Hwb ‘rollover’ to academic year 2025 to 2026
Preparing your school’s Hwb accounts for the beginning of term.
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To help with the ‘rollover’ of Hwb accounts to the new academic year, we have created a guide and snapshot of the key dates for Hwb administrators, MIS administrators and IT officers in schools.
The process of moving Hwb accounts and data from one academic year to another is automated. However, it heavily relies on schools updating learner and staff data in their Management Information System (MIS) in good time so that Hwb accounts are ready for users at the beginning of term. It is also essential that the Hwb provisioning client is run regularly throughout the summer holidays and must be scheduled to run on 30 August and prior to the first day of term.
The dates will apply to all Hwb schools, including those that have recently migrated to a new MIS.
All schools must complete their end of year (EOY) procedures before Friday 8 August 2025.
Key dates and actions that schools must take
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Hwb action
Hwb will switch off MIS updates for Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom and Apple Classroom.
Reason
To allow schools who begin their timetables early to assign existing year groups to next year’s classes.
Impact in school
Any group or class changes made in a school’s MIS (such as SIMS and Teacher Centre) will not be processed or reflected in Hwb.
School action required
From Monday 2 June schools will need to manually update any group or class changes in Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom and Apple Classroom in the Hwb User Management Portal (UMP).
Hwb process (affects learners in Years 11, 12 and 13 only)
Hwb will switch off the de-activation of Hwb accounts for learners with a leaving date after 1 June 2025 in the school’s MIS.
Reason
To ensure learners in these year groups can continue to access their emails, files, schoolwork and education apps until 29 August.
Impact in school
Even though learners in these year groups have a leaving date in the MIS, they will still appear as ‘Active’ in the Hwb User Management Portal (UMP).
School action required
Schools must advise learners in these year groups that their Hwb account will remain active until 29 August, but they will lose access to their emails, files and schoolwork after this date. Therefore, if these learners wish to keep anything that is in their Hwb account they will need to download it before 29 August. Guidance is available on the ‘Learners leaving Hwb’ webpage.
The Hwb account of learners re-joining your school, or joining any other maintained school in Wales after the summer holidays, will automatically re-activate once they are admitted on roll in a school’s MIS and the provisioning client has run successfully.
Schools wishing to de-activate individual learners should contact the Hwb Service Desk.
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Hwb process
Hwb will switch off the de-activation of Hwb accounts for all learners and staff with a leaving date after 6 July 2025 in the school’s MIS.
Reason
To ensure all learners can continue to access their emails, files, schoolwork and education apps until 31 August.
Impact in school
Even though learners have a leaving date in the MIS, they will still appear as ‘Active’ in the Hwb User Management Portal (UMP).
School action required
Schools must advise learners who will not be re-joining a maintained school in Wales that their Hwb account will remain active until 29 August, but they will lose access to their emails, files and schoolwork after this date. Therefore, if these learners wish to keep anything that is in their Hwb account they will need download it before 29 August. Guidance is available on the ‘Learners leaving Hwb’ webpage.
The Hwb account of learners re-joining your school, or joining any other maintained school in Wales after the summer holidays, will automatically re-activate once they are admitted on roll in a school’s MIS and the provisioning client has run successfully.
Schools wishing to de-activate individual learners should contact the Hwb Service Desk.
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Hwb process
Hwb will switch off the timetable sync for staff and learners.
Reason
To stop timetable updates made in the MIS being processed.
Impact in school
Staff and learner timetable information will not update in their Outlook or Google calendars.
School action required
No action required, however, staff and learners should be aware that timetable changes made in the school’s MIS will not be reflected in their Hwb Outlook or Google calendars until the update process is switched back on at the beginning of the new term.
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Hwb Process
Google Teaching and Learning (T and L) Licences.
Reason
Google T and L Licences are renewed licenses.
Impact in school
If you have purchased fewer licenses than last year, they will have to reallocate those licenses to users according to your new allocation.
School action required
School will need to review and allocate licenses if necessary after 18 August 2025.
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SIMS schools must have completed their end of year procedures by Friday 8 August 2025.
Hwb process
Hwb will archive all Microsoft Teams and Google Classrooms created in the Hwb User Management Portal for the 2024 to 2025 academic year. Non-Exam Based Assessments (NEA’s) will become read only and UMP controls will be removed.
Reason
To save and store the current academic year’s (2024 to 2025) classes and (or) NEA’s.
Impact in school
Current academic year (2024 to 2025) class memberships will be saved.
NEA memberships and work will be saved but only accessible to the NEA teacher.
School action required
School Hwb administrators and staff will be able to restore any of their Microsoft Teams and Google Classrooms as required for use in the new academic year. However, these Teams and Classrooms will be ‘unmanaged’ (meaning they will no longer be linked to the current class data in the school’s MIS).
To access NEA’s from previous years select the required year in the UMP, select the NEA class and click the link button for the SharePoint site.
Any Microsoft Teams or Google Classrooms for the new academic year must not be created until 11 August 2025, at the earliest. Creation before this date will result in the new teams or classrooms being archived.
Guidance is available on how to restore Microsoft Teams and Google Classrooms.
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From week beginning 11 August 2025, the Hwb provisioning client must be running regularly throughout the school holidays and, critically, at the start of the new academic year.
Hwb process
Hwb will begin processing MIS data for the new academic year, including learner and staff records with start dates up to (and including) Friday 6 September 2024.
Reason
To begin processing those schools that have completed their SIMS EOY procedures in readiness for the new academic year.
Impact in school
Staff with a leaving date in the MIS will no longer appear in the Hwb User Management Portal after their leaving date.
Learners’ leaving and start dates will be processed so that they appear in their correct school for the 2025 to 2026 academic year.
School action required
Once learners appear in their new classes in the Hwb User Management Portal, schools can create Microsoft Teams, Google Classrooms and Apple Classrooms for the new 2025 to 2026 academic year (after 11 August 2025).
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Timetable Sync: staff
Hwb process
Depending on a complete timetable in SIMS, successful provisioning and enabling the ‘Timetable Sync’ in the Hwb User Management Portal, staff timetables for the new academic year will be processed and available for staff to view from 18 August 2025 in either their Hwb Outlook or Google calendars.
The learners’ timetable sync will begin processing from Monday 8 September 2025.
Reason
To populate staff calendars in Hwb with their school timetable.
Impact in school
Timetable information from SIMS will be displayed in staff calendars in Outlook or Google on Hwb.
School action required
In order for schools to benefit from this useful feature, a school Hwb administrator must configure Timetable Sync for staff in the Hwb User Management Portal.
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Hwb Process
Hwb will process the leaving dates of all learners and staff within the Hwb User Management Portal (UMP).
Reason
To de-activate all learners with a leaving date. Deactivated accounts will be deleted after 12 months.
Impact in school
The Hwb accounts of learners who have left a school to join another maintained school in Wales will be de-activated and then re-activated when the learner is added to the MIS in their new school.
The Hwb accounts of learners who have left a school, but have not joined another maintained school in Wales, will be de-activated.
School action required
None.
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Hwb Process
Adobe licence process.
Reason
Adobe licenses are renewed licenses.
Impact in school
If you have purchased fewer licenses than last year, they will have to reallocate those licenses to users according to your new allocation.
School action required
School will need to review and allocate licenses if necessary.
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Schools to run MIS over this weekend.
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First day of the autumn term and start of 2025 to 2026 academic year.
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Timetable Sync: learners
Hwb Process
Depending on a complete timetable in SIMS, successful provisioning and enabling the ‘Timetable Sync’ in the Hwb User Management Portal, learner timetables for the new academic year will be processed and available for learners to view from 12 September 2025 in either their Hwb Outlook or Google calendars.
Reason
To populate the calendars of learners with their school timetable from SIMS.
Impact in school
Timetable information from SIMS will be displayed in learner calendars in Outlook or Google on Hwb.
School action required
In order for schools to benefit from this useful feature, a school Hwb administrator must configure Timetable Sync for learners in the Hwb User Management Portal.
The staff timetable sync is turned on from Monday 18 August 2025.
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Hwb action
Hwb will switch on MIS updates for Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom and Apple Classroom.
Reason
To allow schools to create new Teams and Classrooms with the latest data from the MIS.
Impact in school
Any group or class changes made in a school’s MIS (such as SIMS and Teacher Centre) will be processed and reflected in Hwb.
School action required
Schools are able to create Teams and Classrooms for the new academic year (2025 to 2026).
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Target end date for completion of Hwb rollover to 2025 to 2026 academic year.
If you have any queries or require assistance, please follow your local IT support arrangements in school or through your local authority in the first instance. Advice and guidance are also available from the Hwb Service Desk.
Email: support@hwbcymru.net
Phone number: 03000 25 25 25
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