This guide explains how Pendulum access, user groups, school-facing permissions, email alerts and report settings work together.
A user’s access to Pendulum depends on two areas:
- Nexus access - controls which schools the user can access and create visits for.
- Pendulum access - controls which visit types they can create and which areas of Pendulum they can use.
Access levels
A user needs the correct combination of Nexus and Pendulum permissions to access the right schools and features.
Nexus access determines which schools an adviser has access to.
Pendulum access determines the type of visits they can create and the areas they can access within Pendulum.
Nexus access
Restricted users
A restricted Nexus user can only create and view records for schools they are associated with.
These schools can be assigned by a Nexus user with the relevant permissions. To do this, go to Admin > Users, select the user, then open the Schools tab.
From here, select a school from the dropdown list and click Add.
You do not need to set a role for the adviser to allow them to create records of visits for the school.
If you set their role as School Improvement Partner, the user will appear as the LA Adviser within the school details in Nexus.
Standard users
A standard Nexus user can create and view records for all schools within the LA.
Standard users can still be assigned schools within Nexus, but this only affects their My Schools group. They will still be able to view details for all other schools in the LA.
Pendulum access
While Nexus access controls which schools a user can work with, Pendulum access controls which visit types they can create and which Pendulum areas they can access.
The description of each permission is shown in brackets in Nexus.
These permissions are managed from the Privileges tab within the user’s details in Nexus.
Super Visit Manager: This permission gives additional access where an LA has group or team restrictions in place. If restrictions are enabled, users can only view visit records for their assigned groups, except Super Visit Managers, who can view across the LA.
Removing Pendulum access
If you want to block a user’s access to Pendulum, but still allow them to view visits created by others from the school dashboard, enable Can Access Visits Tab (within school's page).
To remove a user’s access to Pendulum and remove their access to visits from the school dashboard, untick Can Access Visits Tab (within school's page) and set their Pendulum access permission to Denied.
User groups
User groups allow you to group users who create similar visit types. This also makes it easier to filter and find visit records within Pendulum.
A Nexus user with the Can Manage User Groups permission can create and manage groups from Admin > User Groups.
To create a new group, click New Group, then enter a name for the group.
To add a user to a group, select them from the Users not in group list, then click Add.
Restricted user groups
User groups can also be restricted. This means advisers can only view visit records for the groups they belong to.
This can be useful if groups of advisers create more sensitive records that should only be available to specific users.
To explore restricted user groups, please email pendulum@angelsolutions.co.uk.
Perspective and Perspective Lite
Perspective and Perspective Lite are school-facing systems that allow schools to view records of visits created by your LA in Pendulum.
Visit records are available to schools from the Records of Visits section in Perspective or Perspective Lite.
For more information on how schools access visits, see the Perspective Lite Records of Visit help guide.
A school user’s Perspective or Perspective Lite permissions determine what they can see regarding visits. For more information, see the Perspective Lite User Permissions guide.
Emails and alerts
Pendulum can send several email alerts and digests to advisers, administrators and schools.
Focus Visit alerts
When a Focus Visit is completed, the headteacher is sent an email to let them know that the visit is available.
After the headteacher gives feedback on a visit, whether accurate or inaccurate, an email is sent to the adviser of the visit record.
For more information, see the Focus Visits guide.
School digests
Perspective Lite users with visits access receive a weekly digest email containing relevant visit updates from the previous 7 days.
This can include Focus Visits that need to be reviewed and Other/Cluster Visits made available to the school during that time.
Adviser digests
An LA can enable a weekly digest for advisers. This includes details of forthcoming visits, visits still in draft and Focus Visits marked inaccurate.
Contact pendulum@angelsolutions.co.uk for more information.
Admin digests
An LA can nominate specific users to receive a monthly Pendulum digest.
This digest includes an export containing details of all visits created in Pendulum during the previous month.
Contact pendulum@angelsolutions.co.uk for more information.
Report cover defaults
Pendulum works with Nexus to pull key information into visit PDF reports.
You can choose which options appear on PDF report covers for your LA by going to Pendulum > Admin > Report Cover Defaults.
Tick the options you want to include on visit reports.
The following fields come from the visit record:
- Term
- Focus
- Reference
- Additional Advisers
- Attendees
Note: This area sets the LA-wide default for report cover options. Pendulum users can still select custom report cover options when writing reports for individual schools.
The Headteacher name is pulled from the currently registered headteacher on the school’s Perspective or Perspective Lite account.
The Latest Ofsted grade is pulled directly from the Ofsted website.
The LA category, LA grade, RAG Rating and LA Target grade come from the Groups tab on the school dashboard.
Report preferences
By default, previous actions for a school appear on visit PDFs. This allows users to review outcomes and actions from previous meetings or visits.
To turn this off, go to Pendulum > Admin > Report Preferences, untick Show previous actions in the visit report, then click Save.
This turns off previous actions for all future visit PDF downloads.
To control which actions appear more specifically, use the dropdowns to include actions based on their status and term.