Cymraeg
Hwb

Google Workspace for Education

How to access and use Google workspace classroom tools through Hwb.

Overview

Hwb currently uses the Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals edition. Wherever ‘Google Workspace for Education’ appears on Hwb it is referring to the ‘Education Fundamentals’ edition.

Google Workspace for Education is a package of cloud-based services. These enable your school to work together online and offer a range of powerful classroom tools that are simple to use and very effective.

Accessing Google Workspace for Education

There are 2 ways you can access Google Workspace for Education:

  1. Log into Hwb and click on the Google for Education tile. This will take you straight to Google classroom. To use a different application, click on the Google apps ‘waffle’ (in the top right hand corner) and select the Google Workspace for Education application you wish to use.
  2. Navigate to google.com.
  3. Click on the blue Sign In button (in the top right hand corner).
  4. Enter your Hwb username and password: Click Next.
  5. Click on the Google apps ‘waffle’ (in the top right hand corner) and select the Google Workspace for Education application you wish to use.

Getting started

Google Classroom

Google Classrooms are online collaborative working environments for teachers and learners.

Teachers can set up a class, invite students and co-teachers and then share information such as assignments, announcements and questions in the class stream. They can quickly see who has or hasn't completed the work and give direct, real-time feedback and grades.

Learners can join classes set up by their teacher, see assignments on the To-do page, in the class stream, or in the class calendar and all class materials are automatically filed into Google Drive folders.

Setting up Google classroom

First day with Google Classroom (Google for Education)

Creating pre-populated Classrooms in the User Management Portal

In a school, Google Classrooms may be created for timetabled classes in a school’s MIS by staff or a Hwb administrator:

  1. Log in to Hwb and go to User Management.
  2. Click Administration: View Groups.
  3. Use the Filters to display the required class by selecting the year, group type, teacher or academic year. (Hwb administrators will see all classes in the school however, teachers will only see their own classes).
  4. Click on a class to display information for that group. This will include an overview and a list of all learners in that group.
  5. Click Add Google Classroom + to create the Google Classroom. Classrooms are usually created within a few minutes however, it may take up to an hour at busier times of the day.

What to consider before using Google classroom

  • As with every virtual online learning space, you must always add another education practitioner for safeguarding purposes.
  • It is important that the classroom owner takes responsibility for adding and removing other staff members as appropriate.
  • Once the classroom has been created, other teachers can be added as joint owners in the Google Classroom app.

Adding teachers to a pre-populated classroom in the User Management Portal

Hwb administrators have the option to add themselves as teachers of a pre-populated Google Classroom in the User Management Portal:

  1. Log in to Hwb and go to User Management.
  2. Click Administration: View Groups.
  3. Use the Filters to display the required class by selecting the year, group type, teacher or academic year (Hwb administrators will see all classes in the school however, teachers will only see their own classes).
  4. Click on a class to display information for that group. This will include an overview and a list of all learners in that group.
  5. Click Manage Google Classroom.
  6. Click Add as Teacher, then OK.

The owner of a classroom can also add other staff as teachers in the Google Classroom app.

Recovering an archived pre-populated classroom

Occasionally, classrooms get archived either unintentionally or prematurely by owners or teachers. These classrooms can be recovered. This will restore the classroom exactly as it was before it was archived, including files, documents, assignments, membership and name.

Teachers or owners of the classrooms can recover these in the Google Classroom app:

  1. Click the Main menu at the top left of the screen (3 horizontal lines).
  2. Click Archived classes.
  3. Click Restore.
  4. Click Confirm Restore.

Hwb administrators can also recover an archived Google Classroom from the User Management Portal:

  1. Log in to Hwb and go to User Management.
  2. Click Administration: View Groups.
  3. Use the Filters to display the required class by selecting the year, group type, teacher or academic year (Hwb administrators will see all classes in the school however, teachers will only see their own classes).
  4. Click on a class to display information for that group. This will include an overview and a list of all learners in that group.
  5. Click Manage Google Classroom.
  6. Click Unarchive, then OK.

Restoring a pre-populated Google Classroom from a previous academic year

All classrooms created via the User Management Portal are automatically archived at the end of the academic year.

Hwb administrators, School Administrators and Staff are able to restore their classrooms from a previous academic year, by following the simple steps below:

  1. Login to Hwb and go to User Management.
  2. Click Administration: View Groups.
  3. Use the Filters to display the required class by selecting the year, group type, teacher or academic year (Hwb administrators will see all classes in the school, but teachers will only see their own classes).
  4. Click on a class to display information for that group. This will include an overview and a list of all learners in that group.
  5. Click Restore Google Classroom.

Although you can usually restore classrooms quickly, during busier times it can take up to an hour before you are able to see the classroom again. Any restored Classroom will no longer be linked to the schools MIS.

Further Classroom support

We recommend you visit the Google Classroom Help website to learn more about Google Classroom.

Further support for using rubrics can be found on the Google help site.

School timetable sync

School timetable sync with Microsoft 365 or Google calendars, for secondary schools.

You can now synchronise your timetable from your School’s MIS (SIMS) data to your users’ (staff and learners) Hwb Outlook calendar or Hwb Google calendar.

Your school’s Hwb administrator can enable this through the User Management Portal. Once enable this will apply to all MIS staff and learners in your school.

Timetable events from your MIS (SIMS) data will be synced for a rolling period of 6 weeks for staff and 3 weeks for learners. These events will be updated every time the provisioning service runs for your school.

Hwb administrators in secondary schools can enable this for your school. They will need to follow these steps:

  1. Login to Hwb and go to User Management.
  2. Select Timetable Sync in the Administration dropdown.
  3. Select to sync timetable events to Hwb Outlook Calendar or Hwb Google Calendar.
  4. Select Welsh or English for the preferred language of event details for your school.
  5. Click Enable Sync.

Once set, the timetable will sync events into your staff and learners’ personal Hwb calendars the next time the provisioning client runs for your school.

Please note once configured, please contact support@hwbcymru.net, if you need to change any of these settings.

Google Tools

For more information on using google tools Google Workspace Learning Center.

Teaching and learning upgrade

The ‘Teaching and Learning Upgrade’ can be added to Google Workspace for Education to transform learning with:

  • enhanced video communication
  • enriched class experiences
  • integrated tools for more efficiency

Enhanced teaching and learning tools help deliver instructional impact. They make learning more personalised, create classroom efficiencies, and enable teaching and learning from anywhere.

The ‘Teaching and Learning Upgrade’ includes everything in Education Fundamentals, as well as:

  • increased capacity on Google Meet (250 participants and live streams with up to 10,000 in domain viewers)
  • premium engagement features in Google Meet, including interactive Q&A’s, polls, breakout rooms, attendance tracking and more
  • recordings of Google Meet saved to Drive
  • live translated captions during Google Meet
  • Classroom add-ons to directly integrate your favourite tools and content
  • unlimited originality reports and the ability to check for peers matches across a private repository of past student work
  • transform new and existing content into engaging and interactive assignments with practice sets

How to purchase the ‘Teaching and learning upgrade’

Schools can purchase ‘Teaching and Learning Upgrade’ licences via their local authority.

There are 2 annual purchase windows: one closes on 31 July with a further opportunity which closes on 31 October. 

An upgrade licence will cost £2.25 (plus the EdTech Service fee) per user, per month.

Any licences purchased will expire at the end of an academic year (31 August). Licences purchased in the October window are pro-rata’d for cost and term.

Licences purchased by 31 July will expire at the end of the next academic year. For example, licences purchased by 31 July 2024 will expire on 31 August 2025. 

Licence allocation for MIS staff 

Hwb administrators can allocate licences to any MIS staff accounts in the User Management Portal. These are listed under View User: View Staff). 

Individual users

  1. Log in to Hwb and click on User management.
  2. On your ‘Administrator Dashboard’ click on Administration: Manage Google T&L License.
  3. You will see an overview of the allocation of licences for your school followed by a search box and a list of MIS staff. Locate the relevant user using the Search term field as appropriate, for example, type surname and click on the Search.
  4. Click on Allocate Licence next to the relevant user.

It may take up to 1 hour for the licence to be applied to that user. 

Group of users

  1. Log in to Hwb and click on User management.
  2. On your ‘Administrator Dashboard’ click on Administration: Manage Google T&L License.
  3. You will see an overview of the allocation of licences for your school followed by a search box and a list of MIS staff. Click on all the tick boxes to the left of the relevant staff members.
  4. Click on Allocate Licence at the top of the list.

It may take up to 1 hour for the licence to be applied to user(s).

Revoking licenses

Hwb administrators can manually remove a licence:

  1. Log in to Hwb and click on User management.
  2. On your ‘Administrator Dashboard’ click on Administration: Manage Google T&L License.
  3. You will see an overview of the allocation of licences for your school followed by a search box and a list of MIS staff. Locate the relevant user using the Search term field as appropriate, for example, type surname and click on the Search.
  4. Click on Revoke Licence next to the relevant user.

It may take up to 1 hour for the licence to be removed and then available to re-allocate to another user.

All licences remain valid until the end of an academic year. They will automatically be revoked on 31 August. School Hwb administrators must plan to allocate licences at the start of each academic year. 

  • Licences purchased by 31 July will expire at the end of the NEXT academic year. For example, licences purchased by 31 July 2023 will expire on 31 August 2024.
  • Licences purchased by 31 October will expire at the end of that academic year. For example, licences purchased by 31 October 2023 will expire on 31 August 2024.

Licences are automatically removed from deactivated accounts and are made available to be re-allocated in the User Management Portal.

Apps and extensions

Information on how to install and manage apps, extensions and Android apps can be found in the Chromebook Management support article.

The following explains the apps and extensions available on the Hwb Google Workspace for Education domain.

Google 3rd party web applications

These are websites you sign into using your Google account. Examples include games, photo editors, and video players, for example, non-Google websites.

You can no longer sign into 3rd party web applications with your Hwb account.

Removing access to a Google 3rd Party Web Application

If you've previously signed into a 3rd party web application with your Hwb account, this gives the web app access to basic profile information, such as username, first name and surname. Follow these steps to remove that access.

  1. Log into Hwb.
  2. Select Security (from the options down the left hand side of the page).
  3. Under Signing in to Google, locate the app you would like to remove access from.
  4. Click Remove Access.

Google apps and extensions for Chrome

Extensions provide additional functionality for Google Chrome and the websites being viewed in it. For example, they can extend Google Chrome by adding a new button to the address bar, such as an ever-present currency converter.

Google apps (for example, Google Docs) can be configured to appear by default on managed Chromebooks and when users are signed into the Chrome browser.

Users allocated the Google administrator role can install Google apps and extensions for their own school or local authority.

However, apps and extensions that require access to Drive and core applications via Google Workspace API will not be compatible

Managed Google Play Store

The managed Google Play store allows users to choose from carefully selected apps to install on their Hwb managed Chromebooks. The managed play store can also force install and deploy apps on Chromebooks. 

Apps such as Microsoft Teams or Minecraft: Education edition can be easily deployed to Hwb managed Chromebooks.

Users allocated the Google Administrator role can configure and carefully select appropriate applications for their own school or local authority.

However, applications that require access to Drive and core applications via Google Workspace API will not be compatible.

Google Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides add-ons

Google add-ons are not available on the Hwb domain.

Additional Google services

All Google Additional Services are turned off for learners.

Additional Google services are Google applications available through Google Workspace for Education, for example, Google Earth.

Removing access to a Google 3rd Party Web Application

  1. Navigate to https://myaccount.google.com and sign in with your Hwb username and password.
  2. Select Security (from the options down the left hand side of the page).
  3. Under Signing in to Google, locate the app you would like to remove access from
  4. Click Remove Access.

Screencastify extension

Screencastify is available for school staff by default.

The screen recording extension will automatically appear for staff members who sign into the Chrome browser with their Hwb accounts. 

Please note: Screencastify has been reviewed and approved for suitability for teachers only. This app must not be enabled for learners. Any Google administrator enabling this will be breaching the Hwb terms of service.

Screencastify makes it easy for you to:

  • capture a tab, whole screen, or webcam only
  • embed your webcam anywhere in your recording
  • narrate with your microphone
  • record offline (no internet required!)

Users can take advantage of the annotation tools to keep their audience focused on what's important:

  • mouse spotlight
  • drawing pen tool
  • click highlighting

If you use Google Apps, Screencastify will fit into your workflow as it is integrated with Google Drive and Classroom. Recordings autosave to your Google Drive, you can instantly share the Google Drive link or export as an MP4, animated GIF, or MP3.

Further support

The following Google Support pages contain information and tips for using Google Workspace for Education. (These pages are available in English only):

For further support please contact the Hwb Service Desk:

  • First published 02 June 2025
  • Last updated 02 June 2025