Welcome to our Google Classrooms page. This is where you will be able to find useful links, technical assistance and any updates for the classroom service that we are using as a school.

What is Google Classroom?

Google Classroom has been designed to support pupils having access to increased online learning and crucially develop stronger communication directly with teachers. It will allow pupils and staff to collaborate on one learning platform.

Google Classroom is in effect a virtual classroom where your child will be able to access work that has been assigned by their teacher, complete the work online and share with their teacher. Your child’s class teacher will then be able to give feedback and support your child accordingly in their learning  

Google Classroom is part of the set of Google Workspace for Education productivity tools which also includes, Docs, Slides, Sheets and more, used by tens of millions of students and teachers around the world.

When your child starts at St Leonard's, you will be asked to provide consent for the school to create a school managed Google Workspace for Education account for them. 

They will use their Google education accounts to sign into Chromebooks to access the Internet, complete assignments, communicate with their teachers and learn 21st century digital citizenship skills, through working in Google Classroom.

With the services of Vitalize IT (Google Education Specialists), we are able to provide a modified version of the core Google Workspace tools specific to primary education. Our pupil accounts have been created with a particular set of age reflecting security settings, to provide a secure learning intranet for both pupils and staff.

Children use their Google Workspace for Education accounts to login to our school domain- @lbstl.co.uk, where they will have access to a chosen selection of Google Workspace tools. However, for the safety and security of your child, we have disabled access to Gmail communication.

There may be times when we allow specific year groups access to their Gmail for the purpose of teaching important digital communication skills. During this time, they will only be able to send and receive emails internally to communicate with their teachers and other pupils within our school @lbstl.co.uk domain.  Similarly, Google Docs and Slides that pupils may work on collaboratively, can only be shared with others within our school @lbstl.co.uk. domain.

Work created in Google Workspace tools, at school, is saved to Google Cloud. By logging in at home, using the same login as at school, your child can share with you projects they have been working on, or complete homework assignments set in Google Classroom.

Children can access their Google Workspace for Education account and associated tools, including Classroom, on any device that has an internet connection and web browser e.g. PC, laptop, Macbook, iPad, tablet, mobile phone etc.

Please be aware, however, that if you do not consent for your child/children to have a Google Workspace for Education account, it will mean that they will not be able to use the school’s Chromebooks and may be restricted from accessing some lessons based on using these Google Workspace tools and a large part of the Computing curriculum. They may also have to utilise alternative, possibly less secure, applications if home/school learning is required.

Children are made aware of the school's rules and expectations for online behaviour and we trust that you will support your child to follow them when using online technology at home.

Pupils need to know:

Pupils will follow our school policies for appropriate use when using Internet based services like Web 2.0 applications & Google Apps. These services are considered an extension of the school’s network, to which the rules in the Pupil ICT Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) and Google Classroom Pupil Use Agreement (signed and agreed on entry into St Leonard's) apply.

Pupils have no expectation of privacy in their use, as school and service administrators have the right and ability to monitor user accounts for policy and security enforcement, whether they access these in school or at home.

Pupils are responsible for their own behaviour at all times.

Parents need to know:

The Pupil ICT Acceptable Use Policy Agreement will be enforced. School staff will monitor pupil use of applications when students are at school. Parents are responsible for monitoring their child’s use of applications when accessing programs from home; the school cannot take responsibility for home Internet access and its setup.

Click here for Google Workspace for Education FAQ's

Take a look at the Google Classroom Cheat Sheet for Students, below, to help find your way around the features of Classroom. 

School Account on a Family Link Supervised Home Device

Some of our children may already have access to Chrome or Android devices using a personal Family Link supervised Google account. In this instance, they may have difficulty accessing all the features and services provided, via their school managed Google Workspace account, when working at home.

Google have now made it possible to add a secondary school account to a child's personal account managed by Family LInk.

Click here for instructions on how to do this. 

Remote Learning Help

Google Classroom Access on Games Consoles

We are aware some of your children might not have access to a laptop, PC, Chromebook or iPad consistently, however,  they can also access their Google Classroom if they have one of the following  games consoles:

Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, PS4 Pro or PS5 

PLUS a USB keyboard 

Here is our guide on how to access Google Classroom on either an Xbox or PlayStation console.

How to Access Google Classroom on:

Xbox One & Xbox Series X/S

The Xbox consoles each have access to Microsoft Edge – the web browser that comes preinstalled as part of the Xbox user experience.

This can be used to access Google Classroom by following these steps:

1. Plug a wired keyboard into your Xbox One, Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S via one of the USB ports on the front or back.

2. Press the Xbox button top-centre of a game controller and head to “My games & apps” in the side menu.

3. Click on “See all”, scroll down to “Apps” and you will see Microsoft Edge in the icons on the right-hand side. Open it.

4. Type classroom.google.com into the URL bar at the top and log in as you would on a PC using your child's school login details.

5. You can either use an Xbox controller to move the cursor or it may be easier to use a separate USB mouse plugged into one of the other ports.

How to access Google Classroom on: PS4 & PS5

The PlayStation 4 has its own web browser that is easy to find in the content menu as an icon with WWW written on it.

However, it’s currently a bit trickier on PS5, as there is no way to open the browser natively.

Instead, you can open the System Settings, then the User Guide. This will open up an online user manual inside a web browser page so you only have to change the URL at the top.

Otherwise, the rest of the steps are the same.

1. Plug a wired keyboard and/or mouse into the USB ports on the PS4 or PS5 – each console should recognise them.

2. In the URL bar of the browser, type classroom.google.com and then log in using your child's school login details.

3. You can now access Google Classroom.

In some cases you might not be able to do everything you can on a laptop, PC or Chromebook but you can, at the very least, access Google Classroom and see what work your teacher has assigned for you to do.

What keyboards can you use?

You may have an old USB keyboard lying around and this should work fine. There is no need for a fancy gaming keyboard or anything expensive to plug into a console, you just need something that works.