support, core and stretch sets.
6. Click Build set. The prior weak topics from QLA are pulled in automatically.
7. Review the preview and remove any question with its ✕ button.
8. Type a title, set a due date, and click Create as homework (or Print).

Good to know: If a needed topic has no questions in your bank and AI is switched on, you can click the ✨ button beside that topic to generate the missing ones.

Item analysis

What it does: For a marked assessment, shows each question's facility (how easy the class found it) and discrimination (how well it separates stronger from weaker pupils), so you can spot questions that are too hard, too easy, or not working.

Where to find it: QLA, the Analysis tab, in the item-analysis table.

How to use it:

1. Open the assessment in QLA and make sure per-question marks are entered.
2. Click the Analysis tab.
3. Read the item-analysis table: each row is a question with its topic, facility, discrimination and a flag on any question that looks off.

Question analysis and reteach planner

What it does: After an exam is marked per question, shows a per-question facility chart (colour-coded, weakest flagged) and a worst-first reteach list: each topic with its facility, discrimination, worst question, a suggested focus, and the named pupils who need it. Each topic has one-click actions to build a resource, homework, practice questions or a reteach lesson.

Where to find it: QLA, the Question analysis & reteach tab.

How to use it:

1. In QLA, open a marked assessment and click the Question analysis & reteach tab.
2. Read the per-question facility chart across the top.
3. Work down the reteach plan (worst topic first). Each item names the pupils who need it.
4. For any topic, click one of the action buttons: Resource, Homework, Practice questions or Reteach lesson.
5. Click Print reteach plan to take a paper copy into your planning.

Whole-class fast-marking grid

What it does: A keyboard-first grid for marking a whole-class test at speed. You set up the questions, then enter marks pupil by pupil. Saving writes each pupil's total to a gradebook column and the per-question marks into QLA, so the heatmap and the retrieval tools light up.

Where to find it: Gradebook, the Fast marking button in the top toolbar (the lightning icon).

How to use it:

1. Click Fast marking.
2. Type a sheet name. If you have a saved mark scheme, you can seed the questions from it.
3. For each question, set a label, a max mark and an optional topic. Click + Add question for more rows.
4. Click Start marking.
5. Enter marks in the grid: Enter moves down a question's column to the next pupil, Tab moves across to the next question. Marks above the max are refused. A running total, percentage and auto grade update live, with a per-question facility row at the foot.
6. Click Save to gradebook + QLA.

Grade boundaries and UMS converter

What it does: Stores exam grade-boundary tables (AI parses them straight from a pasted WJEC table), converts a raw mark to a grade or UMS, and lets you share boundary sets with colleagues.

Where to find it: Left sidebar, under Assess, choose Grade Boundaries.

How to use it:

1. Open Grade Boundaries.
2. To import: type the Board, Qualification, Subject and Session, paste the boundary table into the box, then click Parse & import (this step needs AI switched on).
3. To convert a mark: pick a saved unit / session from the dropdown, type the raw mark, and read off the grade (and UMS, if the table had one). Set an optional round-off to lift a mark that is a whisker below a boundary.
4. To share: click Export all to save a .gfgb file for a colleague, or Import file to load one they sent you.

Bubble-sheet quizzes (OMR)

What it does: Prints QR-coded multiple-choice answer sheets, then reads pupils' completed sheets through your webcam and auto-grades them into the gradebook.

Where to find it: Open the bubble-sheet tool from a quiz (under Plan, Quizzes).

How to use it:

1. Open the bubble-sheet tool for your quiz.
2. On the Print sheets tab, set the number of Copies and click Print answer sheets. Hand them out; pupils fill in the bubbles.
3. Switch to the Scan & grade tab and click Start camera.
4. Hold each completed sheet up so the QR code and bubbles are in view. It grades automatically and shows the score.
5. Check the detected answers (click any letter A to E to correct a misread), match the sheet to a Class, Pupil and Column, then click Save ... to gradebook.
6. Click Scan next for the following sheet.

Scan scores into the gradebook

What it does: Point the webcam at a stack of marked papers (or upload photos) and the AI reader reads the score off each. It matches each score to a pupil (by scan order or a fuzzy name match) and shows an editable review table, flagging any it is unsure about, so you can save the whole stack to one column in one go.

Where to find it: Gradebook, the Scan button in the top toolbar (the camera icon).

How to use it:

1. Click Scan.
2. Click Start camera, then Capture this paper for each script (or click Upload photos to bring in a folder of images).
3. Wait as each score and name is read.
4. Check the review table: fix any pupil match in the dropdown (low-confidence rows are flagged), and edit any score or "out of" value.
5. If matching drifted, click Match by register order to line the stack up by scan order.
6. Type a Column title and click Save all.

Good to know: The number-reading and pupil-matching happen on your machine; only the photo read itself uses your chosen AI provider, so this is one of the opt-in AI features. A photo cannot have pupil names shielded, so it is only sent when you choose to use this tool.

Rubrics

What it does: Grid rubrics (criteria down the side, achievement levels across the top, each cell a descriptor plus points) that you score by tapping cells for a weighted total. A synced rubric library lets you reuse, build, import and duplicate rubrics across every class, and rubric analytics show where the class struggled.

Where to find it: Add a Rubric column in the Gradebook (or use the rubric chip above the grid), then click a rubric cell to score it. Manage rubrics through the Rubric library button in the add-column bar.

How to use it (scoring):

1. Add a rubric column, choosing a template from the library when prompted.
2. Click a pupil's rubric cell to open the scorer.
3. Tap one cell per criterion row to pick that level. The weighted total updates at the top.
4. Optionally tick Self-assessment or Peer assessment to also record the pupil's or a peer's chosen levels.
5. Click Save. The total flows into the gradebook cell.

How to use it (the library):

1. In the add-column bar, click the Rubric library button.
2. Click + New to build one: set a name, subject and tags, then edit the level columns, criteria rows and cell descriptors.
3. To bring one in, click Import, then either choose an XLSX or CSV file or paste a grid copied from Excel, and click Import pasted.
4. Use Duplicate to copy a rubric, and Save to store your changes.

Good to know: Rubrics print on the pupil's report with the achieved cell highlighted, and the library's analytics give a per-criterion red-amber-green heatmap plus a level distribution.

Self and peer assessment, anonymous marking, coursework tracker and exam entries

What it does: A cluster of standardisation and admin tools: pupils can self- and peer-assess against a rubric, you can hide names to mark anonymously, track coursework/NEA per pupil, and log exam entries with automatic clash detection.

Where to find it: Self and peer assessment live in the rubric scorer (above). Anonymous marking is the Anon button in the Gradebook toolbar. The coursework tracker and exam entries live in the sidebar under Assess, in Coursework.

How to use it:

1. For anonymous marking, click Anon in the Gradebook toolbar. Names are replaced by candidate numbers until you click it again.
2. For self and peer assessment, open a rubric cell and tick Self-assessment or Peer assessment, then record those choices alongside your own.
3. For coursework, open Coursework, click the Coursework tab, type a title and deadline, and click Add piece. Set each pupil's status (Not started, Draft, Submitted, Marked) and tick the authenticated-work box when their work is signed off.
4. For exam entries, open Coursework, click the Exams tab, and add each exam with its subject, paper, date, time and length. A banner warns you of any timetable clashes.

Exam-season command centre

What it does: One screen for the whole exam run: countdown tiles to the next exams, a clash banner, an upcoming timeline, a per-exam readiness checklist, and quick actions to build revision packs or open the exam seating and entries. It also prints the exam schedule and an invigilation sheet. It only gathers what you already hold; there is nothing new to type.

Where to find it: Left sidebar, under Assess, choose Exam Season.

How to use it:

1. Open Exam Season. Optionally filter to one class with the dropdown.
2. Read the countdown tiles and any clash banner at the top.
3. Work down the timeline. For each exam, tick the readiness items (Entries submitted, Exam seating plan done, Revision packs sent) and add a room note.
4. Use an exam's quick actions: Build revision packs, Exam seating or Exam entries.
5. Click Print schedule or Print invigilation sheet for paper copies.

Standardised-test import

What it does: Brings CAT4, NGRT, GL or KS2 baseline data in from a CSV, matching rows to pupils by name so the scores become a column and can drive targets.

Where to find it: Gradebook, the Results button in the top toolbar (the down-arrow icon), which opens "Import marks from a file".

How to use it:

1. Click Results.
2. Click Choose CSV or Excel file and pick your export.
3. Confirm the Pupil-name column and the Score column (the app guesses, you can override).
4. Set a Title and a Max.
5. Check the "matched to pupils" count, then click Import.

Good to know: The same importer also handles quiz exports from Kahoot, Plickers, Socrative, Google Forms and the like.

Box-plot and distribution analytics

What it does: Shows how a class's marks are spread, so you can see the shape of attainment rather than just an average: distribution and box-plot style views, plus at-risk, declining and improving lists.

Where to find it: Gradebook, the Insights and Cohort buttons in the top toolbar. There is also a fuller Analytics screen under Insights in the sidebar.

How to use it:

1. In the Gradebook toolbar, click Insights to see who is at risk, declining or improving, each with their latest mark and trend.
2. Click Cohort for the red-amber-green picture against target, including any gaps between subgroups (for example Pupil Premium against the rest).
3. For deeper charts across classes, open Analytics from the sidebar under Insights.

Oracy and speaking assessment (Llafaredd)

What it does: Record or upload each pupil's short talk, transcribe it on your own machine (offline, so pupil audio never leaves the computer), then assess it either against a bilingual four-strand oracy rubric (Physical, Linguistic, Cognitive, Social and Emotional) or by ranking the class through comparative judgement. Saving writes a gradebook column plus a feedback note with the replayable audio, and you approve every grade.

Where to find it: Left sidebar, under Assess, choose Oracy. Pick a class first.

How to use it (rubric):

1. Open Oracy and stay on the Assess (rubric) tab.
2. Type a Task name and pick the Rubric (the four-strand oracy framework is the default).
3. Choose a Pupil, click Record, let them speak, then click Stop (or click Upload audio for an existing file).
4. Click Transcribe to turn the audio into text on-device.
5. Click Score against rubric, tap the levels, and close the scorer.
6. Click Save to write the grade and a feedback note with the audio.

How to use it (comparative judgement):

1. Record or upload a talk for each pupil, then switch to the Comparative judgement tab.
2. For each pair, listen and click This one is stronger on whichever talk is better. Use Undo last if you misclick.
3. When enough pairs are judged, a ranking appears. Adjust the grade bands if needed.
4. Click Save all to write everyone's grade.

Good to know: There is also a Reading fluency tab that scores words-correct-per-minute against a passage.

Comparative judgement for written work

What it does: On the AI Marking page, a Compare mode ranks a class's essays or extended answers through quick, anonymised "which piece is stronger?" decisions (no AI, just your judgement). It produces a mark order with each pupil's score and win-loss record, and suggests grade bands you can adjust and save to the gradebook.

Where to find it: Left sidebar, under Assess, choose AI Batch Mark, then the Compare tab.

How to use it:

1. Open AI Batch Mark and click the Compare tab.
2. For each pupil, paste, photograph or type their piece into its box. Names stay hidden while you judge.
3. When at least two pieces are collected, judge each pair: click A is stronger, B is stronger or Too close. Use Undo if needed.
4. When the progress bar says you have enough, a Ranking appears with each pupil's score and win-loss record.
5. Adjust the Grade bands (top first) if you want, then click Save all to write the grades.

Good to know: From the ranking you can click Build standardisation portfolio to turn it straight into a moderation pack (next).

Standardisation and moderation portfolio

What it does: Turns a ranking (or a pasted set of graded pieces) into a grade-banded exemplar pack for a moderation meeting. For each band it picks a secure/mid exemplar and the boundary piece, keeps them anonymous (Piece A, Sampl 1), and notes each one's mark and why it was chosen. You can add the mark scheme, then print or export the pack.

Where to find it: From the Compare ranking, click Build standardisation portfolio, or open Moderation in the sidebar under Assess and use its Standardisation portfolio tab.

How to use it:

1. Open the portfolio (from the Compare ranking, or the Moderation screen's portfolio tab).
2. If you did not come from a ranking, paste your pieces (one per line as label, grade, then text) and click Load pieces.
3. Set a Title, the subject/class, the grade bands and how many exemplars per band.
4. Tick Anonymise for blind standardisation and pick a code style (Piece A or Sampl 1).
5. Optionally paste the mark scheme.
6. Review the exemplars picked per band, then click Print or Export.

Good to know: The Moderation screen also keeps a moderation log: click Add row to record each sample's original grade, the moderator's grade, the agreed grade and any drift notes, then Print the log.

2. Feedback Studio

The Feedback Studio is where you give a pupil feedback on a single piece of work: a screen recording, a spoken or webcam clip, a typed note, marks on their PDF, a rubric, or an AI-drafted comment. You open it one pupil at a time, and everything you make is attached to that pupil and listed in their feedback history.

How to open the Feedback Studio (read this first): the Studio always opens for one named pupil. Go to Gradebook in the left sidebar (under Assess) and pick a class, then click a pupil's name down the left-hand column of the grid. The Studio opens with a heading like "Feedback, [pupil name]". You can also open it from the Students screen by choosing a pupil. A small number badge next to a name tells you how many feedback items that pupil already has.

At the very top of the Studio is one box you should fill in most times: Assignment. Type the name of the task here (for example "Essay 1" or "Asesiad Uned 3"). Whatever you type becomes the title of the gradebook column and the feedback record, so it is worth setting before you record or mark.

Under that box is a row of tabs: Screen, Webcam, Audio, Written, PDF / Doc, Rubric and AI mark. Each tab is one way of giving feedback. The sections below follow those tabs, then cover the extra tools.

Record feedback four ways (screen, voice, webcam, typed)

What it does: lets you leave feedback as a screen recording of the pupil's work with your voice over it, a webcam clip of you talking, a plain voice (audio) note, or a typed written comment. Each one saves as an item in the pupil's feedback history.

Where to find it: the first four tabs in the Studio: Screen, Webcam, Audio and Written.

How to use it:

1. Set the Assignment box at the top.
2. Screen recording: click the Screen tab. A row of little pictures appears, one per open window or monitor. Click the one showing the pupil's work to select it. Leave With mic (Gyda meicroffon) ticked so your voice is captured. Click ● Record (Recordio), talk over the work, then click ■ Stop (Stopio). It saves on its own.
3. Webcam clip: click the Webcam tab, click ● Record, talk to the camera, then ■ Stop. This records you, not the pupil.
4. Voice note: click the Audio tab, click ● Record, speak your feedback, then ■ Stop.
5. Typed note: click the Written tab, type into the box, then click Save (Cadw). There are quick-phrase buttons under the box (for example "Strong thesis", "Clear structure") that drop a ready-made sentence in with one click.

Good to know: on the Screen, Webcam and Audio tabs there is an optional small note box; anything you type there is saved alongside the recording. The webcam always films you and the screen recording captures the work, never a pupil's face, which keeps you inside the data-protection rules.

Annotate PDFs and pupil-work photos

What it does: opens a pupil's PDF (or a photo of their handwritten work) so you can draw on it with a pen and highlighter, type comments, and write in your own handwriting, page by page. The marked-up file goes back to the pupil.

Where to find it: the PDF / Doc tab.

How to use it:

1. Click the PDF / Doc tab.
2. Click Annotate a PDF or photo... (Anodi PDF neu lun...) and pick a file from your computer. A photo (JPG or PNG) is turned into a one-page PDF for you automatically. If you use Google Classroom, you can instead click Pull pupil's submission (Tynnu gwaith y disgybl) to fetch their handed-in work.
3. The annotation window opens. Along the top pick a tool: Highlighter (Uwcholeuwr), Pen, Text (Testun) or the Handwriting (Llawysgrifen) tool. Pick a colour from the coloured dots.
4. With Pen or Highlighter, drag on the page to draw. With Text or Handwriting, click where you want words, type, then press Enter to place them. You can drag a text box to move it, or click it again to edit it.
5. Use the ‹ and › arrows to move between pages. Click Undo (Dadwneud) to remove your last mark.
6. When you are done, click Save annotated PDF (Cadw'r PDF wedi'i anodi). It saves to the pupil's history.

Good to know: if you have built your own handwriting font (see below), the Handwriting tool writes in your actual hand.

Mark from a photo (OCR)

What it does: reads the text off a photograph of a pupil's handwritten script so the AI can mark it or feed back on it. You take or upload the photo and the AI reader extracts the writing.

Where to find it: the AI mark tab (upload a photo there), and the batch AI Marking page covered in the next chapter.

How to use it:

1. Click the AI mark tab.
2. Click Photo of the script (Llun o'r sgript) and choose the photo. A small "🖼" label confirms it is attached (click the ✕ to remove it).
3. Pick a mark scheme, then click Mark (Marcio). The AI reads the photo and marks it.

Good to know: this is an opt-in AI feature and it works differently from the text tools. Because a photo cannot have pupil names hidden inside the image, the picture is sent to your chosen AI provider to be read only when you deliberately use this feature. Turn AI on in Settings first.

Grade with a rubric

What it does: scores a piece of work against a rubric (a grid of criteria coloured red through to green by level), adds your written comments, and saves it as a one-page rubric PDF for the pupil. The total drops into the pupil's gradebook rubric column automatically.

Where to find it: the Rubric tab, and also a Add rubric (Ychwanegu rwbrig) button inside the PDF annotation window.

How to use it:

1. Click the Rubric tab.
2. Choose a rubric from the dropdown. If you have many, use the course, year and tag filters above it to narrow the list.
3. The scoring grid opens. Tap the cell that matches the pupil for each row; the total works itself out.
4. Type any comments in the comments box.
5. Click Save (Cadw). GradeForge builds the rubric PDF, files it in the pupil's history, and writes the total to the gradebook.

Good to know: to grade the work and mark it up, open the PDF / Doc tab first, load the work, then click Add rubric in the annotation toolbar. The coloured rubric is added as the final page and your comments ride along into the saved note.

AI Mark in the studio

What it does: marks the pupil's open answer against a mark scheme from your library, right inside the Studio, and suggests a mark plus feedback. You review and edit everything, then approve it before it saves.

Where to find it: the AI mark tab.

How to use it:

1. Click the AI mark tab.
2. Pick a saved mark scheme from the dropdown. The total marks are shown so you can check it is the right one.
3. Give it the pupil's answer: type or paste it into the box, or attach a photo of the script, or Pull from Classroom if you use Google.
4. Click ✨ Mark (Marcio). The AI drafts a mark for each part with a comment, plus What went well, Even better if, and a Next step (target).
5. Read it, change any numbers or wording you disagree with, then click ✓ Save (Cadw). This writes a number to the gradebook and saves the feedback note.

Good to know: pupil names are pseudonymised before the AI sees a typed answer, and the AI never records a grade until you press Save. If the reply comes back in the wrong format, GradeForge refuses to invent a mark and offers you a Retry instead, so a pupil never gets a phantom zero.

Explainer-video feedback

What it does: records the pupil's page, your live pen and highlighter marks, and your voice together into a short video the pupil can replay, so they watch your feedback happen rather than just reading it.

Where to find it: the 🎥 Record (Recordio) button in the toolbar of the PDF annotation window.

How to use it:

1. Open the pupil's work through the PDF / Doc tab.
2. In the annotation toolbar, click 🎥 Record.
3. Talk and annotate the page as normal. Everything you draw and say is captured.
4. Click ⏹ Stop (Stopio) to finish. The clip downloads to your computer as a video file you can attach for the pupil.

Good to know: this runs entirely on your machine with no internet, so nothing is uploaded while you record.

Voice-note to text (offline Whisper)

What it does: turns a voice note you just recorded into editable written feedback, transcribed on your own machine. There is no speech service and no internet involved.

Where to find it: the 🎙→📝 (transcribe) button on the Audio tab, shown after you stop recording.

How to use it:

1. On the Audio tab, record a voice note and click ■ Stop.
2. Click the 🎙→📝 button. GradeForge transcribes your words on the device and drops the text into the note box.
3. Tidy the text if you like, then save.

Good to know: the first time you transcribe, the offline speech engine may take a moment to load. If it is not installed yet, GradeForge tells you rather than sending your audio anywhere.

AI feedback from a screencast

What it does: takes a recording where you talk over a pupil's work and, with one button, transcribes it offline and drafts tidy written feedback structured as What went well, Even better if, and a Next step, ready for you to edit.

Where to find it: the ✨ Draft feedback (Drafftio adborth) button that appears on the Screen, Webcam or Audio tabs after you record, when AI and the offline speech engine are both switched on.

How to use it:

1. Record your feedback on the Screen, Webcam or Audio tab and stop.
2. Click ✨ Draft feedback. GradeForge transcribes the recording on the device, hides the pupil's name, and asks the AI to shape it into structured written feedback.
3. The draft appears in the note box. Edit it, then save.

Good to know: it never sends anything without you pressing the button, and it never posts on its own. You always get the last edit. If AI is off, or the speech engine is missing, the button either does not appear or points you to what to enable.

Your own handwriting font

What it does: turns your real handwriting into a font, so typed feedback (including the Handwriting tool on PDFs) looks like you wrote it by hand. Joined-up (cursive) writing is supported.

Where to find it: this one lives in the Classroom Toolkit, not the Studio. Open the Toolkit and find the ✍️ Handwriting font (Ffont llawysgrifen) card. The font it builds is then used by the Handwriting tool in PDF feedback.

How to use it:

1. In the Handwriting font card, click Download template (Lawrlwytho templed) (or Cursive template (Templed sownd) for joined-up writing).
2. Print the template. Write each letter in its three boxes, a little differently each time, then copy out the sentences.
3. Scan or photograph the pages back into a single PDF.
4. Click Build my font (Adeiladu fy ffont). In the window that opens, tick cursive if you used the joined-up template, then click Upload filled template (PDF) and choose your scanned file.
5. It builds on your device. Type into the test box to preview it. If you want to install it on Windows too, click Download .ttf.

Good to know: the whole thing happens on your machine. Once built, the card shows "Your handwriting font is active", and the ✍️ Handwriting tool in PDF feedback starts writing in your hand.

Spoken-feedback clip bank

What it does: lets you save a spoken audio note once and reuse it on any pupil, so common comments you say a lot do not have to be re-recorded each time.

Where to find it: the Audio tab. After you record, a 💾 Save clip (Cadw clip) button appears, and saved clips show as a 🎧 clip bank row.

How to use it:

1. On the Audio tab, record a note and stop.
2. Click 💾 Save clip and give it a short label (for example "Great structure").
3. Later, for any pupil, click ▶ [label] in the clip bank to play it and drop its transcript into the note box. Click the ✕ on a clip to delete it.

Good to know: if a clip was transcribed, using it also inserts that text into your written note, so you get both the audio and the words.

Bidirectional Google Classroom

What it does: joins GradeForge to Google Classroom both ways: it pulls a pupil's handed-in work in so you can mark or draft against it, and pushes your grades and comments back out to the pupil, all through your own Google account with no company server in the middle.

Where to find it: the Pull pupil's submission button on the PDF / Doc tab, the Pull from Classroom button on the AI mark tab, and the To Classroom (I Classroom) buttons in the feedback history list.

How to use it:

1. Connect your Google account in Settings first. The Studio header shows your email when you are signed in.
2. To pull work in, open the PDF / Doc or AI mark tab and click the Pull button, then choose the assignment from the list.
3. To push feedback out, find the item in the pupil's history at the bottom of the Studio and click To Classroom, then pick the assignment to post it against.

Good to know: Google's rules mean the private comment is placed for you to send rather than posted silently, so you always see what goes to the pupil. Nothing routes through a GradeForge server.

Post to Google Drive and Classroom

What it does: sends a feedback file (a recording or a marked PDF) up to your Google Drive and, if you want, on to Classroom, and copies a shareable link.

Where to find it: the feedback history list at the bottom of the Studio: the To Drive (I Drive) and To Classroom buttons on each item.

How to use it:

1. Sign in to Google in Settings.
2. In the history list, find the item and click To Drive. It uploads and copies a link you can paste anywhere.
3. Click To Classroom to post it to a chosen assignment as well.

Good to know: there is a Settings option to upload feedback media to Drive automatically as soon as you save it, and to clear the local copy afterwards. If Drive cannot be reached, the file stays safely on your computer.

Book Sample generator

What it does: builds a book-scrutiny pack for SLT. You pick a class and tick pupils, and each pupil gets one PDF with two parts: Adborth (Feedback), holding your marked PDFs, written feedback, Classroom comments and QR pages for any video or audio, and Gwaith (Work), a pull of their turned-in Google Classroom work across all their classes. It collates everything, saves it to a folder, and can upload to Drive.

Where to find it: Book Samples (Samplau Llyfr) in the left sidebar.

How to use it:

1. Open Book Samples and choose a class from the dropdown.
2. Tick the pupils you want, or use Select all pupils (Dewis pob disgybl).
3. Leave Include Classroom work (Gwaith) ticked to pull each pupil's handed-in work, and Also upload to Google Drive if you want a copy in Drive. Both need Google connected.
4. Click Generate (Cynhyrchu). A progress bar shows the pupil, the current task and an estimated time left.
5. When it finishes, the Saved to (Wedi'i gadw i) line shows the folder, and each pupil has an Open in Drive link if you uploaded.

Good to know: the work is gathered from every class a pupil is in, not just the one you picked, so a single pack shows their whole book. If Google is not connected, the Classroom-work half is skipped and the PDFs are saved locally only.

3. AI Marking suite

The AI Marking suite marks a whole class's open answers, or drafts formative feedback for them, against a mark scheme you control. It is built for the way exams are actually marked, and it is the only tool of its kind that marks Welsh-medium answers as readily as English ones.

Read this before you start (opt-in and the PII shield): every AI feature here is switched off until you turn it on in Settings, so nothing happens by accident. When it is on, GradeForge pseudonymises pupil names before any typed answer is sent, then restores the real names on your own machine afterwards. A "what was sent" panel lets you see exactly what left the device, and nothing is ever written to the gradebook until you have reviewed it and pressed Save. In short: the AI drafts, you approve.

How to open the AI Marking page: it works on the class you are looking at, so open Gradebook in the left sidebar (under Assess), pick a class, then open AI Marking (Marcio AI) from the sidebar. If no class is chosen, the page tells you to pick one. Near the top are three mode tabs, Marks (Marciau), Feedback (Adborth) and Compare (Cymharu), plus a Feedback language (Iaith adborth) dropdown so you can mark in Welsh while the app is in English, or the other way round.

The sections below cover each feature in turn.

Mark-scheme library

What it does: stores your mark schemes with their exam board, subject, unit and tags (WJEC, Eduqas and others), so you can reuse them across every class. You can type a scheme in by hand or paste one copied from a PDF.

Where to find it: the ≣ Library (Llyfrgell) button on the AI Marking page while you are in Marks mode.

How to use it:

1. On the AI Marking page (Marks mode), click ≣ Library.
2. The library opens with saved schemes down the left. Use the search box or the subject and board filters to find one, or click + New (Newydd) to start a fresh scheme.
3. Fill in the Title, Board, Subject and Tags boxes, type the question, then add each part with its Marks and Guidance. The Total updates as you go.
4. Click Save (Cadw). Use Duplicate (Dyblygu) to copy an existing scheme, or Delete (Dileu) to remove one.

Good to know: to bring in a scheme you already have, click ⬆ Paste a scheme (Gludo cynllun marcio), paste the text, and click Parse and load (Dosrannu a llwytho); GradeForge reads it into the editor for you to check before saving. The same panel lets you back up or share schemes as a portable file for a colleague.

AI mark open answers against a scheme

What it does: marks a whole class's answers to one question against a saved mark scheme. For each pupil it gives a mark, a breakdown per mark point, and What went well and Even better if feedback. You review and edit, then save each mark to the gradebook. It works in Welsh or English.

Where to find it: the Marks tab on the AI Marking page.

How to use it:

1. Make sure you are on the Marks tab.
2. Pick a mark scheme from the Pick a mark scheme (Dewis cynllun marcio) dropdown, or click ≣ Library to choose one, or Paste a scheme to load one on the spot.
3. Set the Assignment title so the gradebook column is named sensibly.
4. Collect each pupil's answer. You can type or paste it into that pupil's box, attach a photo of the script, or, if Google is connected, click ⤓ Pull from Classroom (Tynnu o Classroom) to fetch everyone's submissions at once.
5. Click ✨ Mark all (Marcio pawb). A progress bar names each pupil as it goes.
6. Open any pupil to see the marks per part, the comments, and the feedback. Change anything you disagree with.
7. Click ✓ Save all to gradebook (Cadw pawb i'r llyfr graddau). This creates (or reuses) a number column and writes each pupil's total plus their feedback note.

Good to know: the feedback comes out in whichever language the Feedback language dropdown is set to, regardless of the app language. If a pupil's reply comes back unreadable or in the wrong format, that pupil gets an inline error and a Retry (Ailgeisio) button instead of a fake mark, and drops out of Save all until you fix it.

Mark from an image (vision)

What it does: reads a photographed handwritten script and marks it against the scheme, so pen-and-paper work can go through the same marking flow as typed answers.

Where to find it: the 📷 photo button on each pupil's row on the Marks tab (and the single-pupil AI mark tab in the Feedback Studio).

How to use it:

1. On the Marks tab, find the pupil's row and click the 📷 icon.
2. Choose the photo of their script. A "🖼" label confirms it is attached.
3. Pick your scheme and click ✨ Mark all (or Retry that one pupil). The photo is read and marked by the vision reader.

Good to know: because a picture cannot have names hidden inside it, the image is sent to your chosen AI provider to be read only when you attach a photo. This is the one place the name shield cannot apply, which is why it is a deliberate choice each time. Typed answers still go name-shielded as normal.

Batch rubric marking

What it does: marks a whole class's extended answers against one saved grid rubric, giving a level and a short justification per pupil, which you review and accept.

Where to find it: the ✨ Batch mark (Marcio swp) button in the Gradebook toolbar.

How to use it:

1. In the Gradebook for your class, click ✨ Batch mark.
2. Set the assignment name and choose a rubric from the dropdown.
3. Paste each pupil's response into the middle column, one row per pupil.
4. Click ✨ Mark all (Marcio pawb). Each pupil is marked with their name hidden, and the levels and draft feedback fill the right-hand column.
5. Edit any feedback, then click ✓ Save all (Cadw pawb) to file it as written feedback for each pupil.

Good to know: this is a fast way to standardise essay-style work against your own rubric. As everywhere in the suite, nothing saves until you have read and approved it.

Batch formative feedback (Marks / Feedback toggle)

What it does: the Marks / Feedback tabs on the AI Marking page switch the same page between marking and drafting feedback. In Feedback mode it drafts What went well, Even better if, and a Next step for each pupil from their collected work, with no marks at all. You review and edit, then Save all writes a written feedback record per pupil, with an optional assisted post to Classroom.

Where to find it: the Feedback tab on the AI Marking page.

How to use it:

1. Click the Feedback tab. Your collected answers stay put when you switch tabs, so you do not re-enter anything.
2. Optionally type a Focus (Ffocws) steer, for example "focus on structure" or "on use of evidence", to point the feedback where you want it.
3. Collect answers the same three ways as marking (type or paste, 📷 photo, or ⤓ Pull from Classroom).
4. Click ✨ Draft feedback (all) (Drafftio adborth (pawb)). Review each pupil's draft.
5. Click ✓ Save all to feedback (Cadw pawb i adborth). To send them out too, tick Also post to Google Classroom first, and you will be walked through posting each pupil's note one at a time.

Good to know: the drafts are bilingual and follow the Feedback language setting, the pupil names are shielded, and, like marks, an off-format reply is never stored as a draft; you get a retry instead.

Generate a mark scheme from a lesson

What it does: turns the tasks in a lesson you are planning into an exam-style mark scheme (question, mark points, guidance and total) and saves it straight to your AI Marking library, ready to mark against.

Where to find it: the ✓ Mark scheme (Cynllun marcio) button in the lesson editor, in the Lesson Diary (it appears when AI is on).

How to use it:

1. Open a lesson in the Lesson Diary and make sure its task or objective is filled in.
2. Click ✓ Mark scheme. GradeForge drafts a scheme from the lesson's tasks and saves it to the library, tagged with the right subject, year and unit.
3. Go to AI Marking, pick that scheme, and mark against it.

Good to know: the tags come from the lesson's scheme folder, so the new mark scheme lands where you would expect to find it later.

Question and mark-scheme generator (from a spec or topic)

What it does: drafts exam-style questions, each with its own mark scheme, from a topic or a pasted specification. You choose how many, the difficulty, the marks and the style, edit each question, then save them into your question bank, your mark-scheme library, or a quiz. It uses no pupil data.

Where to find it: the 🧪 (Question generator) tool in the Classroom Toolkit, and from the Question Analysis (QLA) screen where a weak topic can seed it.

How to use it:

1. Open the generator. Type a topic, or paste a spec into the larger box.
2. Set the board, difficulty, style, language, count and marks for each question.
3. Click ✨ Generate (Cynhyrchu). The drafted questions appear with their mark points.
4. Edit any question, add or remove mark points, and adjust the marks.
5. Save where you need them: 📚 To question bank (I'r banc cwestiynau), ≣ To mark-scheme library (I'r llyfrgell cynlluniau marcio) (so AI Marking can use them at once), or 🪄 To quiz (I gwis).

Good to know: it is bilingual, so you can generate Welsh questions with Welsh mark schemes. Turn AI on in Settings first; the Generate button stays disabled until you do.

PII shield depth (what was sent, approve every mark)

What it does: this is the safety layer under everything above. Pupil names are stripped out before any request leaves the device and put back locally afterwards, a panel shows you exactly what was sent, and you approve every outcome before it is written.

Where to find it: built into every AI marking and feedback tool. In the single-pupil marking assistant, look for the What was sent to the AI? (Beth anfonwyd at yr AI?) link.

How to use it:

1. Run any mark or feedback draft as above.
2. Before saving, click What was sent to the AI? to read the exact, name-shielded text that was sent.
3. Check the drafted marks and comments, edit anything you want, then press Save to approve. Nothing reaches the gradebook or the pupil until you do.

Good to know: the one exception is a photo of a script, which cannot have names hidden inside the image; that is why marking from an image is always a deliberate, per-photo choice. Everything text-based is name-shielded automatically, and the final decision on every mark is always yours.

4. Planning and Curriculum for Wales

This is where you plan your teaching: single lessons, whole units, your timetable and calendar, and the Curriculum for Wales tags that let GradeForge show you exactly what your teaching has covered. Everything below lives in the left sidebar under the Primary group (Lesson Diary, Schemes of Learning, Timetable, Calendar) or the Insights group (Frameworks). The clever, tag-driven features are all in Welsh where you set the app to Welsh, and English otherwise.

Lesson Diary

What it does: Your day-to-day planner. It holds one lesson plan per period, and you can look at it three ways: a Day list, a Week grid, or a per-class Timeline. Each plan has proper teaching sections (objective, starter, activities, plenary, homework, notes) with per-section minute badges, plus rich content and reusable section templates.

Where to find it: Left sidebar, Primary group, Lesson Diary (in Welsh, Dyddiadur Gwersi).

How to use it:

1. Open Lesson Diary from the sidebar.
2. Top right, pick your view with the three buttons: Day, Week or Timeline.
3. In Week view you see a grid of periods down the side and Monday to Friday across the top. Classes you have timetabled show as coloured chips. Click any cell to open the lesson editor for that period.
4. In Day view, the periods run down a rail on the left. Click a period to see its plan on the right, then click Add plan (or Edit if one already exists) to open the editor. A small badge tells you whether each period is Plan ready, To plan or Free.
5. In Timeline view, choose a class from the dropdown at the top. You get that class's lessons in teaching order. If you lose a lesson (a fire drill, a snow day), open the affected lesson and use the Bump button (the ⤓ icon) to push it and every lesson after it forward by one meeting, so you do not have to re-type anything.

Inside the lesson editor:

1. At the very top, set the title, date, period and class.
2. Fill in the six core sections, laid out in two columns: Objective (🎯), Starter (⚡), Activities (📋), Plenary (✅), Homework (🏠) and Notes (📝).
3. For Starter, Activities and Plenary you can type a number of minutes into the small min badge on the section header. The running total shows next to the lesson title.
4. Activities are added as rows. Each row has a type dropdown (task, independent, pair or group) and the activity text. Click + Add activity for another row.
5. To add your own extra sections, scroll down and click + Add section, give it a title, and type into it. These custom sections and the Notes box take rich content: tickable checklists, images, links and YouTube embeds (use the little toolbar in the box).
6. Below the sections you can also fill Differentiation (🪜: must, should, could), Vocabulary (🔤) and Resources (📎).
7. Click Save at the bottom, or Close to leave without changes.

Section templates:

1. Build up a set of sections you use often (for example a standard three-part lesson).
2. In the section tools row, click Save template and give it a name.
3. Next time, click the Insert template dropdown to drop those sections straight into a lesson. Use Manage templates to delete ones you no longer want.
4. There is also a whole-lesson template menu at the top of the editor (Apply template / Save template) if you prefer to reuse a complete plan.

Good to know: The header buttons let you Copy text, Export PDF and Duplicate a plan. Ticking a checklist box in a saved plan updates it straight away, without reopening the editor.

Schemes of Learning

What it does: A reusable library of lesson plans, arranged in a folder tree (just like folders on your computer). Plans you keep here are not tied to a date. When you want to teach one, you assign it into the dated Lesson Diary. You can also export a scheme to share it with a colleague, or import one they send you.

Where to find it: Left sidebar, Primary group, Schemes of Learning (in Welsh, Cynlluniau Dysgu).

How to use it:

1. Open Schemes of Learning. Make sure the Schemes tab (not Curriculum map) is selected at the top.
2. The breadcrumb bar starts at 📚 Root. Click a folder to go into it; click a breadcrumb to come back out.
3. To make a folder, type its name in the box at the bottom and click + New folder. To make a plan, type a name and click + New plan.
4. Click a plan tile to open it in the lesson editor (the same editor as the diary, minus the date and class boxes).
5. Drag folders or plans to reorder them, or use the A→Z button to sort by name.
6. To assign a plan into your real timetable, open it and click Assign. Choose a class, then either Assign to a week (fills every timetabled lesson that week) or a single lesson, and confirm.

Sharing:

1. Click the ⬇ icon on any folder or plan to export it as a .gfsol file, or Export all for the whole library.
2. Click ⬆ Import and pick a .gfsol file a colleague sent you. It drops into the folder you are currently viewing.

Good to know: A plan tile shows a ✓ Drafted flag once it has real content in it, so you can see at a glance which plans in a folder still need writing.

Unit Sequencer (Scheme Spine)

What it does: Builds a whole ordered unit for you in one go. You give it a topic (title), a short overview and your objectives, and say how many lessons you want. It writes a folder of sequenced lesson plans, each with objective, activities, differentiation and vocabulary, ready for you to refine. This is an opt-in AI feature.

Where to find it: Left sidebar, Schemes of Learning, then the ✨ New project button at the top (it only appears when AI is switched on in Settings).

How to use it:

1. In Schemes of Learning, go into the folder where you want the new unit to live.
2. Click ✨ New project.
3. Type the project title (your topic).
4. In the overview and objectives boxes, jot rough notes. You can click the 💡 button by each to have the AI tidy your bullet points into proper prose.
5. Set the number of lessons with the minus and plus buttons (1 to 20).
6. Click Create. A progress bar shows each lesson being written, with a running estimate of time left. When it finishes, GradeForge opens the new folder for you.

Good to know: If you already have a folder of empty, briefed plans, you can instead use Generate all at the top of Schemes to draft them all in a batch, or Clear drafts to reset them back to brief only and regenerate.

AI lesson generation (from a brief or an uploaded deck)

What it does: Turns a short brief, or an existing PowerPoint, PDF or Google Slides deck, into a full lesson plan. It fills the objective, activities, differentiation and vocabulary, and auto-tags the lesson to the Curriculum for Wales. This is an opt-in AI feature.

Where to find it: Inside any lesson (Lesson Diary or Schemes), in the Task brief box (📋) near the top of the editor.

How to use it:

1. Open a lesson and find the Task brief box.
2. Either type a short brief (for example "Year 9 introduction to the water cycle, one hour"), or bring in a deck:

• Click 📊 Upload and choose a .pptx or .pdf file. GradeForge reads the text out of it and drops it into the brief for you to check.
• Or paste a Google Slides link into the field and click Add slides.

1. Click ✨ Generate lesson.
2. Wait for the sections to fill, then read through and edit anything you want to change.

Good to know: The first time you send file or slide content to the AI, GradeForge asks you to confirm, because that text leaves your computer to reach your AI provider. Pupil names are never part of a lesson brief. You can regenerate a single section at a time with the ↻ button on that section's header.

AI cover-lesson generator

What it does: Two related things. First, a one-click button turns the open lesson into a self-contained plan a supply teacher could pick up cold. Second, the diary can print or share a whole cover pack for a day or a week: a clean plan plus a tick-list register for each class, with SEND and access-arrangement flags shown for each pupil.

Where to find it: The ✨ Generate cover button in the lesson editor header. The whole-day pack is the 🖨 Sub plan and ☁ Share to Drive buttons in the Lesson Diary top bar (Day or Week view).

How to use it:

1. For a single lesson: open it and click ✨ Generate cover. The plan appears in a panel; click the insert button to add it to the lesson notes, or copy it out.
2. For a full day or week: in Lesson Diary, choose Day or Week view and go to the day you will be absent.
3. Click 🖨 Sub plan to open a printable pack (use your browser's Save as PDF), or ☁ Share to Drive to put a read-only copy in Google Drive and copy a link (this needs Google connected).

Good to know: The cover pack registers list every active pupil with a tick box, and mark SEND (ALN) and access arrangements next to their names, so a cover teacher has what they need at a glance.

Generate a rubric from the lesson

What it does: Turns the open lesson into a grid rubric and saves it to your rubric library, tagged automatically with the right subject, year and unit (the unit is taken from the lesson's scheme folder). This is an opt-in AI feature.

Where to find it: The ▤ button in the lesson editor header.

How to use it:

1. Open a lesson that has an objective and activities filled in (and, ideally, must/should/could success criteria).
2. Click the ▤ rubric button in the header.
3. Wait for the confirmation message. The rubric is now in your rubric library, ready to score against.

Good to know: The more you have filled in (objective, activities, differentiation), the better the rubric. It builds three to five criteria across four levels.

Generate a mark scheme from the lesson

What it does: Turns the lesson's task or tasks into an exam-style mark scheme (question, mark points, guidance and a total) and saves it to your AI Marking library, so you can mark pupils' work against it. This is an opt-in AI feature. See section 3 for the marking side.

Where to find it: The ✓ button in the lesson editor header.

How to use it:

1. Open the lesson with the task filled in.
2. Click the ✓ mark scheme button in the header.
3. Wait for the confirmation message. The mark scheme is saved and available in AI Marking.

Good to know: It writes the mark scheme in the same language as your lesson, so a Welsh lesson gets a Welsh mark scheme.

Timetable

What it does: Sets which class you teach in each period, on which day, in which room. GradeForge uses this everywhere: it fills your diary and calendar and drives the assign-to-week feature. It handles two-week (or longer) timetable cycles, break and lunch times, and even a few alternative timetable versions.

Where to find it: Left sidebar, Primary group, Timetable (in Welsh, Amserlen).

How to use it:

1. Open Timetable. You see a grid of periods down the side and Monday to Friday across the top, with break and lunch shown as full-width rows between the teaching periods.
2. In each cell, use the dropdown to pick the class you teach, then type a room if you want.
3. If your school runs a two-week cycle, use the Week A / Week B tabs above the grid to fill each week. The current week is marked with a dot.
4. To keep more than one layout (for example a normal week and an exam week), use the schedule tabs at the top: click + Schedule to add one (up to six), double-click a tab to rename it, and use the small ✕ to delete a spare.

Import and export:

1. Click ⬇ CSV to save your timetable as a spreadsheet (columns: Week, Day, Period, Class, Room).
2. Click ⬆ Import and choose a CSV to load one in. Days can be written Mon to Fri or as numbers. Rows whose class name does not match one of your classes are skipped, and GradeForge tells you how many it added and skipped.

Good to know: The break and lunch rows come from Settings, under Timetable and cycle, so the times you set there flow through to the diary and calendar too.

Calendar

What it does: A month, week or day calendar showing your lessons, school holidays and one-off events. It can also pull in your personal and school Google calendars, colour-coded, so everything sits in one place.

Where to find it: Left sidebar, Primary group, Calendar (in Welsh, Calendr).

How to use it:

1. Open Calendar. Switch between Day, Week and Month with the buttons top left, and toggle Weekends on or off.
2. Use the ‹ and › arrows to move, or Today to jump back.
3. To add your own event, use the row at the top: pick a date, type a title, choose Once or Weekly, and click Add. Click an event to remove it.
4. To bring in Google events, click 🔄 Sync now. Personal and school events show in the two colours in the legend. Click a Google event to open it in your browser.

Good to know: You tell GradeForge which Google calendars to read in Settings (a personal calendar URL and a school one). The sync also runs quietly when you open the app if Google is connected.

Curriculum for Wales, native

What it does: Curriculum for Wales is built into GradeForge, not bolted on. Every lesson can be tagged to the four purposes, an Area of Learning and Experience (AoLE), a what-matters statement, cross-cutting themes, a progression step and the skill frameworks. Once your lessons carry these tags, the Frameworks page gives you a coverage report, and the AI can suggest a next lesson that plugs your biggest gaps.

Where to find it: The tagging happens in the Curriculum for Wales panel (the 🏴 flag) inside the lesson editor. The coverage report is the Frameworks page in the Insights group.

How to use it (tagging a lesson):

1. In the lesson editor, scroll to the Curriculum for Wales panel.
2. Pick the year, subject, AoLE and progression step from the dropdowns.
3. Click the four purposes chips and themes chips that apply.
4. Once you choose an AoLE, its what matters statements appear as chips; click the ones your lesson covers.
5. If AI is on, click ✨ Suggest tags to have GradeForge propose the strands and descriptors for you, which you can then adjust.

How to use it (coverage report):

1. Open Frameworks from the sidebar.
2. The bars show how many lessons hit each AoLE, purpose, theme and step. A bar with nothing against it is a gap.
3. Use the filters (teacher, subject, year, AoLE, source) to narrow the view.
4. If AI is on, click ✨ Suggest next to get a single realistic next-lesson idea aimed at your uncovered areas.

Good to know: Coverage is drawn straight from the tags your lessons already carry, so it stays honest with no extra admin. You can export the whole coverage table to Excel.

Descriptions of Learning (the full continuum)

What it does: The Welsh Government's Descriptions of Learning are built in and bilingual (1,145 descriptors across all 27 what-matters statements, at progression steps 1 to 5). When you tag a lesson to a statement, you see the whole progression continuum with your class's step highlighted, and you can tick the descriptors the lesson covers. The Frameworks page then shows descriptor coverage across the continuum with a step-by-step heatmap.

Where to find it: In the lesson editor, the continuum appears below the what-matters chips once you tag at least one statement. The coverage view is on the Frameworks page.

How to use it:

1. In a lesson, tag a what matters statement (see above). The Descriptions of Learning continuum opens beneath it.
2. Your class's step is highlighted. Tick the descriptors the lesson covers, or let the AI identify them when you use Suggest tags.
3. Use the all steps / my step button to widen or narrow the continuum.
4. On Frameworks, open the Descriptions of Learning coverage card. Each statement has a step heatmap; filter by all, covered or gaps, and click 🖨 to print the report.

Good to know: A short gaps hint at the top of the card names the statements with no coverage yet, so you can see where to aim next.

LLC by language strand

What it does: For the Languages, Literacy and Communication "Expressing ourselves" statement, a strand filter lets you view and track coverage separately for Welsh, English, international languages and BSL, or all together. This means Welsh-medium and language teachers see only the descriptors that belong to their strand.

Where to find it: A strand dropdown that appears both in the lesson editor's continuum panel and on the Frameworks page, but only when the "Expressing ourselves" statement is in view.

How to use it:

1. Tag a lesson to the LLC "Expressing ourselves" statement. A strand dropdown appears on the continuum.
2. Choose Welsh, English, international or BSL to see just that strand's descriptors, or leave it on all.
3. On Frameworks, the same dropdown filters the coverage card the same way.

Good to know: The filter changes only what you see; it does not delete anything. Switch back to all at any time.

LNF and DCF by progression step

What it does: The Literacy and Numeracy Framework (LNF) and the Digital Competence Framework (DCF), 218 bilingual statements across steps 1 to 5, get the same continuum-and-coverage treatment as the Descriptions of Learning. The Frameworks page lays out framework to strand to element across the five steps, ticks what you have covered, and shows a heatmap and percentage per step, element and strand.

Where to find it: In the lesson editor, the Framework strands section of the Curriculum for Wales panel. The coverage view is the skills coverage card on Frameworks.

How to use it:

1. In a lesson, open the Framework strands section in the Curriculum for Wales panel.
2. Expand a framework (LNF or DCF), then a strand, and tick the statements your lesson covers.
3. Use the just my step / all steps button to show only your class's step or the full continuum.
4. On Frameworks, open the skills coverage card. Filter by all, covered or gaps, read the step heatmap, and click 🖨 to print.

Good to know: Coverage here is driven by the same lesson tags, so ticking strands in your plans is all the admin it takes.

Curriculum map (long-term plan view)

What it does: A term-by-term map of your scheme of learning. Each unit sits in its term showing the framework statements it covers, with a coverage strip per term and a planning-gaps panel that lists statements no unit schedules anywhere in the year. This is a plan-level view (what the year is set up to cover), which is different from the delivery coverage the Frameworks page tracks from tagged lessons.

Where to find it: Left sidebar, Schemes of Learning, then the Curriculum map tab at the top.

How to use it:

1. Open Schemes of Learning and click the Curriculum map tab.
2. You see three columns (Autumn, Spring, Summer), each with your units placed by their teaching week.
3. Use the framework dropdown to choose which framework to map against (CfW, LNF, DCF or an imported one), and the scope dropdown to filter to one class's subject.
4. Read the coverage strip under each term heading, and the planning gaps panel at the bottom for statements nothing covers all year.
5. Click 🖨 Print to print the long-term plan.

Good to know: Units are built from your Schemes folders (a folder of plans is a unit), so the better organised your Schemes tree, the cleaner the map.

Custom-framework importer (any curriculum)

What it does: Lets you bring in a curriculum that is not Welsh, and use it exactly like CfW: taggable in lessons, coverage-tracked and shown in the same continuum view. One click imports a bundled curriculum, or you can paste your own.

Where to find it: The Import framework card on the Frameworks page.

How to use it:

1. Open Frameworks and find the Import framework card near the top.
2. To load a ready-made one, click the button for the England National Curriculum, Scotland Curriculum for Excellence, US Common Core or IB Middle Years Programme.
3. To bring your own, open Paste your own, give it a name, choose CSV or JSON, paste your data (CSV columns are strand, code, statement, step), and click Import.
4. Imported frameworks then appear in the lesson editor's strand picker and in the coverage cards. Use the ✕ next to one to remove it.

Good to know: Imported frameworks are saved and synced with your other data, so GradeForge works well beyond Wales.

Frameworks tracker

What it does: Logs your Curriculum for Wales coverage per lesson and term, and, for a school, gathers every teacher's coverage into one protected portfolio. A password unlocks the school-wide (or trust-wide) view.

Where to find it: Left sidebar, Insights group, Frameworks (in Welsh, Fframweithiau).

How to use it:

1. Open Frameworks. By default it shows your own coverage.
2. To see the whole school, type the shared password into the unlock box and click Unlock school. If your school is part of a trust, Unlock super shows every school.
3. Use the filters and the coverage cards to explore. Export to Excel with the ⬇ Excel button, or print the Descriptions of Learning and skills reports.
4. A school administrator can add schools and set their passwords from the manage-schools card in the super view.

Good to know: Sharing is protected by a password and works through your school's own Google Drive folder, set in Settings. Nothing goes to an outside server.

Gwirio'r Gymraeg (Welsh proofing)

What it does: When you set GradeForge to Welsh, a small proofing button follows whatever text field you are typing in, anywhere in the app. Click it and it checks your Welsh spelling and grammar with Bangor University's techiaith Cysill service, then offers click-to-apply corrections.

Where to find it: It appears automatically by the top-right corner of the text box you are editing, but only when the app language is Welsh. English users never see it.

How to use it:

1. Set the app to Welsh (in Settings).
2. Click into any text box (a lesson section, a note, anywhere).
3. Click the floating ✍️ Gwirio button that appears by the box.
4. A small panel lists any issues. For each one, click a blue suggestion chip to apply it straight into your text, or the ✕ to ignore it.

Good to know: This one feature needs the internet, because it calls the Cysill service. If the check cannot reach it, GradeForge tells you rather than failing silently.

In-app YouTube and Google Slides viewers

What it does: Plays a YouTube video or shows a Google Slides deck inside GradeForge, in a pop-up window, so you do not have to leave the app. If your school network blocks the embed, a button opens the resource in your browser instead.

Where to find it: On any resource you have attached to a lesson (the Resources section, 📎), and in the YouTube search tool in the editor.

How to use it:

1. In a lesson's Resources section, add a YouTube or Google Slides link.
2. Click the ▶ button next to a YouTube link to play it in a pop-up, or the 📊 button next to a Slides link to show the deck.
3. If the video or deck will not load (a blocked network), click the Open button in the pop-up header to view it in your browser.

Good to know: If AI and Google are connected, the ✨ YouTube button in the Resources header can suggest relevant videos for your lesson, which you can add with one click.

5. Resource Engine

The Resource Engine is the worksheet and resource maker. You give it a starting point (a lesson, a topic, some text you paste in, or a web page), pick one of 42 ready-made templates, and it builds a full, editable worksheet you can tidy up and send out five different ways. Everything below happens inside one window that opens on top of whatever you were doing.

To open it, look in the left sidebar under Plan, click Toolkit, then click the big 🧰 Resource Engine card. It also opens straight from a lesson (from the lesson's resources area), and when it does it arrives already knowing the lesson's title and objective. You can also press Ctrl/Cmd+K and start typing "Resource" to jump to it.

Diffit-style generator (make a resource from a lesson, topic, text or web page)

What it does: Turns a source you choose into a complete, multi-section worksheet in seconds. The source can be an open lesson, a topic you type, text you paste, or a web page you give the address of. You can also feed it a document (a PDF, PowerPoint, or a plain text, Markdown or CSV file) and it reads the words out of that document for you.

Where to find it: The first screen of the Resource Engine (the "setup" screen), across the top.

How to use it:

1. Open the Resource Engine (see the intro above).
2. At the top you will see up to three tabs: From lesson, From topic, and From text. The From lesson tab only appears when you opened the Engine from a lesson. Click the tab you want.
3. If you chose From topic, type your topic into the box (for example "Photosynthesis" or "Y Rhyfel Byd Cyntaf" (The First World War)).
4. If you chose From text, you have three ways to give it words:

• Paste your text straight into the large box.
• Type or paste a web address into the small box and click ⬇ Fetch. The page's text drops into the box for you.
• Click 📎 Upload and pick a file from your computer. It accepts PDF, PowerPoint (.pptx or .ppt), and .txt, .md or .csv files. The text is pulled out and dropped into the box.

1. Pick a template from the gallery lower down (see the next section), then click the blue ✨ Generate button.
2. Wait a few seconds. When it is done, the Engine moves to the editing screen with your worksheet ready.

Good to know: Next to Generate there is a 🗂 Batch button. This makes a small set from your one source in a single go: a bell-ringers starter, the template you picked, and an exit ticket. It saves all three, then opens the main one for editing. Any resource you make is saved and listed at the bottom of the setup screen, so you can reopen and re-edit it forever.

The catalogue of 42 templates

What it does: Gives you 42 different worksheet and activity "recipes" to choose from, sorted into groups. Each one tells the Engine what sections to build, so a "Frayer model" comes out looking like a Frayer model and a "loop cards" set comes out ready to cut up.

Where to find it: The tile gallery in the middle of the setup screen. The tile you have picked is highlighted.

How to use it:

1. On the setup screen, scroll the gallery of tiles.
2. Click any tile to select it. Reading is selected by default.
3. Set your source and refine options, then click ✨ Generate.

Here is the full catalogue by group, so you can find the right one:

• Reading and comprehension: reading worksheet; comprehension (with a "Plot and conflict" part and a "Character and analysis" part); side-by-side original and simplified passage; DBQ (document-based question) built around a short primary source; cloze (gap-fill) with a word bank; science lab (with a Claim-Evidence-Reasoning conclusion).
• Vocabulary and language: vocabulary sheet; topic word mat; tiered vocabulary scaffold (a simple, a standard and a stretch definition for each word); spelling pack (Look, Cover, Write, Check); taboo / describe-it cards.
• Writing frames: writing task with a planning organiser; discussion questions; PEEL; CER; RACE; Cornell notes; WAGOLL model answer with a "why it works" breakdown.
• Graphic organisers: a generic organiser; compare and contrast (Venn); cause and effect; timeline / sequence; Frayer model; knowledge organiser.
• Assessment: quiz (multiple choice, short answer and extended response); task cards; bell ringers; choice board; true / false with justification; matching pairs; exit ticket.
• Tiered and target setting: tiered must / should / could; success criteria (working towards, expected, greater depth); step-by-step instruction card; SMART targets.
• Cut-out and laminator packs: loop cards ("I have... who has..."); taboo cards; card sorts; dominoes; bingo (call and cross); ten-frames / number-line sheets; visual timetable (now / next / then).
• Planning and inspection: a lesson-starters bank; an inspection-prep / Estyn question set.

Good to know: The templates that mention cards, dominoes, bingo or loop cards are designed to be printed and cut up, so they save well as a PDF you can laminate.

Refine and re-level

What it does: Lets you steer the worksheet before and after it is made: sharpen its focus, say what it is for, match it to a reading level, and set the language. After it is made, you can edit every section by hand in a two-pane editor, rebuild a single section, or re-level or translate the whole sheet at once.

Where to find it: The refine boxes sit on the setup screen (the row of labelled fields). The live editor and the re-level and translate menus are on the editing screen.

How to use it (before you generate):

1. On the setup screen, fill in any of the refine boxes you want. None are required.

• Focus: what the questions should home in on.
• Use: what the resource is for (for example a starter, homework, or revision).
• Fit: how it should fit your lesson.
• Level: a dropdown. Leave it on Auto, or pick a reading level (UK Year 3, 5, 7, 9 or 11, Post-16, or reading age 8 or 11), or pick Side-by-side to get the original text and a plain-language version next to each other.
• Language: Auto, English, Cymraeg (Welsh), or Bilingual.

1. Click ✨ Generate.

How to use it (after you generate, on the editing screen):

1. The left pane lists every section. Each section has an editable text box. Type straight into it to change the wording; a small hint above each box shows the format (for example "question | option A | option B | option C | option D | correct letter").
2. Click 🔄 on a section to rebuild just that section. Use ↑ and ↓ to reorder sections, and ✕ to delete one.
3. At the top of the left pane there are two dropdowns: 🎚 Re-level (rewrite the whole sheet to a chosen year or reading age) and 🌐 Translate (turn the whole sheet into Welsh, English, or bilingual Welsh-then-English). Pick an option and it rebuilds the whole worksheet.
4. The right pane shows a live preview that updates as you edit.

Good to know: Editing a text box takes effect when you click away from it. Nothing is sent anywhere while you type; the rebuild, re-level and translate steps use the app's AI (with pupil names shielded first).

Five ways out (Print, PDF, PowerPoint, Word, Google Form)

What it does: Gets your finished worksheet off the screen and into pupils' hands in whichever form suits you: straight to the printer, a PDF, a themed PowerPoint, an editable Word document, or a self-grading Google Form.

Where to find it: The export bar along the top of the right (preview) pane on the editing screen.

How to use it:

1. First, decide whether to include the answers. Tick or untick the With answers box at the left of the export bar.
2. Then click the option you want:

• 🖨 Print sends it to your printer.
• ⬇ PDF saves a PDF to your computer.
• ⬇ PPTX saves a themed PowerPoint.
• ⬇ DOCX saves an editable Word document.
• 📝 To Form (only shown when your Google account is connected) builds a self-grading Google Form from the worksheet's multiple-choice questions and shows a QR code and link so pupils can scan and answer on any device.

1. There is also 💾 Save (keeps your edits), ☁ To Drive (uploads a PDF to your Google Drive and attaches the link to the lesson), and 🎓 To Classroom (posts it to the linked Google Classroom as an assignment).

Good to know: When your Google account is connected, the DOCX and PPTX buttons show a small "☁" and will also quietly upload a copy to Drive and attach the link to your lesson. The Google Form option needs the worksheet to contain multiple-choice questions; if there are none, it will tell you. There is also a 🔲 To OMR button that sends the worksheet's multiple-choice questions to your Question Bank, ready to build a scannable bubble-sheet quiz.

Adapt and print for the whole class

What it does: Prints one copy of the worksheet per pupil, each copy levelled to that pupil's own reading-accessibility needs (reading font, larger text, extra spacing, a colour overlay), all collated into a single PDF you print once.

Where to find it: The 👥 Adapt button on the export bar (its label may read "Adapt and print whole class").

How to use it:

1. On the editing screen, click 👥 Adapt on the export bar.
2. Pick a class from the dropdown.
3. The pupils appear in a list. For each pupil you can set a font (default, clear, or OpenDyslexic), a text size, whether to add extra spacing, and a colour overlay.
4. To save time, use the Apply to all buttons at the top to set an option for everyone at once (for example OpenDyslexic for all, or larger text for all), then adjust individuals.
5. Click the button at the bottom to build the batch. A single PDF downloads with one levelled copy per pupil, each headed with the pupil's name.

Good to know: Each pupil's settings are remembered on their student record, so they travel with sync and backup and are reused the next time you adapt a resource. You do not have to set them up again.

Pupil reading-accessibility pack

What it does: A reading toolbar that makes any worksheet easier to access: it reads the sheet aloud (preferring a Welsh voice when one is installed), switches to a dyslexia-friendly or clear font, adds spacing, changes the text size, and lays a coloured overlay over the page. Whatever you choose carries through to what you print or save as a PDF.

Where to find it: The accessibility bar sits under the preview on the editing screen.

How to use it:

1. On the editing screen, find the reading toolbar below the preview.
2. Click 🗣 Read aloud to hear the sheet read out; click it again to stop.
3. Use the Font dropdown to choose Default, Clear, or OpenDyslexic.
4. Use A− and A+ to shrink or grow the text.
5. Tick Spacing for more generous line spacing.
6. Use the Overlay dropdown to lay a cream, blue, yellow, rose or green tint over the page.
7. Print or save as a PDF; your choices are baked in.

Good to know: Next to the read-aloud button there is an Audio version control that turns the whole resource into a downloadable read-aloud audio file using the bundled offline voices, useful for dyslexia, EAL and access support. It all works with the network off.

KaTeX maths and graph paper

What it does: Renders proper mathematical notation in your worksheets and drops in blank graph paper where pupils need to plot or sketch. You do not have to do anything special; the Engine writes the right codes and they turn into neat maths and grids automatically.

Where to find it: Inside any generated worksheet, in the passages and questions themselves.

How to use it:

1. Generate a worksheet on a maths or science topic (or type maths into a section by hand on the editing screen).
2. Any formula written between single dollar signs (for example $x^2$) appears inline; anything between double dollar signs (for example $$\frac{a}{b}$$) appears as a centred display equation.
3. Any paragraph containing exactly [[grid]] becomes a blank coordinate grid (graph paper with centred axes) for pupils to plot on.
4. Print or export as usual; the maths and grids come through.

Good to know: The maths is drawn using the browser's own built-in rendering, so it needs no extra fonts and prints cleanly. If you are editing a section by hand and want an equation or a grid, you can type the dollar-sign codes or [[grid]] yourself.

6. AI assistant suite

This chapter covers the optional AI helpers. They read the marks and material you already hold and turn them into summaries, study resources, drafts and prompts, always leaving you to check and approve the result. None of this is switched on until you choose to switch it on, so start with the note below before anything else.

A note before you start: opt-in and the PII shield

What it does: Keeps you in charge of the AI. Every AI feature is off until you turn it on, pupil names are swapped for stand-ins before any request leaves your machine and swapped back locally afterwards, and a panel shows you exactly what was sent. You approve every result.

Where to find it: The on/off switch and the connection details are in the left sidebar under Settings.

How to use it:

1. In the left sidebar, click Settings.
2. Find the AI section and turn AI on, then add your provider details as prompted.
3. From then on, AI buttons around the app light up. Where a button is greyed out with a note like "AI off", it means AI is not yet enabled.
4. When you run an AI feature, look for the "what was sent" panel to see the shielded text that was used.

Good to know: Because a photograph cannot have names removed from it, any feature that reads an image (rather than text) sends the image only when you explicitly choose that feature. Everything voice-based and the podcasts use bundled on-device voices, so they work with the network off.

Marksheet insights and early-warning

What it does: Reads a class's recent marks and sorts pupils into at-risk, declining and improving, in plain English, with a projected next score. Optionally it writes a short summary and two or three practical next actions, built only from those signals with names shielded.

Where to find it: Open a class, then open the insights view for that class's markbook (the 📊 Insights button on the class).

How to use it:

1. Open the class whose markbook you want to read.
2. Open the 📊 Insights view.
3. Set the target percentage in the box at the top. The three columns (At risk, Declining, Improving) update, each pupil showing their latest percentage and an arrow for their direction.
4. If AI is on, click ✨ AI summary for a short written summary and a few suggested next actions.

Good to know: The columns themselves are worked out on your own machine without any AI; only the optional written summary uses it, and pupil names are pseudonymised before it runs.

📚 Notebooks ("Ask my sources")

What it does: A private, offline notebook of your own material that you can chat with. You add sources (documents, audio, web pages, YouTube links), tick which ones to use, then ask questions and get answers grounded only in those sources with clickable citations. A one-click Studio turns the same sources into study resources, and you can export or back the whole notebook up.

Where to find it: Left sidebar under Plan, click Toolkit, then the 📚 Ask my sources card. It opens its own full workspace.

How to use it:

1. Open Ask my sources. On the left rail, click ＋ New notebook and give it a name.
2. Add your sources in the Sources pane (left column):

• Click 📎 Add file to bring in a PDF, Word, PowerPoint, CSV, text file, or an audio file (audio is transcribed on your machine).
• Paste a web address or YouTube link into the link box and click 🔗. This is the only source type that uses the internet.
• Open Add text to paste text in directly.

1. Each source has a tick box. Tick only the sources you want to use for the next answer or Studio output. Use "Use all" or "Use none" to set them quickly.
2. In the Chat pane (middle column), type a question and click ✨ Ask (or press Ctrl/Cmd+Enter). The answer appears with citation chips underneath; click a chip to open that source with the exact passage highlighted.
3. Click 💡 Suggest for suggested questions, use the search box to find text inside your sources, and click 🗒 Save note to keep an answer.

Good to know: A saved note can be folded back in as a source (the 📎 on a note), so a good answer can feed later questions. The chat and Studio only ever use the sources you have ticked, never the whole notebook.

Notebooks Studio outputs

What it does: Turns the ticked sources into ready-made study resources at one click each: a study guide, a briefing document, an FAQ, a timeline, a table of contents, a key-terms list, a quiz (sent to your Question Bank), a mind map, flashcards (sent to revision), a two-host podcast, and a narrated video overview.

Where to find it: The Studio pane (right column) of the Ask my sources workspace.

How to use it:

1. In your notebook, tick the sources you want to base the output on.
2. In the Studio pane, click the output you want: 📖 Study guide, 📋 Briefing, ❓ FAQ, 🕒 Timeline, 🔖 Table of contents, 🔤 Key terms, 📝 Quiz, 🧠 Mind map, or 🃏 Flashcards.
3. The result appears below, where you can print it, save it as a note, or (for the mind map) download it as an SVG. The quiz lands in your Question Bank and the flashcards land in your revision deck automatically.
4. To take a whole notebook away with you, click 📄 Export study-pack PDF for a printable pack of every source summary and note. To move a notebook to another machine or give it to a colleague, use the backup and share control in the header, which carries the notebook with its sources and notes.

Good to know: The two special buttons are 🎧 Podcast and 🎬 Video overview. For the podcast, the app drafts a script you can edit, then voices it offline: in English it is a two-host podcast (choose voice A and voice B from the bundled British and American voices); in Welsh it is a single-presenter podcast in the bundled Welsh voice (there is one shipped Welsh voice, so Welsh podcasts are read by one host rather than two). It then saves it to Drive and plays it inside the app. For the video overview, it drafts an editable slide plan (heading, bullets and narration per slide), then renders a short narrated slide video entirely on your machine, with the narration voiced in English or Welsh to match your material. Everything is voiced by the bundled offline voices; if they are not installed, the buttons show a short note.

Revision pack and podcast

What it does: Turns a topic or a lesson into a compact revision pack (study guide, FAQ, a timeline if relevant, and key terms) plus a lively podcast you can play, download as an MP3 and attach to the lesson. The podcast is two-host in English and single-presenter in Welsh.

Where to find it: Left sidebar under Plan, click Toolkit, then the 🎧 revision pack card. It also opens from a lesson, already seeded with that lesson's content.

How to use it:

1. Open the revision pack tool.
2. Type your topic into the box (or open it from a lesson so it is filled for you).
3. Click 📦 Revision pack for the written pack, or 🎙 Podcast for a podcast script (two hosts in English, a single presenter in Welsh).
4. For the podcast, click ▶ Play to hear it read aloud. To keep it, pick the voice (in English, voice A and voice B from the dropdowns; in Welsh, the single Welsh voice) and click the ⬇ MP3 button to render and download it. Opened from a lesson, it can also upload to Drive and attach itself as a lesson resource.

Good to know: The MP3 is voiced by the bundled offline voices, so it works with no internet. For English there is a good range of British and American voices. For Welsh-medium delivery the app now ships a real Welsh voice (Piper cy_GB bu_tts from techiaith / Prifysgol Bangor), so a Welsh script is read in a natural Welsh voice with nothing to install; because one Welsh voice ships, Welsh podcasts are read by a single presenter rather than two hosts. GradeForge never reads Welsh in an English voice.

Mind maps

What it does: Turns a topic into an interactive radial mind map you can rearrange, then export or print.

Where to find it: Left sidebar under Plan, click Toolkit, then the 🧠 mind map card. (Notebooks can also make a mind map from your ticked sources.)

How to use it:

1. Open the mind map tool.
2. Type your topic and generate the map.
3. Drag nodes to rearrange them and rename them as needed; use fullscreen for the board.
4. Export as an SVG or PNG, or print it.

Good to know: The version inside Notebooks builds the map only from your ticked sources, so use that one when you want it grounded in specific material.

Classroom AI helpers (misconception finder, make-it-relevant, grouping, state-of-the-room, safeguarding triage, marking moderator)

What it does: A set of quick, single-purpose AI cards for during and around a lesson. The misconception finder clusters the common errors in a set of pupil answers; make-it-relevant re-themes material around a pupil interest without changing the concept or difficulty; AI grouping forms groups from the marks the app already holds; the state-of-the-room digest writes a weekly narrative of who needs attention; safeguarding triage flags possible wellbeing concerns in pupil writing (as a prompt, never a decision); the marking moderator flags marks that look inconsistent.

Where to find it: Most are cards in the Toolkit (Plan, then Toolkit). The state-of-the-room digest lives in the cohort view.

How to use it (misconception finder as the example):

1. Open the Toolkit and click the misconception card.
2. Paste your pupils' answers to one question, one answer per line.
3. Run it. It lists the three or four most common misconceptions, roughly how many pupils each affects, and a one-line reteach idea for each.

The others follow the same pattern: open the card, give it the text or pick the class, and read or print the result. For AI grouping, pick a class and a strategy (mixed, similar or random) and it builds the groups with averages and an optional rationale. For make-it-relevant, type the pupil interest and paste the material. For the state-of-the-room digest, open the cohort view and click the week-digest button. For safeguarding triage and the marking moderator, paste the writing or the marks and read the flags.

Good to know: These are prompts and suggestions, not verdicts. Safeguarding triage in particular is designed to prompt your professional judgement, never to make a decision for you. All of them shield pupil names before running.

AI writer (observations, UCAS, examiner reports, IEPs)

What it does: Turns your rough notes into a polished professional write-up. It handles lesson-observation write-ups, UCAS references, examiner-report summaries, and IEP / support plans.

Where to find it: A card in the Toolkit (the 🖋 AI writer card).

How to use it:

1. Open the Toolkit and click the 🖋 AI writer card.
2. Choose the kind of write-up: observation, UCAS, examiner, or IEP.
3. Type or paste your rough notes into the box.
4. Run it and edit the draft before you use it.

Good to know: For the IEP mode, keep your notes anonymised; it works with placeholders and will not invent a real name.

SEND drafters

What it does: Drafts SEND paperwork from a pupil's anonymised records: an IEP, a behaviour plan, a one-page profile, or EHCP outcomes.

Where to find it: The support hub for a pupil (the SEND / ALN area), where the pupil's held records live, including the Welsh IDP (Individual Development Plan) drafter.

How to use it:

1. Open the pupil's support hub.
2. Choose the drafter you need (IEP, behaviour plan, one-page profile, or EHCP outcomes).
3. Let it draft from the held data, then edit every field. The Welsh IDP drafter prints bilingually and includes a one-click "enrich one-page profile" step.

Good to know: These drafters work from anonymised records and keep everything on your machine; nothing leaves the device except the shielded text of an optional AI step, which you approve.

Comment-bank polish, parent-email drafter, translate, tiered vocabulary, Bloom's questioning

What it does: Five small, everyday AI aids. Comment-bank polish tidies a report comment; the parent-email drafter writes a warm parent message by intent and tone; translate turns text into any of ten languages; tiered vocabulary lists Tier 2 and Tier 3 words for a topic with pupil-friendly definitions; Bloom's questioning writes higher-order question stems across the cognitive levels.

Where to find it: Comment-bank polish is in the Report Writer (an optional polish step on a comment). The parent-email drafter is in Comms. Translate (🌐), tiered vocabulary (🔤) and Bloom's questioning (❓) are cards in the Toolkit.

How to use it (Bloom's questioning as the example):

1. Open the Toolkit and click the ❓ questioning card.
2. Type your topic.
3. Run it. You get two questions at each level: Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyse, Evaluate and Create, each level clearly headed and written in the topic's language.

The others follow the same pattern. For translate, paste your text and pick a language from the ten offered. For tiered vocabulary, type a topic and get two headed lists (Tier 2 general academic words, Tier 3 subject-specific terms). For the parent-email drafter, choose an intent (praise, concern, reminder, absence or general) and a tone, optionally ground it in a pupil's shielded data, then translate it to Welsh or English or send it bilingually. For comment-bank polish, run the optional polish on a report comment in the Report Writer; it is suggested only and never applied automatically.

Good to know: The polish and drafter steps always leave the last word to you. Nothing is written into a report or sent to a parent until you have read it and pressed the button yourself.

7. Classroom Toolkit

The Classroom Toolkit is one screen holding 47 quick tools for use in the lesson: pickers, timers, display boards, content banks, print jobs, revision builders and a set of optional AI helpers. Everything works offline; the AI helpers only wake up once you have switched AI on in Settings, and until then they simply show a small "AI is off" note.

Opening the Toolkit

What it does: Gives you the launcher, a grid of labelled buttons, one per tool.

Where to find it: In the left sidebar, click Plan, then click Toolkit (Pecyn offer). The heading at the top reads "Toolkit" with the note "Quick offline tools for the lesson".

How to use it:

1. Click Plan in the left sidebar.
2. Click Toolkit.
3. You will see a wall of buttons, each with an icon and a name. Click any one to open it.
4. Most tools open in a pop-up window (a modal) over the grid. Click Close in the top right of that window, or click the dark area around it, to go back to the grid.
5. Four of the buttons (Resource Engine, Ask my sources, Revision pack + podcast, Mathematics) open their own full workspace instead. These are covered at the end of this chapter.

Good to know: Many display tools have a fullscreen button (a small square icon, ⛶) in the top bar of their window. Click it to blow the tool up to fill the board, and click it again to shrink back.

Pickers and fairness

What it does: Five fair-choice tools: Dice (Dis), Coin flip (Taflu darn arian), Random number (Rhif ar hap), Wheel of names (Olwyn enwau) and Cold call (Galw ar hap). The last two share one class name list, so a name you type into one appears in the other.

Where to find it: On the Toolkit grid, the buttons marked 🎲, 🪙, 🔢, 🎡 and 🙋.

How to use it:

1. Dice: click 🎲, set how many dice you want (1 to 6) in the box, then click Roll. The faces and a running total appear.
2. Coin flip: click 🪙, then click Flip. It shows Heads or Tails.
3. Random number: click 🔢, type a lowest and highest number in the two boxes, then click Pick.
4. Wheel of names: click 🎡. In the text box, type your pupils' names, one per line (or separated by commas). Click Spin and a name is chosen.
5. Cold call: click 🙋, then click the pick button. It always chooses from the pupils asked the fewest times, and shows a question starter alongside the name. A small counter shows how many of the class have been asked; the reset arrow (↺) clears the counts.

Good to know: Type your class names into the Wheel of names once and Cold call will use the same list automatically. The counts and names are saved on your computer, so they are still there next lesson.

Timers and pacing

What it does: Three timing tools: Countdown (Cyfrif i lawr) with a chime, the Lesson stage timer (Amserydd camau gwers) that runs starter, main and plenary one after another, and the Retrieval scheduler (Trefnydd adalw) that turns topics you have taught into a growing "due today" review list.

Where to find it: On the grid, the buttons marked ⏲ (Countdown), 📋 (Lesson stage timer) and 🗓 (Retrieval scheduler).

How to use it:

1. Countdown: click ⏲, set the minutes, click Start. It ticks down and plays a chime at zero. Use Pause and Reset as needed.
2. Lesson stage timer: click 📋. Edit the three stage names and their minutes if you like, then click Start. It runs the first stage, chimes, and rolls straight into the next. Click Stop to end early.
3. Retrieval scheduler: click 🗓. Type a topic, set the date you taught it, and click the plus (＋). The tool works out when each topic is due for review and lists anything due today under a bell heading, with the next few reviews below.

Good to know: The retrieval schedule is saved on your computer and rebuilds itself each day, so open it at the start of a lesson to see what is worth a quick recall.

Display and response

What it does: Six board and feedback tools: Whiteboard (Bwrdd gwyn) for quick annotation, Noise meter (Mesurydd sŵn) showing live room volume, Video questions (Video Questions) to pin questions to a YouTube video, Paper cards (Cardiau papur / live vote), a Plickers-style class vote with no pupil devices, the Scoreboard (Bwrdd sgorio) for team points, and Parents' Evening (Noson Rieni) booking sheets.

Where to find it: On the grid, the buttons marked ✏️, 🔊, 🎬, 🃏, 🏆 and 📅.

How to use it:

1. Whiteboard: click ✏️. Draw on the board with your mouse or a pen. Click a colour swatch to change pen colour, or Clear to wipe it. Use the fullscreen button to fill the board.
2. Noise meter: click 🔊, then Start. Allow the microphone when asked. A bar fills and changes colour as the room gets louder. Click Stop to end.
3. Video questions: click 🎬. Paste a YouTube link. Type a time as mm:ss and a question, then click Add. Each question becomes a play button; click one to jump the video to that moment and show the question underneath.
4. Paper cards: click 🃏. On the Print tab, choose a class and how many options (A to D), then print one card per pupil. On the Scan tab, start the webcam; pupils hold up their card with their chosen letter at the top, and the camera reads the room into a live tally. No pupil devices are needed.
5. Scoreboard: click 🏆. Rename teams by typing over the names, use the plus and minus buttons for points, Add team for more teams, and Reset scores to zero them.
6. Parents' Evening: click 📅. Enter a title, date, start and end time and slot length. It builds a booking sheet with a row per slot, which you can Print or save as a PDF.

Good to know: The scoreboard remembers teams and scores until you reset them, so you can keep a running competition across a series of lessons.

Quick tools

What it does: Four small utilities: Grade boundaries (Ffiniau graddau) to turn a mark into a grade, Readability (Darllenadwyedd) to check reading age, Certificate (Tystysgrif) to print an award, and QR code (Cod QR) to make a scannable code.

Where to find it: On the grid, the buttons marked 🎯 (Grade boundaries), 📖 (Readability), 🏅 (Certificate) and 🔳 (QR code).

How to use it:

1. Grade boundaries: click 🎯. Type the mark and the total, and the grade and percentage appear. Edit the boundary line (for example "A*=90, A=80, B=70") to match your paper.
2. Readability: click 📖. Paste any text into the box. It shows the Flesch-Kincaid grade, a reading age, a reading-ease score and the word count.
3. Certificate: click 🏅. Type the pupil's name and the reason, then click the print button for a landscape certificate signed with your name and today's date.
4. QR code: click 🔳. Type or paste a link or message; the code appears as you type. Click the show button to display it large on the board for pupils to scan.

Content banks

What it does: Four simple lists you build up over time: a Do-now bank (Banc tasgau cychwyn), an Exit-ticket bank (Banc tocynnau gadael), an Objectives bank (Banc amcanion) of learning objectives, and a Glossary (Geirfa). Each is a quick add, copy and print list.

Where to find it: On the grid, the buttons marked 🟢 (Do-now), 🚪 (Exit-ticket), 🎯 (Objectives) and 📚 (Glossary).

How to use it:

1. Click the bank you want.
2. Type an item into the box and press Enter or click the plus (+) to add it to the list.
3. Click the copy icon (⧉) next to any item to copy it to the clipboard.
4. Click the cross (✕) to remove an item.

Good to know: Each bank is saved on your computer, so it keeps growing lesson after lesson and is ready whenever you open it.

Forms and print

What it does: Three print jobs: Forms and letters (Ffurflenni a llythyrau) for consent, trip, photo and letter templates, Bulk print (Argraffu swp / mail merge) to make one card per pupil from a class list, and the Handwriting font (Ffont llawysgrifen) builder that turns your own handwriting into a typeface.

Where to find it: On the grid, the buttons marked 📋 (Forms and letters), 🪪 (Bulk print) and ✍️ (Handwriting font).

How to use it:

1. Forms and letters: click 📋. Choose a type (consent, trip, photo or letter) at the top, fill in the school, title, date and body, then Print or save as PDF. Reply slips are built in.
2. Bulk print: click 🪪. Pick a layout, then choose a class (or paste your own CSV list). Fill any shared field (for example one reason for every certificate), then Print or PDF to get one item per pupil.
3. Handwriting font: click ✍️. Download the template (standard or cursive), print it, write your letters in the boxes, then click Build my font to scan it back in and create your font. Once built, you can type in your own handwriting, including on PDF feedback.

Retrieval and revision

What it does: Two recall builders: a quick Retrieval Quiz (Retrieval Quiz) that mixes older and newer topics, and Spaced practice (Adalw bylchog), a pupil-facing tool that builds a self-marking deck on a proper SM-2 schedule and exports as a single offline web page any pupil can run.

Where to find it: On the grid, the buttons marked 🔁 (Retrieval Quiz) and 📇 (Spaced practice).

How to use it:

1. Retrieval Quiz: click 🔁. Type the topics taught so far, earliest first, choose how many questions, and click Generate (this needs AI on). It writes short question-and-answer pairs mixing old and new topics, which you can Print.
2. Spaced practice: click 📇. Pick a ready-made deck (built from your quiz banks) or paste your own pairs, one per line as "front | back". Pupils work through the cards and self-mark each one Again, Hard, Good or Easy; the schedule brings back what they got wrong. Use the export button to save a self-contained HTML file: any pupil can open it on any device, the scheduler is built in, progress saves in their browser, and no account or internet is needed.

AI helpers in the box

What it does: A set of opt-in AI aids: Differentiation helper (Cynorthwyydd gwahaniaethu) for must/should/could, Differentiate a resource (Gwahaniaethu adnodd) for tiered, reading-age, EAL or accessible versions, Translate (Cyfieithu) into ten languages, Tier 2/3 vocabulary (Geirfa Haen 2/3), Mind map (Map meddwl), AI writer (Ysgrifennwr AI), Group maker (Gwneuthurwr grwpiau), Misconception finder (Canfod camsyniadau), Marking moderator (Safonwr marcio), Safeguarding triage (Brysbennu diogelu), Make it relevant (Gwneud yn berthnasol), Questioning / Bloom's (Holi), Wellbeing check-in (Cofnod lles) and Cymraeg bob dydd.

Where to find it: On the grid, the buttons marked 🪜, 🧩, 🌐, 🔤, 🧠, 🖋, 👪, 🔎, ⚖️, 🛟, 🎯, ❓, 💚 and 🐉.

How to use it:

1. First turn AI on in Settings. If it is off, each of these tools shows an "AI is off" note and the sparkle (✨) button stays greyed out.
2. Differentiation helper (🪜): type a task and click generate; it writes one must, should and could criterion. You can edit each and Print.
3. Differentiate a resource (🧩): paste a resource, choose tiered, reading-age, EAL or accessible, set the age or language if asked, then generate.
4. Translate (🌐): paste text, choose one of ten languages, and generate a parent-friendly translation. Copy it with the clipboard button.
5. Tier 2/3 vocabulary (🔤): type a topic; it lists general academic (tier 2) and subject (tier 3) words with pupil-friendly meanings. Copy or print.
6. Mind map (🧠): type a topic; it draws a radial map. Drag nodes to rearrange, click one and edit the label to rename, go fullscreen, and export as SVG or PNG or print.
7. AI writer (🖋): choose a mode (lesson observation, UCAS reference, examiner-report summary or IEP), paste your rough notes, and generate a professional write-up. For IEP work, anonymise names first.
8. Group maker (👪): pick a class and a column of marks, choose mixed, similar or random and a group size, then click make. It uses the marks the app already holds, shows group averages, and (with AI) can explain the grouping. Print the groups.
9. Misconception finder (🔎): paste pupil answers, one per line; it clusters the common error patterns and suggests a reteach idea for each.
10. Marking moderator (⚖️): paste responses with their marks as "mark | response", one per line; it flags any marks that look inconsistent for you to review.
11. Safeguarding triage (🛟): paste pupil writing; it calmly flags possible wellbeing concerns and always ends by reminding you this is a prompt only, never a decision. Follow your school's procedures.
12. Make it relevant (🎯): type a pupil interest and paste the material; it rewrites the examples around that interest while keeping the concepts and difficulty.
13. Questioning / Bloom's (❓): type a topic; it writes higher-order question stems across the Bloom levels.
14. Wellbeing check-in (💚): tap one of the five mood faces to log how the class feels; a trend row of recent moods builds up. The reset arrow clears it.
15. Cymraeg bob dydd (🐉): optionally type a theme, then generate a daily Welsh card (idiom, word, useful phrase and a Welsh fact), written in Welsh with a short English gloss. Copy or print it for form time.

Good to know: These tools never send pupils' real names anywhere; where a class is involved, names are handled for you. All of them keep a copy button so you can paste the result into your planning.

Marking and integrity aids

What it does: Two checking tools: Mark from Photo (Mark from Photo), which reads a photo of handwritten work and drafts feedback, and Similarity check (Gwirio tebygrwydd), an offline collusion check that needs no AI.

Where to find it: On the grid, the buttons marked 📸 (Mark from Photo) and 🔍 (Similarity check).

How to use it:

1. Mark from Photo: click 📸 (needs AI on). Upload a photo of a pupil's handwritten work, optionally paste a mark scheme, then click the mark button. It transcribes the writing and gives formative feedback for you to review and finalise.
2. Similarity check: click 🔍. Paste each pupil's text into its own box, adding rows as needed, then click run. It compares every pair offline and shows a similarity percentage, colour-coded, so you can spot possible copying. No AI and no internet are used.

The four big tools with their own workspace

What it does: Four larger buttons open a full workspace instead of a small pop-up: the Resource Engine (Peiriant Adnoddau), Ask my sources (Gofyn i'm ffynonellau), Revision pack + podcast (Pecyn adolygu + podlediad) and Mathematics (Mathemateg).

Where to find it: On the grid, the buttons marked 🧰 (Resource Engine), 📚 (Ask my sources), 🎧 (Revision pack + podcast) and 🧮 (Mathematics).

How to use it:

1. Resource Engine (🧰): builds worksheets from a lesson, a topic or text you paste. Choose your source, set the focus, reading level and language, then generate. You can make a matched set (starter plus worksheet plus exit ticket) in one go, regenerate any section, and save it to the lesson (and, with Google set up, post it to Classroom as a form or assignment).
2. Ask my sources (📚): your offline notebooks. Add your own sources (PDFs, Word, PowerPoint, audio, web or YouTube links), tick which to use, then chat with grounded answers that cite the exact passage. A Studio panel turns your sources into study guides, quizzes, flashcards, a two-host podcast and more.
3. Revision pack + podcast (🎧): type a topic and generate a compact revision pack (study guide, FAQ, timeline and key terms). With voices installed you can also produce a fully offline two-voice podcast, download it as an MP3 and attach it to the lesson.
4. Mathematics (🧮): opens a card-grid menu of 16 maths starter tools. This has its own chapter next.

Good to know: These four keep working whether or not AI is on: the maths tools and much of the resource and notebook features run offline, and the AI-written parts simply stay quiet until you enable AI in Settings.

8. Mathematics (Mathemateg)

The Mathematics tool is one of the four big buttons in the Classroom Toolkit, and it opens a card-grid menu of 16 maths starter tools sorted into four groups. Every tool is bilingual, printable and fully offline: the questions are made on your computer with exact answers drawn from a large topic bank (number, fractions, percentages, ratio, algebra, indices, standard form, sequences, Pythagoras, trigonometry, statistics and more), and they re-word themselves when you switch the app between Welsh and English.

Opening Mathematics and finding a tool

What it does: Shows the card-grid menu, four labelled sections each holding a set of maths tools.

Where to find it: Open the Toolkit (left sidebar, Plan, then Toolkit), then click the Mathematics (Mathemateg) button, marked 🧮.

How to use it:

1. Click 🧮 Mathematics on the Toolkit grid.
2. A full workspace opens showing four groups: Starters (Cychwynwyr), Number (Rhif), Cards (Cardiau) and Reference (Cyfeirio).
3. Click any card to open that tool full width.
4. To go back to the menu, click Back (Yn ôl) in the top left. To leave Mathematics, click Close in the top right.

Good to know: Most tools carry the same handful of buttons: a New questions / New set / New sheet button to reroll, a Show answers / Hide answers toggle, a Print button, and often a fullscreen option for the board. Switching the whole app to Welsh re-words the questions into Welsh automatically.

Question starters

What it does: Five ways to open a lesson: Retrieval Starter (Cychwynnwr adalw), Quick Questions (Cwestiynau cyflym), Starter Generator (Cynhyrchydd cychwynnwr), Topic Test Starter (Cychwynnwr prawf pwnc) and Fluent Calculations (Cyfrifo rhugl).

Where to find it: In the Starters group at the top of the Mathematics menu, the cards marked 🔄, ⚡, 📝, 🎯 and 🧠.

How to use it:

1. Retrieval Starter (🔄): a four-panel board headed Last lesson, Last week, Last month and Last year. In each panel choose a topic from the dropdown (or leave it on Random), set a difficulty from 1 to 10, and type a keyword to jump to a topic. Click New questions to roll a fresh, worked question in every panel. Reveal answers per tile or all at once, and print.
2. Quick Questions (⚡): a timed set of quick-fire questions to open the lesson. Start the timer and work through them, then reveal the answers.
3. Starter Generator (📝): a timed four-box starter sheet. Click for a new sheet, show the answers when ready, and print for pupils.
4. Topic Test Starter (🎯): a six-strand grid that samples one question from each main GCSE strand (number, algebra, ratio, geometry, statistics, probability). Reroll for a new selection and print.
5. Fluent Calculations (🧠): fluency practice across the four operations (add, subtract, multiply, divide). Generate a set, work through it and reveal the answers.

Good to know: These tools never repeat within a set, so every "New questions" gives you genuinely fresh, computable questions with exact answers.

Number and grids

What it does: Five number tools: Number of the Day (Rhif y dydd), Number Square (Sgwâr rhif), Multiplication Grids (Gridiau lluosi), Magic Multiplication Squares (Sgwariau lluosi hud) and Maths Drills (Driliau mathemateg).

Where to find it: In the Number group of the Mathematics menu, the cards marked 🔢, 🔳, ✖️, 🟰 and ⏱️.

How to use it:

1. Number of the Day (🔢): shows one number to unpick with tasks such as factors, rounding, place value, doubling, halving and "is it prime?". Type your own number in the box and click Use, or click New number for a random one.
2. Number Square (🔳): an interactive hundred square. Click cells to shade or clear them, highlight multiples of a chosen number, set the starting number, or hide the numbers for a blank grid.
3. Multiplication Grids (✖️): blank or filled times-tables grids. Toggle blanks on for pupils to complete, shuffle the headers, then print or display.
4. Magic Multiplication Squares (🟰): self-checking puzzles where every row and column must multiply to its target. Fill the blanks, then reveal or hide the solution, and click New puzzle for another.
5. Maths Drills (⏱️): timed arithmetic drills. Choose the operations, the number range and how many rows, then run the drill for quick fluency practice.

Cards, matching and words

What it does: Four active tasks: Loop Cards (Cardiau dolen), Matching Pairs (Parau cyfatebol), Keyword Starter (Cychwynnwr geiriau allweddol) and Worded Expressions (Mynegiadau geiriol).

Where to find it: In the Cards group of the Mathematics menu, the cards marked 🔗, 🃏, 🔑 and 🔤.

How to use it:

1. Loop Cards (🔗): "I have... who has..." chains. Choose a card type (for example times tables, doubling and halving, or percentage of an amount), generate the set, then print and cut out the cards to share around the class; the loop returns to the first card.
2. Matching Pairs (🃏): pair each numbered prompt with its lettered partner. Choose a pair type (such as calculation and answer, fraction and decimal, or percentage and fraction), shuffle, then reveal or hide the pairing.
3. Keyword Starter (🔑): recall on a topic's key terms. Pick a strand (or all strands) and how many keywords, then show the words on their own or with definitions, and print either version.
4. Worded Expressions (🔤): turn worded phrases into algebraic expressions and back. Set the maximum number of variables and whether to use mixed letters, generate the set, then match each phrase to its expression and reveal.

Good to know: Loop Cards and Matching Pairs are designed to be printed and cut out, so use the print button and hand them round; the others work equally well on the board or on paper.

Reference

What it does: Two reference tools: the Formulae sheet (Taflen fformiwlâu), a quick bilingual GCSE formulae list, and the Exam countdown (Cyfrif i lawr arholiad), which counts the days to the next paper.

Where to find it: In the Reference group at the bottom of the Mathematics menu, the cards marked 📐 (Formulae sheet) and ⏳ (Exam countdown).

How to use it:

1. Formulae sheet (📐): shows the common GCSE formulae (area, volume, Pythagoras, trigonometry, the quadratic formula, speed-distance-time, the nth term and percentage change) as a table to display or print. When the app is in Welsh, the labels and the wording inside the formulae appear in Welsh, so for example the trigonometry ratios use the Welsh side initials.
2. Exam countdown (⏳): add each exam by typing its name and date and clicking Add. The board then shows a days-remaining countdown to the next paper. If no exams are added yet, it simply says so; add one to start the countdown.

Good to know: The formulae sheet needs no setup and is handy to throw on the board mid-lesson, while the exam countdown is worth setting up once near exam season so every class sees the days ticking down.

9. Pastoral, behaviour and rewards

This chapter covers the people side of your classes: who your pupils are, where they sit, how you reward and manage behaviour, and how you keep track of support, wellbeing, attendance and the conversations you have with parents. Most of these screens live under the Classes and Insights groups in the left sidebar, and several of them need you to pick a class first.

Students (class roster)

What it does: Shows every pupil in the class as a tidy grid of cards, so you can see the whole roster at a glance and open any pupil's full profile.

Where to find it: In the left sidebar under Classes, click Students. This is a class-scoped screen, so if nothing shows, choose a class first (open a class from the Overview or the class selector at the top).

How to use it:

1. Click Students in the sidebar.
2. You will see one card per pupil, each with their initials in a coloured circle and their name.
3. Click any card to open that pupil's profile (see the next section).
4. To pull the roster out of the app, click Export notes in the top bar. This saves a CSV file (name, ID, group, pronouns, ALN, notes) that opens in Excel.

Good to know: The number next to the class name in the top bar is your headcount for that class.

Pupil profile

What it does: A single full-screen page for one pupil, gathering their attainment, attendance, feedback history, behaviour, contacts and ALN notes in one place.

Where to find it: Click any pupil card on the Students screen.

How to use it:

1. Open a pupil card. The left panel shows their photo initials, three quick tiles (attendance percentage, average mark, and a predicted grade), plus any identifier, date of birth, form and effort stars.
2. Use the tabs across the top to move between sections: Overview, Grades, Attendance, Timeline, Notes, Contacts, Behaviour and ALN.

• Grades lists each assessment with a coloured bar and percentage.
• Attendance shows a small coloured heat strip of recent marks.
• Timeline lists every piece of feedback you have given, newest first, with a tick if it went to Google Classroom.
• Notes lets you set a preferred name, pronouns and groups, write free notes, and tick Withdrawn if the pupil has left. Click Save when done.
• Behaviour shows a running points total; type a note and use +1 or the minus 1 button to log a point.
• ALN has a tickbox to flag the pupil and a box for provision notes. Click Save.

1. To record feedback for the pupil, click Adborth (Feedback) at the top or in the left panel.
2. To email home, click the envelope Email parent button (only shows when an email is on file).
3. In Contacts you can pick a quick message template (praise, concern or general), edit it, and send, and you can book a calendar appointment by choosing a date and clicking Add to calendar.
4. Click ‹ Close or the ✕ to return to the roster.

Good to know: The predicted grade and average are worked out from the marks already in the gradebook, so they fill in as you mark.

Seating plans

What it does: Lets you build a visual seating chart for the class, keep several plans side by side (for example a normal plan, an alternative and an exam plan), and use the chart as a quick tool for grading, rewarding and learning names.

Where to find it: In the left sidebar under Classes, click Seating Plans. Pick a class first if prompted.

How to use it:

1. Open Seating Plans. You will see a grid of desks and a side list of Unseated pupils.
2. To seat a pupil, either drag their name from the side list onto a desk, or click the pupil then click an empty desk. Click a seated pupil to lift them back out.
3. Choose a room shape: click Layouts and pick Rhesi (Rows), Pods, Horseshoe (Pedol) or Pairs.
4. To build your own shape, click Edit tables (Golygu byrddau), then click grid cells to add or remove desks, or drag a desk to a new spot. Click Done when finished.
5. Use the plus/minus col and plus/minus row buttons to resize the grid, and the zoom buttons to fit it on screen.
6. Click Print to print the current plan, or Print all to print every plan for the class at once.

Good to know: You can drop a room photo or floor plan behind the desks with the Background button, and clear it again with Clear background.

Multiple plans (A, B and Exam)

What it does: Keeps separate seating arrangements for the same class so you do not lose your normal plan when you set up an exam or a cover layout.

Where to find it: The row of plan tabs just under the Seating top bar.

How to use it:

1. Click a plan tab (for example Plan A, Plan B or Arholiad (Exam)) to switch to it. Each plan remembers its own desks and its own seating.
2. Click the plus tab to add a new plan (up to eight).
3. Double-click a plan tab to rename it; click the ✕ on a tab to delete it (you are asked to confirm).
4. To reuse an existing arrangement, use the Copy from dropdown to copy another plan's desks and seating into the one you are on.

AI seating optimiser

What it does: Fills the desks for you automatically, arranging pupils by attainment or by pupil flags rather than you placing each one by hand.

Where to find it: The Optimise (Trefnu) dropdown in the Seating top bar.

How to use it:

1. Set up your desks first (choose a layout or draw your own).
2. Open the Optimise dropdown.
3. Under By ability, pick Pairs (strong with developing), Spread or Banded.
4. Under By flag, pick Support (ALN toward the front), Spread MAT (spread your more able pupils) or Spread PP.
5. The pupils drop into the desks in reading order to match your choice. You can still drag anyone afterwards.

Good to know: This runs entirely on your machine using marks and flags the app already holds. No pupil data leaves the device.

Photo flashcards to learn names

What it does: Turns the plan into a name-learning aid by showing each pupil's full name (and form and ID) on their desk, handy for a new class or a cover teacher.

Where to find it: The Badge mode (🪪) button in the Seating top bar.

How to use it:

1. Seat your class.
2. Click Badge mode. Each occupied desk now shows the pupil's full name in a small card instead of just their first name.
3. Click Badge mode again to switch back.

Reward straight from a seat

What it does: Lets you give a behaviour point to a pupil by clicking their seat, without leaving the seating plan.

Where to find it: The Praise mode (⭐) button in the Seating top bar.

How to use it:

1. Click Praise mode.
2. Click any seated pupil. A +1 ⭐ flashes on their desk and an effort point is logged for them.
3. Click Praise mode again to turn it off.

Good to know: Right next to it is Grade mode (✎). Turn it on, pick an assessment column, then click a pupil to type a mark straight into the gradebook from their seat.

Pupil-flag desk badges (ALN, PP, EAL, MAT)

What it does: Shows small letter-coded badges on each desk so you can see at a glance which pupils have Additional Learning Needs (ALN), are Pupil Premium (PP), have English as an Additional Language (EAL), or are More Able and Talented (MAT).

Where to find it: The Flags (🏷) button and its cog in the Seating top bar.

How to use it:

1. Click Flags to switch the badges on. Each flagged pupil gets a coloured letter badge on their desk (a letter code, never colour alone), and a legend prints alongside the plan.
2. Click the cog next to it to open the filter, then tick or untick ALN, PP, EAL or MAT to show only the flags you want.
3. The MAT flag is worked out from attainment, so it updates as marks change. ALN, PP and EAL come from the pupil record.

Good to know: The flag-aware options in the Optimise dropdown (Support, Spread MAT, Spread PP) put these badges to work: ALN toward the front, MAT and PP spread across the room. Badges only appear when you choose to show them, and the data stays on your machine.

Rewards and behaviour

What it does: Your points, gamification and behaviour-management hub: log positive and negative behaviour, and turn it into XP, levels, avatars, houses, quests and leaderboards.

Where to find it: In the left sidebar under Classes, click Rewards. Pick your class from the dropdown at the top.

How to use it:

1. Choose the class in the dropdown.
2. In the Award bar, click the reason you want to give: the built-in positives are Effort (💪 +1), Work (⭐ +2), Help (🤝 +1) and Participation (🙋 +1); the negatives are Off-task (😴 minus 1) and Disruption (⚡ minus 2).
3. With a reason selected, click a pupil tile below to award it. The points flash on their tile, and their level (L1, L2 and so on) updates.
4. Watch the panels at the bottom fill in:

• Leaderboard ranks pupils by XP with medals for the top three and a progress bar to the next level.
• Houses totals points by house (set houses in Setup).
• Quests are class targets: type a title and a target number, click Add, then nudge progress up or down with the arrows.

Good to know: These points also feed the seating Praise mode, the pupil profile behaviour tab and the pastoral early-warning screen.

Behaviour tally categories

What it does: Lets you rename and reshape the reward reasons so they match your school's own behaviour policy, rather than being stuck with the defaults.

Where to find it: The Manage (🛠) button at the top of the Rewards screen.

How to use it:

1. Click Manage.
2. Edit any of your saved reasons (emoji, label, points), or add a new one by typing an emoji, a label and a points value, then Add.
3. Use Export awards and Import awards to share your set with a colleague.
4. At the bottom, Reset points and Reset quests clear the class's tallies (you are asked to confirm first).

Reward store and voucher redemptions

What it does: Lets pupils spend the points they have earned on rewards you set, and keeps an auditable list of what has been redeemed and whether it has been handed out.

Where to find it: The Store (🎁) button at the top of the Rewards screen.

How to use it:

1. Click Store.
2. Add a reward: type an emoji, a label (for example "5 minutes' extra break") and a cost in points, then Add.
3. In the pupil table, each pupil shows their Available points. Click a reward's emoji next to a pupil to redeem it (the button is greyed out if they cannot afford it).
4. Under Outstanding, each redeemed voucher waits until you hand it over. Click Mark used when the pupil has claimed it, or the undo arrow to cancel.
5. Redeemed-and-used vouchers move into the History list.

Detentions

What it does: Records detentions with a reason, length, date, status and notes, giving you an auditable log rather than an automatic sanction.

Where to find it: The Detentions (⏰) button at the top of the Rewards screen.

How to use it:

1. Click Detentions.
2. Use the Add detention dropdown to pick a pupil.
3. Fill in the row: date, minutes, reason, status (set, served, missed or cancelled) and any notes. Changes save as you type.
4. A small flag shows next to any pupil marked ALN, as a prompt to be SEND-aware.

Good to know: Nothing here is automated; you record every detail yourself, so the log stands as evidence.

Houses and avatars (Setup)

What it does: Assigns each pupil to a house and gives them an avatar, which then power the houses leaderboard and the pupil tiles.

Where to find it: The Setup (⚙) button at the top of the Rewards screen.

How to use it:

1. Click Setup.
2. For each pupil, type a house name and click an avatar from the row of emoji.
3. Close Setup; the houses panel and the pupil tiles now reflect your choices.

Support hub (SEND and ALN)

What it does: Your one place for additional learning needs work: recording provision and access arrangements, tracking interventions and tutorials, and printing a pupil passport.

Where to find it: In the left sidebar under Classes, click Pupil Support. Pick a class from the dropdown, then use the tabs across the top.

How to use it:

1. Open Pupil Support and choose the class.
2. On the SEND (🧩) tab, tick the ALN/SEN box for any pupil, then type their Provision and Access arrangements straight into the row. Entries save when you click away.
3. On the Interventions (🎯) tab, pick a pupil, choose a type (literacy, numeracy, behaviour, attendance, wellbeing, SEN, ALN or other), describe the action, set a review date and click Add. Tick an intervention off when it is done, and record its impact in the last column.
4. On the Tutorials (💬) tab, pick a pupil, type your notes and click Add to keep a dated log of one-to-one conversations.

Pupil passport print

What it does: Produces a one-page profile of a pupil (working-at grade, target, ALN status, provision, access arrangements, strategies and interventions) that you can print or share with staff who teach them.

Where to find it: The Passport (🪪) tab on the Pupil Support screen.

How to use it:

1. Open the Passport tab.
2. Pick a pupil from the dropdown. A preview card appears.
3. Click Print passport to send it to your printer or save it as a PDF.

Welsh IDP drafter (Cynllun Datblygu Unigol)

What it does: Drafts a statutory Individual Development Plan (Cynllun Datblygu Unigol) for a pupil from the ALN data you already hold, ready for you to edit, and prints it bilingually in Welsh and English.

Where to find it: The CDU / IDP (📋) tab on the Pupil Support screen.

How to use it:

1. Open the IDP tab and pick a pupil.
2. Choose the language for the draft: Cymraeg or English.
3. Click Draft (Drafftio). The app fills the sections (learner view, strengths, needs, provision, outcomes, how to support) from the pupil's held data.
4. Edit any field directly. Add outcomes with Add outcome, each with its own success criteria and target date.
5. If you have AI switched on, click the AI draft button to have the prose sections written for you (pupil names are shielded first), or Enrich one-page profile to fill in the "what matters to me" voice lines. Every field stays editable afterwards.
6. Click Print for the bilingual document, and Save to store the plan. Saved plans appear in the Prior plans list, where you can reopen or delete them.

Good to know: Nothing here leaves your machine unless you deliberately use the AI buttons, and even then pupil names are replaced with a placeholder first.

Pastoral early-warning

What it does: A watch-list that reads the attendance, behaviour, wellbeing and attainment data you already hold and flags pupils who may be at risk, sorted most-at-risk first, with the exact reasons shown.

Where to find it: The Watch (🚨) tab on the Pupil Support screen.

How to use it:

1. Open the Watch tab. The counts at the top show how many pupils are high, medium and low risk.
2. Flagged pupils appear in a table with a red/amber/green level, chips showing each concern (for example attendance, behaviour, wellbeing or attainment), and PP/ALN/EAL badges.
3. Click a pupil row to expand it. You will see their attendance heat strip and percentage, behaviour net and detentions, a wellbeing mood trend, and their working-at grade against their target.
4. If AI is switched on, click Suggest actions for a short list of practical pastoral steps (built from the flagged factors only, never raw data). Edit the suggestions in the box.
5. Click Print to take the watch-list into a meeting.

Good to know: Every flag is explainable: hover a chip to see exactly why it fired (for example "attendance 83%", "two recent sanctions", "below target").

Attendance intervention workflow

What it does: Flags persistent absence by the standard bands, helps you write a first-response letter grounded in the pupil's real figures, and logs attendance meetings.

Where to find it: Open Attendance from the sidebar (under Classes), then click the Intervention tab in the top bar.

How to use it:

1. Open Attendance for the class and switch to the Intervention tab.
2. The watch-list shows pupils worst-first, banded as watch (below 95%), persistent absence (below 90%) or severe (below 85%), with a high unauthorised share pushing the stage up.
3. Click a pupil to drill in: you see their attendance heat strip and a breakdown of present, authorised and unauthorised marks.
4. Under the letter section, type the guardian's name and your name, choose the letter language, and click Generate letter. The draft is built from the pupil's actual figures.
5. Edit the letter, then, if AI is on, translate it Welsh to English or back. Click Print letter, or Send via Comms to pass it to the messaging screen.
6. Under the meeting section, record a date, attendees, concerns, agreed actions and a review date, then Log meeting. Past meetings appear underneath and can be deleted.

Parents' evening pack and appointment notes (Noson Rieni)

What it does: Builds a one-page summary per pupil for a parents' evening, arranges an appointment order and time list, and lets you record what was discussed and agreed during the evening.

Where to find it: The Noson Rieni (👪) tab on the Pupil Support screen.

How to use it:

1. Open the Noson Rieni tab and (optionally) type your name in the Teacher box.
2. Under Appointments, set a start time and minutes per slot. The time list builds automatically. Use the up and down arrows to reorder pupils.
3. Each pupil row shows their working-at grade against target (with an on or below flag), attendance and a note dot if you have already written something.
4. Click a pupil to open their panel: you see their strengths, next steps and recent results, plus two boxes, Discussed (Trafodwyd) and Agreed (Cytunwyd). Type notes live during the appointment; they save when you click away or press Save note.
5. Click Print pack for all the one-page summaries, Print one for a single pupil to carry in, and Print notes afterwards to keep a record.

Good to know: Everything is assembled from data the gradebook already holds, and nothing here touches the network.

Wellbeing check-in

What it does: Lets you tap the class mood, building a simple trend over time that also feeds the pastoral early-warning screen.

Where to find it: In the Classroom Toolkit launcher, the Wellbeing check-in (💚) tool. The most recent class moods also appear as a row at the top of the pastoral Watch tab.

How to use it:

1. Open the Toolkit and choose Wellbeing check-in.
2. Tap the mood that fits the class right now (from happiest to saddest).
3. Over time a trend row of moods builds up. The last few show on the pastoral Watch tab as context, and per-pupil wellbeing feeds into the risk flags.

Attendance (register)

What it does: Your daily register: mark each pupil with a code, see class totals and a month calendar, and read each pupil's recent history at a glance.

Where to find it: In the left sidebar under Classes, click Attendance (with the Register tab selected). Pick a class first.

How to use it:

1. Open Attendance and stay on the Register tab.
2. Set the date at the top (or click a day on the month calendar) and choose the lesson or period.
3. For each pupil, click a code button to mark them. The default codes are P (present), A (absent), L (late), M (medical) and T (trip); click the same code again to clear it.
4. To fill the whole class in one go, click Mark all present (Pawb yn bresennol), then change the few who are not.
5. The count strip and the term totals (with an attendance rate) update as you mark.

Good to know: Each pupil row has a small history heat strip of their recent marks, coloured by code, so you can spot a pattern without opening their profile. Your school's own custom codes appear here too if they have been set up in Settings.

10. Progress, reporting and moderation

This chapter is about the bigger picture: seeing how classes and pupils are doing over time, turning that into reports for parents, and standing your grades up to scrutiny. These screens sit under the Insights group in the left sidebar. Some pull together data from across your classes, and the report tools work in Welsh or English.

Overview (RAG per class)

What it does: A dashboard of every class you teach, each shown as a card with a red/amber/green status, its average and an at-risk count, so you can see where to look first.

Where to find it: In the left sidebar under Insights, click Overview.

How to use it:

1. Open Overview. The tiles across the top total your classes, pupils, overall average and total at-risk count.
2. Each class card shows its average as a coloured pill and how many pupils are flagged at risk.
3. Click a card to open that class.
4. To tidy the dashboard, group classes into folders: on a card, use its move option to name a folder. Folders are collapsible, and any class without a folder stays in an always-visible ungrouped area, so nothing hides after an update.
5. Rename a folder with the pencil next to its heading.

Good to know: The averages and at-risk counts here are worked out from the marks already in each gradebook, so they refresh as you mark.

Progress and Gaps

What it does: A set of tabs that analyse a class's progress: gaps between pupil groups, value-added against targets, snapshots over time, pupil flags and baselines, flightpaths, and a cross-year view.

Where to find it: In the left sidebar under Insights, click Progress & Gaps. Choose your class in the dropdown, then use the tabs.

How to use it:

1. Open Progress & Gaps and pick the class.
2. On the Gap (📊) tab, see the average for each group (Pupil Premium, ALN, EAL and female) against everyone else, with the gap in points. If the groups are empty, the app points you to the Flags tab to set them.
3. On the Value-added (📈) tab, each pupil's working-at grade is compared with their target to give a value-added figure, plus a class average at the top. Green is at or above target, red is below.
4. On the Data drops (📸) tab, type a label and click Snapshot to freeze the current class averages. Each drop is dated and kept, so you can watch attainment move across the year. Delete a drop with its ✕.
5. On the Flags (🏷) tab, tick PP, EAL, set gender and type a baseline for each pupil. You can also click Import baselines to bring in a CAT4, NGRT, GL or KS2 CSV, which the app matches to your pupils by name.

Good to know: The at-risk flagging you see on the Overview and Analytics screens draws on this same data. The Flightpaths and Cross-year tabs are covered in their own sections below.

Baseline flightpaths (FFT / ALPS-style)

What it does: Turns imported baselines (CAT4, KS2 or GL) into a minimum expected grade (MEG) and an aspirational stretch grade, then an interim flightpath to the qualification, showing each pupil as on, near or below where they should be now.

Where to find it: The Flightpaths (🛫) tab on the Progress & Gaps screen.

How to use it:

1. Make sure pupils have a baseline (set them on the Flags tab or import a CSV).
2. On the Flightpaths tab, choose the qualification (GCSE or A-level), the baseline kind (CAT4, KS2 or GCSE mean points), the aspiration (expected or aspirational), the number of checkpoints and which checkpoint you are at now.
3. Click Generate. The table shows each pupil's baseline, MEG, aspirational grade, current working-at grade, the grade expected by now, and a RAG flightpath status.
4. If you want, click Write back to copy the MEG into each pupil's target grade (you are asked to confirm).

Good to know: The mapping table is a clearly-labelled GradeForge default, not the proprietary FFT or ALPS dataset. Click Edit table to view it, paste in your school's own MEG table, save it, or reset to the default.

Cross-year progress and transition packs

What it does: Draws a pupil's trajectory over time (baseline, each data drop, and current) against the expected line, and generates a handover pack for the next teacher or key stage.

Where to find it: The Cross-year (🧭) tab on the Progress & Gaps screen.

How to use it:

1. Open the Cross-year tab and pick a pupil.
2. You see three tiles (baseline, current, target), a plain-English trajectory line ("pulling ahead", "on track" or "slipping"), and a chart plotting each data point against the expected line.
3. Underneath, the pupil's strengths and areas to develop are pulled from their component marks.
4. To create a handover document, type a destination (the next class or key stage), choose the pack language (Cymraeg or English), then click Print pupil for one pupil or Print class for the whole class.

Good to know: The pack includes the journey, current attainment versus target, strengths and areas to develop, and any pastoral or ALN flags already held. It is read-only over data you already have.

Analytics

What it does: A single screen of class charts: an attainment histogram, a box plot, an at-risk list with reasons, and a behaviour leaderboard, plus rubric analytics.

Where to find it: In the left sidebar under Insights, click Analytics. Pick a class first if prompted.

How to use it:

1. Open Analytics. The stat tiles show pupil count, class average, how many are passing, how many are below, and how many are at risk.
2. The Distribution card shows a grade histogram (A* down to U) and, below it, a box plot with the minimum, lower quartile (Q1), median, upper quartile (Q3) and maximum.
3. The Rubric analytics section lets you pick a rubric column to see a per-criterion breakdown and level spread.
4. The At risk card lists flagged pupils with the reason for each flag (for example low attainment, attendance below 90%, or a poor behaviour total).
5. The Behaviour card is a leaderboard of behaviour points, highest first.

Reports

What it does: Builds print-ready class and pupil reports of several kinds (summary, progress letters, attendance, missing marks, curriculum coverage and CfW progression), in Welsh or English, and exports to CSV or Excel.

Where to find it: In the left sidebar under Insights, click Reports. Open a class first.

How to use it:

1. Open Reports. In the left panel, pick a report Type.
2. Fill in the date, school name, header text and signatory, and choose the report language (Cymraeg or English) independently of the app's own language.
3. For progress letters, write an opening line and build a reusable comment bank by saving lines you use often. Tick which sections to include (assessment, attendance, target, comment, CfW).
4. Click Generate to build the report in the preview pane.
5. Export with CSV or Excel, or click the print button to print or save as PDF.

Good to know: The CfW progression report type is described in its own section below.

Report Writer

What it does: Writes one comment per pupil from a single template with merge tokens, filled from live data (working grade, target, attendance), with reusable comment banks and optional AI polish. The output is paste-ready for systems like Arbor.

Where to find it: In the left sidebar under Insights, click Report Writer. Pick your class in the dropdown.

How to use it:

1. Open Report Writer and choose the class.
2. In the Template box, write your comment once, dropping in merge tokens by clicking them: {first}, {name}, {they}, {their}, {them}, {working}, {target} and {attendance}.
3. Click Generate. Each pupil gets a comment with their own name, grade, target and attendance filled in.
4. Edit any comment directly in its box.
5. To assemble from ready-made lines, click Bank to open the comment bank. Set a subject and year, pick a pupil, then click comment chips to append them. Click Manage to add, edit or delete comments, and use the up and down arrows and the import/export buttons to move banks between machines.
6. If AI is switched on, click Polish to rewrite a single comment, or Polish all for the whole class. Pupil names are shielded before anything leaves the device, and you review the result.
7. Click Print all to print or save the set.

Good to know: A bundled comment bank is loaded the first time you open the screen if you have none, so you are never staring at a blank slate.

CfW progression snapshot

What it does: A report that shows where a class sits on the Curriculum for Wales, LNF and DCF continuum (rolled up from your tagged lessons) and how the gradebook attainment maps onto it.

Where to find it: On the Reports screen, choose the CfW progression report type, then click Generate.

How to use it:

1. Open Reports and pick the CfW progression type.
2. Click Generate.
3. The snapshot shows the progression steps the class has been taught (with the main step marked), a per-statement heat strip for the statements of what matters, LNF and DCF framework bars, and an attainment picture with on, near and below-target counts and a band-by-band table.

Good to know: This is built from the CfW tags your lessons already carry, so the more you tag lessons, the fuller it is. If nothing is tagged, the report tells you.

CfW-progression report drafter

What it does: Inside Report Writer, drafts each parent comment around the pupil's attainment plus the CfW statements and descriptors the class has covered, in Welsh or English, with pupil names shielded.

Where to find it: The CfW (🧭) toggle in the Report Writer top bar.

How to use it:

1. In Report Writer, click the CfW toggle to switch on progression framing.
2. A panel shows how many lessons are tagged, how many statements of what matters are covered, and the main step. Choose the draft language (Cymraeg or English).
3. With AI switched on, click Draft all to write every comment, or use the small CfW draft button on an individual pupil row.
4. The drafts frame each pupil's progress through the covered continuum using only the attainment data held; review and edit before printing.

Good to know: Every claim is grounded in data the app already holds; the drafter is told not to invent marks or coverage.

Report proofreading pass (Welsh and English)

What it does: Checks your report comments before they go out, flagging repeated words, double spaces, missing capitals, leftover placeholders, over-long sentences, reading age, pronoun and name consistency, and any em or en dash, with one-click fixes. It works in Welsh or English.

Where to find it: The Run all (🔍) button in the Report Writer top bar, and the per-pupil Run button on each comment.

How to use it:

1. In Report Writer, click Run all to proofread every comment at once, or the Run button on a single pupil.
2. A batch summary shows the total issues, the reading-age spread, and a warning if two pupils' comments look copy-pasted. Set the check language with the Cymraeg / English buttons.
3. Under each comment, issues are listed with the offending snippet. Click Accept fix on a single issue, or Accept all safe to apply every safe fix at once (there is also an accept-all-safe for the whole class).
4. If AI is on, click the AI polish button on a comment for a tidied suggestion; it is only ever suggested, never applied automatically. Click Accept or Reject.

Good to know: All the core checks run locally and are pure text checks, so they work with the network off. The reading-age estimate is Welsh-syllable-aware when you check in Welsh.

Moderation and standardisation (IV evidence pack)

What it does: Logs sampled work with the original grade against the moderator's grade, the agreed grade and any drift notes, then prints an internal-verification (IV) evidence pack for the exam board. A second tab builds an anonymised, grade-banded exemplar pack for a standardisation meeting.

Where to find it: In the left sidebar under Insights, click Moderation (or open it from your qualifications area). Use the two tabs at the top.

How to use it:

1. Open Moderation and pick a class.
2. On the Log tab, click Add to start a row, then fill in the date, the sample, the marker, the original grade, the moderator's grade, the agreed grade and any drift notes. Changes save as you go.
3. Click Print for a tidy IV evidence pack you can file or send to the board.
4. Switch to the Portfolio tab to turn a set of graded pieces into an anonymised exemplar pack (a secure or mid example and the boundary piece for each grade band), ready to print for a moderation or standardisation meeting.

Good to know: The log is the audit trail (who marked what, and where grades moved); the portfolio is the teaching-facing exemplar set. Between them they cover both halves of a moderation meeting.

11. Vocational, FE and HE

This chapter is for anyone teaching BTEC, T-Level, HE modules or post-16 qualifications. It lives under the Assess group in the left sidebar and turns messy tracking (units, targets, evidence, careers) into a few tidy tables. You pick a class at the top of each screen, then work down the list.

Vocational tracker (units, ILPs and evidence)

What it does: Keeps three things for a vocational class in one place: unit and BTEC grades (with an automatic overall), Individual Learning Plans (ILPs) with a target, a review date and logged hours, and an evidence portfolio you can sign off. It also handles HE module and outcome grading, not just BTEC.

Where to find it: Left sidebar, Assess group, then Vocational. Along the top you will see a class picker and three tabs: Units, ILP and Evidence (the tabs carry small icons: a brick, a target and a paperclip).

How to use it:

1. Pick your class from the drop-down at the top left.
2. Stay on the Units tab. In the little form, type a unit name, choose its kind (BTEC unit, HE module, or outcome) and set the grade scale (the default is P,M,D,D*, which you can edit to whatever your spec uses).
3. Click Add unit. The unit becomes a column in the grid.
4. For each pupil, use the drop-down in that unit's column to set a grade. An Overall column works out the combined BTEC grade for you as you go.
5. To record a plan, click the ILP tab. Choose a pupil, type a target, set a Review date and enter the Hours logged, then click Add.
6. To record evidence, click the Evidence tab. Choose a pupil, give the evidence a title, optionally link it to a unit, then click the paperclip (Attach) to attach the file from your computer. Click Add.
7. When a piece of evidence has been checked, click Sign off on its row. It then shows a tick and reads Signed.

Good to know: To remove a unit, click the small cross at the top of its column. Attached evidence files open again later with the Open button on the row. Everything is stored on your own machine.

Qualifications tracker

What it does: A single hub for tracking post-16 and resit qualifications: T-Level, Functional Skills (English, Maths, Digital), GCSE resits, EPQ and Welsh Bacc / Bagloriaeth, and Careers / UCAS. Each type shows only the columns that make sense for it, so you are never filling in fields you do not need.

Where to find it: Left sidebar, Assess group, then Qualifications. The row of tabs across the top switches between the qualification types.

How to use it:

1. Choose your class from the drop-down at the top left.
2. Click the tab for the qualification you are tracking, for example T-Level or EPQ / Welsh Bacc.
3. In the Add row, pick a pupil from the drop-down and click Add record. A new row appears for that pupil.
4. Fill in the columns straight in the table. Some columns are drop-downs (grade, status, and so on) and some are free text or dates. For example, a Careers / UCAS record has University / Course, Predicted grade, a Status (Researching, Applied, Interview, Offer, Firm, Insurance, Rejected) and a Deadline.
5. Your typing saves as you go, so there is no separate save button.
6. To remove a record, click the cross at the end of its row.

Good to know: The same pupil can have several records in the same tab (for instance two GCSE resit subjects). Records sort by pupil name, then by deadline, so the next thing due floats towards the top.

Diagnostic-to-ILP drafting

What it does: Turns a pupil's assessment analysis into a ready-written ILP target. It looks at their overall percentage and their two weakest topics, then drafts a concrete, editable target line so you are not starting from a blank box.

Where to find it: Left sidebar, Insights group, on the QLA (question-level analysis) screen. Each pupil row has a small draft ILP button (a pencil icon) in the ILP column.

How to use it:

1. Open the QLA screen from Insights and pick the class and assessment.
2. Find the pupil in the lower pupil table. Their weakest topics show in the Weakest column.
3. Click the pencil (draft ILP) button on that pupil's row.
4. A box shows you the drafted target, for example a line naming their two weak topics and a percentage to aim for. Read it.
5. Click OK to save it, or Cancel to leave it. If you save, it is stored as that pupil's ILP target and will show up in the Vocational ILP tab, where you can edit it further.

Good to know: The draft is only ever a starting point. You always see it and approve it before anything is saved, and you can reword it in the ILP tab afterwards.

12. Communication

Everything in this chapter runs through your own Google account, not through any company server. That means email is sent from your Gmail, and announcements go to your own Google Classroom. You connect your account once (left sidebar, Google sign-in, or in Settings), and then these tools become available. The main hub lives under the Insights group as Email and Notify (Comms).

Gmail mail-merge to pupils and parents

What it does: Sends one personalised email per pupil from your own Gmail. You write the message once using merge tokens (like {first} and {working}), and each pupil receives their own version with their name and grades filled in.

Where to find it: Left sidebar, Insights group, Email and Notify. If you have not connected Google yet, this screen will simply ask you to connect first.

How to use it:

1. Pick the class from the drop-down at the top.
2. If email addresses are missing, click Sync emails to pull them in from your linked Classroom.
3. On the left, tick the pupils you want to write to (or use All / None). Pupils with no email are greyed out.
4. In the middle, either click a template button (Homework, Praise, Concern) or type your own Subject and message.
5. Drop in merge tokens with the token buttons under the message: {first} (first name), {name} (full name), {working} (current working grade) and {target}.
6. Click Preview (the eye) to see exactly what the first pupils will receive.
7. Click Send. You are asked to confirm the number of recipients before anything goes out. Each pupil gets a tick when their message has sent.

Good to know: Bulk parent email works the same way: the recipient list and merge tokens do the personalising, so a "message to all parents" is just a mail-merge with every pupil ticked. Where you hold a parent mobile number, the same recipient list is the basis for a text (SMS) message.

AI parent-message drafter, translation and bilingual send

What it does: Writes a warm parent message for you by intent and tone, can ground it in the selected pupil's data (with the name shielded), then translates it Welsh to English or English to Welsh, or stacks both languages for a bilingual send. You always edit and approve before sending.

Where to find it: On the same Email and Notify screen, just above the subject box. It only appears when AI is switched on in Settings (otherwise you will see a short note saying AI is off).

How to use it:

1. Choose an intent (praise, concern, reminder, absence or general) and a tone (warm, formal or brief).
2. Optionally type a short bit of context in the box, and tick use pupil to ground the draft in the first selected pupil's subject and working or target grade. The pupil's real name is never sent; the AI only ever sees a token.
3. Click Draft. The subject and message fill in for you, with {first} kept in place so it stays a per-pupil template.
4. To translate, click the globe button (it reads To Welsh or To English depending on direction; the small arrows swap the direction). A translation appears for you to review.
5. Click Replace to swap your message for the translation, or Send bilingual to stack Welsh first then English (separated by a divider), which is what Welsh-medium schools usually want when a family's preferred language is unknown.
6. Edit anything you like, then send as normal.

Good to know: Nothing sends automatically. The draft and the translation are always shown to you first, and pupil names are shielded throughout.

Google Classroom announcements and homework

What it does: Posts an announcement straight to the linked Google Classroom for a class, so you can reach pupils where they already are.

Where to find it: At the foot of the Email and Notify compose area, in the Announcement box. It only shows when the class is linked to a Classroom course.

How to use it:

1. Make sure the class is linked to a Classroom course (the announcement box only appears if it is).
2. Type your announcement in the box.
3. Click Post announcement. You get a confirmation when it has posted.

Good to know: Homework reminders start from the homework list. Open a homework item, and use Remind missing to hand a ready-written reminder (naming the homework) straight into this Email and Notify composer, already addressed to just the pupils who have not handed in. You then review and send it before the deadline.

Push grades back to Classroom

What it does: Sends a gradebook column's marks back to a Google Classroom assignment as grades, matching each pupil to their Classroom submission automatically.

Where to find it: From a class's gradebook, the Push grades action (an up-arrow, titled Push to Classroom). It opens a small window.

How to use it:

1. Open the Push grades window.
2. Choose which gradebook column holds the marks you want to send.
3. Choose the Classroom assignment to send them to.
4. Leave Return grades ticked if you want pupils to see the grade straight away.
5. Check the count of grades that will be pushed, then click Push.

Good to know: Only pupils whose accounts are linked to Classroom can receive grades. If none are linked, the window tells you so. Blank cells are skipped.

Read-only share via a Drive link

What it does: Uploads a plan to your Google Drive with school-domain read access and gives you a link to share, so cover staff or SLT can view it without being able to change it.

Where to find it: In the Plan group, on the Planner, the Share button (a cloud icon) next to the print buttons.

How to use it:

1. Open the Planner and get to the day or week you want to share.
2. Click Share (the cloud icon).
3. Wait a moment while it uploads to Drive; a view-only link is created for you to pass on.

Good to know: The link is read-only, so whoever you send it to can see the plan but not edit it.

Google Calendar sync

What it does: Pulls your personal and school Google Calendars into GradeForge so events show alongside your timetable and planner.

Where to find it: Settings, Integrations group, Google, in the Calendar card.

How to use it:

1. Connect your Google account first if you have not already.
2. In the Calendar card, paste your personal calendar link and your school calendar link into the two boxes.
3. Click Sync now. GradeForge pulls the events in.

Good to know: The sync button only works once Google is connected. Syncing reads your calendars; it does not change them.

13. Presenter mode and display

Presenter mode turns a second screen (a classroom board or projector) into a clean, full-screen display that you drive from your laptop. It works entirely offline, so no internet is needed. Your laptop keeps the controls; the board only ever shows what you push to it.

Two-device presenter mode

What it does: Opens a full-screen board on your second display and lets you push a message or learning objective, a countdown timer, an agenda, or a blank holding screen to it from a small control panel.

Where to find it: The projector icon in the top bar of the app opens the Presenter control panel.

How to use it:

1. Plug in or connect your second display first (extend, do not mirror, so the board and your controls are separate).
2. Click the projector icon in the top bar.
3. In the panel, click Open board. The board window appears full-screen on the second display.
4. To show text, type into the Message box and click Show message. Good for a learning objective or an instruction.
5. To run a timer, set the number of minutes and click Start timer. The board shows a big countdown that turns colour as it runs down and reaches zero.
6. To show a list, type each line of your Agenda on its own line and click Show agenda. The board shows them as a numbered list.
7. Click Blank to clear the board to a plain holding screen at any point.
8. When you are done, click Close board.

Good to know: Pupils only ever see the board, never your controls or your other windows. The countdown shows large tabular numbers so it is readable from the back of the room.

14. Accessibility and inclusion

GradeForge is built to meet WCAG 2.2 AA and to help pupils who need larger text, calmer colours, dyslexia-friendly fonts or audio. Some options are app-wide (in Settings); others sit on a small reading toolbar that appears above resources, passages and notes so you can adjust what a pupil sees or prints there and then.

App-wide accessibility options

What it does: Sets the look and feel of the whole app, including a dark or light theme, a high-contrast mode, and a larger base text size. The whole app is keyboard-navigable, including a keyboard-grid markbook, with reduced-motion and screen-reader support built in.

Where to find it: Settings, Appearance group, Theme.

How to use it:

1. Open Settings and choose Theme under Appearance.
2. Pick Light or Dark for the theme.
3. Tick High contrast for stronger colour separation.
4. Choose a base Text size: Small, Default or Large.
5. Optionally tick Compact rows if you prefer denser tables, or leave it off for more spacing.

Good to know: These settings apply everywhere in the app at once, so a change here follows you from screen to screen.

The reading toolbar (fonts, size, spacing, overlays, read-aloud)

What it does: A small toolbar that sits above a resource or passage and lets you adjust it for a reader: read it aloud, switch to a clear or OpenDyslexic font, scale the text up or down (from 85% to 160%), add generous spacing, and lay an Irlen-style colour overlay over the text.

Where to find it: Above resources, passages and notes that support it, shown as a row of controls (the accessibility bar).

How to use it:

1. Click Read aloud (the speech icon) to hear the text read out. It uses a Welsh voice where one is available. Click it again to stop.
2. Use the Font drop-down to choose Default, Clear, or OpenDyslexic.
3. Use A- and A+ to make the text smaller or larger.
4. Tick Spacing for wider letter and line spacing.
5. Use the Overlay drop-down to tint the page (cream, blue, yellow, rose or green) for pupils who find white backgrounds hard to read on.

Good to know: These changes affect how the resource displays and prints, so you can print a version already set up for a particular pupil.

Audio version of any resource

What it does: Turns a worksheet, resource, passage or note into a read-aloud MP3 with one click, fully on your device. English material uses the bundled offline Kokoro voices (a choice of British and American English voices); Welsh material uses the bundled offline Welsh voice (Piper cy_GB bu_tts, techiaith / Prifysgol Bangor). It reads sections in order (multiple-choice options are lettered, vocabulary is read as word plus meaning), downloads the file and plays it inline.

Where to find it: On the reading toolbar, next to Read aloud, as the audio (speaker) button with a voice picker.

How to use it:

1. Choose a voice from the drop-down next to the audio button. For Welsh-medium work, pick the Welsh voice (it is selected for you by default when the app is in Welsh).
2. Click the audio button. It builds the MP3 on your machine (you will see progress).
3. The file downloads automatically, and an inline player appears so you can press play.
4. On a lesson, if Google is connected, the audio can also attach to the lesson as a resource.

Good to know: This works with the network switched off, because the voices are bundled and run on your device. Welsh text is always read in the Welsh voice, never in an English one. If the offline voice model is not installed, the button shows a short note instead.

Per-pupil accessibility profiles

What it does: Lets you hold accessibility needs against a pupil so the right adjustments (font, size, overlay and so on) can be applied to anything you print or display for them.

Where to find it: On the pupil's record, alongside their other details, and applied through the reading toolbar when you prepare a resource.

How to use it:

1. Record a pupil's access needs on their profile (for example a coloured overlay, larger text, or exam access arrangements such as extra time or a reader).
2. When you print or display a resource, use the reading toolbar to apply those adjustments for that pupil.

Good to know: Because the adjustments live on the resource view, the same worksheet can be printed one way for the class and another way for a pupil who needs it.

15. Bilingual (Cymraeg / English)

GradeForge is fully bilingual. The whole interface can run in Welsh (Cymraeg) or English, and you can switch at any time. Welsh is treated as a first-class language, not a translation afterthought: Curriculum for Wales is native, and there are Welsh-specific tools for terminology, proofreading and literacy.

Full Welsh / English interface toggle

What it does: Switches the entire app between Welsh (Cymraeg) and English, mid-session, without losing your place.

Where to find it: The Language (Iaith) button near the bottom of the left sidebar.

How to use it:

1. Click the Language button in the left sidebar.
2. The app switches between Welsh and English straight away. Click again to switch back.

Good to know: Your choice is remembered next time you open the app. When the app is in Welsh, Welsh month and day names appear app-wide (on Today, Notes, Calendar, Planner, Timetable, Attendance, Homework, certificates and prints); the English side is unchanged. Curriculum for Wales, Welsh topic labels, Welsh maths topics, Welsh handwriting fonts (with to-bach: â ê î ô û ŵ ŷ), the Welsh podcast voice and Welsh read-aloud, a Cymraeg bob dydd (daily Welsh) card, and Bagloriaeth Cymru tracking are all part of the Welsh experience. Bagloriaeth is tracked in the Qualifications tracker (the EPQ / Welsh Bacc tab) and reinforced in Form Time.

Geirfa Termau (bilingual terminology bank)

What it does: Builds a per-subject bank of technical terms, each with the Welsh and English term plus a short definition in each language, in the style of the CMPT Geirfa Termau Technegol. You can then reuse the bank as flashcards, send it to the glossary tool, or print a bilingual word mat.

Where to find it: Open the Toolkit (the toolbox), then choose Geirfa Termau (the book icon). You can also reach it with the command palette (Ctrl or Cmd + K) and searching for it.

How to use it:

1. Pick or type a subject at the top (your saved banks appear in the list).
2. To add one term, fill in the Welsh word, the English word, and optionally a definition in each language and an example, then click Add.
3. To add many at once, paste a list into the Import box and click the import button, or type a topic into the AI generate box and let it draft a term list (AI must be switched on).
4. To reuse a bank, choose a direction (Welsh to English, English to Welsh, or term to definition), then click Make flashcards, To glossary, or Word mat to print a bilingual mat.

Good to know: You can edit or delete any term straight in the table. Banks are saved and synced, and no pupil data is involved.

Gwirio'r Gymraeg (Welsh spelling and grammar check)

What it does: A Welsh spelling and grammar check (Cysill, from Bangor University's techiaith) that is a click away on any text field while the app is in Welsh, with click-to-apply corrections.

Where to find it: When the app is in Welsh, click into any text box; a small check button floats by the top-right corner of the field. It never appears in English mode.

How to use it:

1. Switch the app to Welsh and click into a text field.
2. Click the floating check button (marked with a pen).
3. A little panel lists any issues. For each one, click a suggested correction and it is written straight back into your text.
4. Click the cross on an issue to ignore it, or close the panel when you are done.

Good to know: This particular check reaches out to the Cysill service, so it needs a connection when you use it. It only ever appears in Welsh mode, so English users never see it.

Welsh literacy toolkit (Llythrennedd Cymraeg)

What it does: Three offline, rule-based Welsh aids. Treiglo shows a word's soft, nasal and aspirate mutation forms with the rule, or flags likely missing mutations in pasted text. Cynghanedd analyses a line for its likely type (croes, traws, sain, llusg) with the evidence, and honestly says "anhysbys" (unknown) when it does not clearly fit. Oedran darllen gives a Welsh-syllable-aware reading-age estimate for a passage.

Where to find it: Open the Toolkit and choose Llythrennedd Cymraeg (the Welsh flag icon), or find it through the command palette (Ctrl or Cmd + K).

How to use it:

1. Open the tool and choose a tab: Treiglo, Cynghanedd or Oedran darllen (reading age).
2. On Treiglo, type a word to see its mutation forms and rule, or paste text below to flag likely mutation slips after common triggers.
3. On Cynghanedd, type or paste one line; it tells you the likely type, how confident it is, and what it checked.
4. On Oedran darllen, paste a passage; it estimates the reading age and shows words per sentence, syllables per word and a band.

Good to know: These aids are offline and rule-based, so they work with no connection and hold no pupil data. Treiglo is deliberately conservative, and Cynghanedd is honestly modest, so treat both as guidance rather than a final ruling.

16. Form Time

Form Time gives tutors a ready-made daily briefing to run with a form group, built around Curriculum for Wales Areas of Learning and Experience (AoLEs). Each item is bilingual, so you can run the whole thing in Welsh or English, and you can tune it to your year group.

Bilingual briefing items

What it does: Shows a grid of daily briefing cards grouped by AoLE, each with a category, a prompt, an answer and an emoji, tagged by year and key stage. It comes with starter content seeded in, an admin panel to manage items, and a bulk import so you can load your own.

Where to find it: Left sidebar, Primary group, Form Time.

How to use it:

1. Open Form Time from the Primary group.
2. Use the CY / EN toggle at the top right to run the page (labels, buttons and content) in Welsh or English. This is separate from the app's overall language, so you can keep the app in English but run form time in Welsh.
3. Pick a year group from the drop-down to filter items to that year (untagged items suit all years).
4. Click an AoLE tab (for example Iechyd a Lles, or Gwyddoniaeth a Thechnoleg) to switch the set of cards.
5. On any card, read the prompt to your group. Click Show answer to reveal the answer, and the refresh arrow (New) to swap in a different item for that category.
6. To manage the content, click Manage (the cog). There you can add, edit or remove items and bulk import your own.

Good to know: The cards pick a fresh item each day and shuffle within a category, so the same activity does not always land in the same order. Each AoLE tab also shows which of the four purposes and cross-curricular skills it supports.

17. Data protection and security

This chapter explains, in plain terms, how GradeForge keeps children's data safe. You can hand this to a data protection lead. The short version: pupil data lives encrypted on your machine and never touches a company server.

Offline-first (nothing syncs silently)

What it does: GradeForge runs entirely on your computer. It does not quietly send anything anywhere.

Good to know: the only times data leaves your machine are when you deliberately press a Google action (post to Classroom or Drive, send an email) or an AI action. There is no background cloud sync you did not ask for.

Encryption of pupil data at rest

What it does: pupil records and feedback media are stored in a separate protected area, encrypted with AES-256-GCM (a strong, standard encryption).

Good to know: if someone copied the raw files off your disk without your login, they would find encrypted data, not a readable spreadsheet.

AI is opt-in and PII-shielded

What it does: AI is off until you turn it on. When on, pupil names are replaced with stand-in labels before any request leaves the device, then restored locally when the answer comes back.

Where to find it: Settings, AI section.

How to use it:

1. Leave AI off if you do not want to use it; the app is fully functional without it.
2. If you turn it on, use the "what was sent" panel on AI features to see exactly what left the device.
3. You approve every AI mark, comment or draft before it is saved.

Good to know: one honest limit. Features that read an actual photo of pupil work (mark-from-photo, batch photo marking, scan-scores) send the image to your AI provider, because a picture cannot have names stripped from it the way text can. These are opt-in and only run when you choose them. If a photo shows a pupil's name, consider covering it, or use the by-name-order options where offered. See Chapters 3 and 6.

On-device models (voice and audio work offline)

What it does: the transcription (Whisper) and the podcast and read-aloud voices (Kokoro) are bundled into the app and run on your machine.

Good to know: voice-note-to-text, the offline podcast and the audio versions of resources all work with the network switched off. Pupil audio does not go to a speech service.

Safeguarding prompts and hardening

What it does: sensitive features (for example safeguarding triage) present a prompt to support your judgement, never a decision, and the app is hardened against prompt-injection tricks in imported content.

Good to know: GradeForge assists, you decide. Treat any AI safeguarding output as a starting point for a human conversation, never an outcome.

DPIA and security review

What it does: a Data Protection Impact Assessment and a STRIDE security review have been completed for the single-teacher, on-device product.

Good to know: if your school introduces GradeForge more widely, or once parent and pupil portals arrive, the DPIA will need revisiting because a third party would then be logging in. Ask your data protection lead to review before that step.

18. Sync, backup and accounts

This chapter is about keeping your work safe and, if you use more than one computer, keeping it in step. Everything here lives in Settings, which you reach from the cog icon in the left-hand sidebar. On the Settings home screen you will see tiles grouped under headings (Account, Integrations, School, Appearance, Data). The features below sit in three of those groups, and each one is named in its section.

Encrypted cloud sync through your own Google Drive

What it does: Lets you use GradeForge on more than one machine (say a school desktop and a laptop at home) with the same data on each. Your data travels end-to-end encrypted through your own Google Drive, so nobody else, not even Google and not GradeForge, can read it. There is no GradeForge company server in the middle. If the same thing gets changed on two machines before they next talk to each other, a conflict-resolution screen lets you pick which version wins.

Where to find it: Settings, then the Integrations group, then the Sync tile (the round-arrows icon, labelled "Sync"). You can also jump straight here from the sync button in the top bar.

How to use it:

1. First, connect Google. Sync needs it. Go to Settings, Integrations, Google and sign in with your school Google account. You only do this once per machine.
2. Go back to Settings, Integrations, Sync.
3. In the Sync passphrase box, type a secret only you know (4 characters or more). This passphrase is the encryption key.
4. Read the warning carefully. You must use the same passphrase on every device. It cannot be recovered if you forget it, so write it down somewhere safe and private.
5. Click Enable sync. The first machine you set up uploads your data; any other machine you add later will pull it down and merge it.
6. On your second machine, install GradeForge, connect the same Google account, open the Sync tile and enter the same passphrase. Your data appears.
7. After that, click Sync now (the round-arrows button) whenever you want to send up your latest changes and pull in anything from your other machine. GradeForge shows the device name and the time of the Last sync underneath.
8. To stop syncing on a machine, click Turn off.

Good to know: Sync is manual, so nothing leaves your machine until you press Sync now. If GradeForge tells you "another device is on a newer version", update this copy of the app before syncing again, so the two versions match.

The conflict-resolution screen

What it does: Handles the rare case where the same field (for example one pupil's target grade) was changed to two different things on two different machines before they synced. GradeForge keeps the more recent change automatically (this is called field-level last-write-wins), and then shows you both versions so you can override that choice if you want.

Where to find it: It appears inside the same Sync tile, below the buttons, as a panel headed with a warning triangle and a count such as "2 sync conflicts". A "Resolution history" panel below it keeps a record of past decisions.

How to use it:

1. When a conflict panel appears, read the line naming what changed (the table and the field).
2. You will see two buttons, each showing a value and, in brackets, the machine it came from. Click Keep on the value you want.
3. GradeForge applies your choice and refreshes.
4. If you later change your mind, open the Resolution history panel, find the entry, and click the "use instead" button to swap to the other value. You can also clear the history with Clear history, or remove a single entry with the cross.

Good to know: You do not have to act at once. The app already kept the newer value, so leaving a conflict alone is a safe default; the panel simply gives you the final say.

Snapshot history and crash recovery

What it does: Keeps automatic on-device rollback points, so if an import goes wrong or something looks broken you can wind the app back to how it was. GradeForge takes roughly one snapshot a day and keeps the last 12. They stay on this machine only.

Where to find it: Settings, then the Data group, then the Backup & Restore tile. Scroll to the "Local snapshots" panel (the small clock icon).

How to use it:

1. Before a big or risky change (a large pupil import, say), click Snapshot now to capture the current state on the spot.
2. If you need to go back, find the snapshot you want in the list. Each shows the date, time and size.
3. Click Restore next to it and confirm. The app reloads with that earlier state.

Good to know: Snapshots are for undoing mistakes on the same machine, not for moving data between computers. For that, use the portable backup below. GradeForge is built to survive a crash, including one in the middle of recording feedback, so a snapshot is a belt-and-braces extra rather than your only safety net.

Portable encrypted backup file (.gfbk)

What it does: Saves an encrypted copy of everything (classes, pupils, grades, lesson plans, attendance and settings) into a single file you can move to another machine and restore there. Because it holds pupil data, the file is encrypted with a password you choose.

Where to find it: Settings, then the Data group, then the Backup & Restore tile (the floppy-disk icon), at the top of the card.

How to use it:

1. In the Backup password box, type a password (4 characters or more). You will need this exact password to restore, so keep it safe.
2. Click Create backup. Choose where to save the file. GradeForge writes an encrypted .gfbk file.
3. Copy that file wherever you like: a USB stick, a Drive folder, another computer.
4. To bring it back, on any machine open the same tile, type the same password into the box, and click Restore from backup. Pick the .gfbk file and confirm.

Good to know: Restoring replaces the current data on that machine with what is in the file, so read the on-screen warning before you confirm. Keep your backup password somewhere safe: without it the file cannot be opened. There is also a separate "Share school setup" button lower down that exports just your subjects, periods, timetable and holidays (as a .gfcfg file) if you only want to hand a colleague the school structure, not any pupil data.

Local role-based profiles (full or read-only, with an optional PIN)

What it does: Lets a shared or staffroom machine carry more than one profile. A full-access profile can do everything; a read-only profile can look at everything but cannot edit the markbook or save and sync to Drive. It is a deterrent for a shared screen, not a hard security lock (your data is encrypted either way). Profiles stay on this device and are never synced.

Where to find it: Settings, then the Account group, then the Launch passcode tile. The "Local profiles" card (the two-people icon) sits on that same screen, just below the passcode card.

How to use it:

1. In the Profile name box, type a name.
2. Choose the role from the drop-down: Full access or Read-only.
3. Optionally type a PIN to protect that profile.
4. Click Add. The profile joins the list, with a small padlock shown if it has a PIN.
5. Repeat for each person or role you need. To remove one, click the cross next to it.

Good to know: A read-only profile is handy for a cover teacher or a shared laptop where you want someone to see the register but not change marks. Remember it is a soft barrier: the real protection is the encryption on the data itself.

Launch passcode (soft-lock)

What it does: Asks for a passcode every time GradeForge opens, so a shared or staffroom machine is not left wide open. Your data is already encrypted; this is an extra deterrent. The passcode itself is never stored, only a one-way hash of it.

Where to find it: Settings, then the Account group, then the Launch passcode tile (the padlock icon).

How to use it:

1. In the New passcode box, type a passcode of 4 digits or more.
2. Click Set passcode. From now on the app asks for it on launch, and you will see a green tick confirming the lock is on.
3. To remove it, come back to the same tile and click Remove.

Good to know: Like the profiles above, this is a quick barrier, not a vault. If you forget the passcode you can still get in by other means, so treat it as a convenience for shared machines rather than a security guarantee.

Read-only web viewer

What it does: Gives you a way to see your data in an ordinary web browser, for the times you are on a machine where GradeForge is not installed. It is strictly look-only: it pulls your encrypted data down, decrypts it in the browser with your passphrase, and shows it. It never changes or uploads anything.

Where to find it: It is a separate web page (a small web app), not a button inside the desktop app. You open it in a browser and sign in there. It works only once you have set up cloud sync (above), because it reads the same encrypted data from your Google Drive.

How to use it:

1. Make sure sync is enabled on your main machine and you have synced at least once, so there is data in your Drive to read.
2. On the other computer, open the GradeForge web viewer page in a browser and connect the same Google account.
3. Enter your sync passphrase (the same secret you use for sync). The viewer decrypts and shows your data.
4. Browse. Remember you cannot edit here; for changes, go back to the desktop app.

Good to know: Because the viewer needs your sync passphrase to decrypt anything, your data stays private even though it is reached through a browser. If nothing has been synced yet, the viewer will have nothing to show.

Auto-update channel

What it does: Keeps GradeForge up to date on its own. When you open a properly installed copy, it quietly checks whether a newer release exists and fetches it in the background, then lets you know.

Where to find it: There is nothing to click. It happens automatically on launch. You do not manage it from a settings screen.

How to use it:

1. Just open GradeForge as normal, while connected to the internet.
2. If an update is found, it downloads in the background and you are notified when it is ready.
3. Restart the app when prompted to finish applying it.

Good to know: The check is silent and does nothing if you are offline or if there is no newer release, so it will never get in your way. Keeping the app current also matters for sync: if two machines drift onto different versions, updating brings them back in line.

19. Everyday extras

Beyond the big features, GradeForge has a handful of everyday tools that keep your day organised: a dashboard for today, folders to tidy your classes, somewhere to jot notes, a board for jobs, a fast way to jump around, a workload view, and libraries you can back up and share. You reach all of these from the left-hand sidebar unless a step says otherwise.

Today dashboard

What it does: Your morning landing page. It lays out today's timetabled lessons, your classes, a quick-note pad, and side panels for anything that needs your eye: pupils flagged for low attendance, calendar events, birthdays this week, and recent work pupils have handed in through Google Classroom.

Where to find it: The Today item at the top of the sidebar (it is usually where the app opens).

How to use it:

1. Open Today. The main column shows your lessons for the day, drawn from your timetable and any lessons you have planned. The current period is highlighted with a "now" marker.
2. Click a lesson card to jump straight into that class.
3. Scroll down for Your classes as cards, and a news strip if you have set up feeds (in Settings, Appearance, News).
4. On the right, use the Quick capture pad to jot a thought; it saves itself as you type.
5. Watch the right-hand panels for pupil flags, events, birthdays and, if Google is connected, a Recent uploads list you can click to open a pupil's work for feedback.

Good to know: The attendance flags and some other panels only appear when there is something to show, so a quiet Today screen means nothing needs chasing. If the app is set to Welsh, the dates and day names appear in Welsh here automatically.

Class folders

What it does: Groups your classes into named, collapsible folders (much like folders in iDoceo), so a long list of classes stays tidy. Any class you have not filed sits in an always-visible "ungrouped" area, so nothing ever hides by accident.

Where to find it: On the Overview screen (your classes list), reached from the sidebar. The feature list also calls this "Classes and folders".

How to use it:

1. Open your classes list.
2. To file a class, use its move control and pick a folder name (type a new name to create a folder, or leave it blank to remove the class from its folder).
3. Click a folder's heading to collapse or expand it. The little arrow shows whether it is open.
4. To rename a folder, click the pencil on the folder heading and type the new name; every class inside moves with it.

Good to know: Folders are just for your own tidiness; they do not change anything about the classes themselves. Archiving an old class (a separate action) hides it from the sidebar altogether, which is the better choice for last year's groups.

Notes (card grid with a rich editor)

What it does: Free-standing notes that are not tied to any class: a place for meeting notes, reminders, planning scraps and the like. Each note opens in a rich editor that takes tickable checklists, headings, bullet lists, links and images. You can tag notes and sort or filter them.

Where to find it: The Notes item in the sidebar.

How to use it:

1. Open Notes. Existing notes appear as cards in a grid, each showing its title, a preview and when it was last updated.
2. Click New note (top right) to start one. Give it a title, then write in the body using the rich editor.
3. To add structure, use the editor's controls for headings, bullets and tickable checklist items.
4. Add tags in the note by typing a tag and pressing Enter; remove one with its cross.
5. Back on the grid, use Sort by (last updated or title) and the tag filter drop-down to find things.
6. Open a note's three-dots menu to duplicate or delete it.

Good to know: Notes are saved on this machine as you go. There is also a read-aloud bar on each note if you want to hear it back.

Tasks (Kanban board)

What it does: A drag-and-drop job board with four columns: To do, Started, On going and Reviewed. Each job is a card you can label with a priority and a due date. A side rail lists what is due soon.

Where to find it: The Tasks item in the sidebar.

How to use it:

1. Open Tasks. You will see the four columns, each with a count of its cards.
2. To add a job, click the plus on a column, type a title and press Enter.
3. Click a card's title or its description area to edit it in place, then click away to save.
4. Drag a card from one column to another as the job moves along (for example from To do to Started).
5. Click the priority chip on a card to cycle it between high, medium and low. Set a due date with the small date control.
6. Use the search box in the top bar to filter cards, and watch the upcoming rail on the right for anything due within the next week.

Good to know: Cards in the Reviewed column are treated as done and drop out of the "due soon" rail, so move a job there when it is finished.

Command palette (Ctrl/Cmd + K)

What it does: A fast keyboard jump-box. Press one shortcut, start typing the name of any screen, and hop straight there without hunting through the sidebar. If AI is switched on, you can also ask it a quick question from the same box.

Where to find it: It is not a sidebar item; it pops up over whatever you are doing. Press Ctrl and K together (or Cmd and K on a Mac).

How to use it:

1. Press Ctrl/Cmd + K. A search box appears in the middle of the screen.
2. Start typing part of a screen's name. The matching destinations filter as you type.
3. Click the one you want (or use it from the list) to jump there. The box closes.
4. If AI is enabled, type a question and choose the sparkle "Ask" option to get an answer inline.
5. Press Escape, or press the shortcut again, to close the box without going anywhere.

Good to know: This is the quickest way around the app once you know it exists. Nothing needs setting up; it works out of the box.

Notifications

What it does: Lets you choose which gentle alerts GradeForge gives you, so you are told about the things you care about and left alone about the rest.

Where to find it: Settings, then the Account group, then the Notifications tile (the bell icon).

How to use it:

1. Open the Notifications tile.
2. Tick or untick each alert to suit you. The choices are: alert when a pupil is marked absent; notify when pupils submit work; a 24-hour reminder before deadlines; AI tips and suggestions; and confirm when grades post to Classroom.
3. Your choices save as you toggle them.

Good to know: Turning an alert off does not switch the underlying feature off; it only quietens the reminder. The deadline reminder, for instance, pairs neatly with the Workload dashboard below.

Workload dashboard

What it does: One honest list of everything hanging over you, pulled together from data you already hold. It shows what is due this week (homework, exam entries, coursework and report deadlines), what there is to mark (part-marked columns, per class), the feedback owed (marked work with no feedback recorded yet), and any reports and deadlines. It also carries a personal to-do list and a one-tap focus timer.

Where to find it: The Workload item in the sidebar, which sits next to Today.

How to use it:

1. Open Workload. Four count tiles across the top summarise: due this week, to mark, feedback owed, and reports.
2. Below, work down the lists. Click any class in the to mark or feedback owed lists to jump straight into that class's gradebook.
3. Use the to-do panel on the right to add personal jobs: type one and press Enter, tick it off when done, or remove it with the cross.
4. Open the focus timer from its panel when you want a timed marking sprint.
5. Click Print to print the day or week as a checklist.

Good to know: Everything here is gathered automatically from your markbook, planner and deadlines, so there is nothing extra to enter; it simply turns the scatter of dates into one place to look.

Libraries with backup and share

What it does: Your reusable teaching content lives in libraries so you can build once and reuse everywhere, back it up, and hand a copy to a colleague. The libraries are: knowledge organisers, model answers, grade-boundary / UMS sets, schemes and unit sequencer, question bank, rubrics, quizzes, rewards, report comments, Form Time and Notebooks (Notebooks carry their own sources and notes). Each library can export any single item, or a whole library, to a portable file, and import a colleague's. Imports are kind-checked, so a file only lands in the library it belongs to.

Where to find it: The Teaching Library in the sidebar holds the knowledge organisers and model answers (each on its own tab). The other libraries live with their feature: rubrics under Settings, School, Rubrics; the question bank, quizzes, grade-boundary sets, schemes, rewards, report comments, Form Time and Notebooks each on their own screen. Wherever a library appears, look for the same Backup and share row of buttons.

How to use it:

1. Open the library you want (for knowledge organisers or model answers, open the Teaching Library and pick the tab).
2. Find the Backup and share controls. You get four buttons: Export selected, Export all, Import one and Import all.
3. To save a copy, click Export all (or Export selected for just the highlighted item). GradeForge writes a file you can keep or send on.
4. To bring content in, click Import one or Import all, then pick a colleague's file. Because import is kind-checked, a rubrics file will not accidentally land among your quizzes; a mismatched file is refused with a message.

Good to know: This is a no-server, file-based way to share, so nothing goes through a company system. To share several kinds of thing at once as a single unit, use the sharing packs below instead.

Resource and scheme sharing packs (.gfpack.json)

What it does: Bundles hand-picked items from across different libraries (a scheme, its resources, some rubrics, a slice of the question bank, knowledge organisers, mark schemes) into one named pack you can give to a colleague. When they import it, they see a preview of exactly what is inside, marked up so they can tell new items from ones they already have, and take the whole pack or just the new pieces.

Where to find it: Open the Teaching Library and click the Share pack button (the parcel icon) in the top bar. The pack window has two tabs: Build and Import.

How to use it (to build and send a pack):

1. Open the pack window and stay on the Build tab.
2. Fill in the pack details: a name, and optionally a subject, an author and a description.
3. Work down the picker, which is grouped by kind (schemes, resources, rubrics, mark schemes, questions, knowledge organisers, model answers). Tick the items you want, or tick a group's heading to take all of that kind. A running count shows how many you have chosen.
4. Click Export. GradeForge saves a single .gfpack.json file. Send that file to your colleague.

How to use it (to import a pack someone sent you):

1. Open the pack window and click the Import tab.
2. Click Choose and pick the .gfpack.json file.
3. Read the manifest preview: the pack's name and description, a per-kind breakdown, and a badge on each item showing New or Present (present meaning you already have it). A summary line tells you how many are new versus already present.
4. Click Import new to add only the items you do not yet have, or Import all to bring in everything. GradeForge routes each item into its correct library.

Good to know: The New versus Present check means you can safely accept a whole pack without creating duplicates of things you already own; just choose Import new. It is a tidy, server-free way to pass a full unit of work between colleagues.

20. Troubleshooting and frequently asked questions

Quick answers to the things new staff ask most. If something looks wrong, start here before worrying.

The screen is empty or a class feature will not open

Cause: most likely no class is selected.

Fix: on Gradebook, Attendance, Seating or Students, pick a class from the class panel (the coloured class chips near the top). The screen fills in once a class is chosen.

Windows warned me when installing ("Windows protected your PC")

Cause: the installer is not yet certificate-signed, so Windows shows a caution box.

Fix: click More info, then Run anyway. This is expected and safe. See Chapter 0.

The app is in the wrong language

Fix: open Settings and change the language between Cymraeg and English. It switches straight away, even mid-lesson.

An AI button does nothing, or asks me to turn AI on

Cause: AI is optional and off by default.

Fix: open Settings, go to the AI section, and enable AI with your provider and key. If you would rather not use AI, every AI feature has a by-hand alternative, so you can ignore it.

A YouTube video or Google Slides will not show inside the app

Cause: some school networks block embedded content.

Fix: use the "open in browser" option on the viewer. The resource opens in your normal web browser instead.

Nothing seems to save, or I cannot find a Save button

Answer: there is no Save button. GradeForge saves as you go. It also keeps snapshots and can recover your work after a crash. See Chapter 18 for snapshot history and backups.

I need my data on another computer

Fix: take a portable encrypted backup (a .gfbk file) from Settings and restore it on the other machine, or set up sync through your own Google Drive. See Chapter 18.

Did my pupils' data go to the cloud or to an AI company?

Answer: no, unless you pressed a Google button or an AI button. GradeForge is offline-first and stores pupil data encrypted on your machine. When you do use AI, names are shielded first, except when reading a photo of pupil work (a picture cannot be name-shielded). See Chapter 17.

Welsh spelling and grammar help

Answer: when the app is set to Welsh, a Gwirio'r Gymraeg (Welsh check) button appears on text fields, offering click-to-apply corrections. There is also a Welsh literacy toolkit (Treiglo, Cynghanedd, reading age). See Chapter 15.

A photo score or photo mark looks wrong

Answer: the AI reads the image as best it can, then you review. Always check the review table before saving; you can correct any pupil match or score by hand. See Chapters 1 and 3.

How do I move quickly between screens?

Answer: press Ctrl and K, type where you want to go, and press Enter. See Chapter 0.

Where do I get updates?

Answer: GradeForge updates itself through its built-in update channel. You can also re-download the latest installer any time from gradeforge.co.uk. You do not reinstall from scratch.

Something still is not right

Fix: close and reopen GradeForge; your work is saved. If a specific tool misbehaves, note what you clicked and tell your GradeForge lead. Nothing you do in normal use can lose encrypted pupil data, which is snapshotted and recoverable.

This guide is assembled by How-To-Guide/build-howto.cjs from the chapter files in How-To-Guide/chapters/. To update it, edit the relevant chapter and re-run the build, then rebuild the Word version with python How-To-Guide/build-docx.py. The version marker at the top is stamped automatically by the Go Live script on each release.