What the Front Office Needs to Know About Atlas: A Non-Academic Admin's Guide
Atlas is primarily used by teachers and coordinators - but front office and administrative staff often end up managing accounts, fielding questions, and supporting access. This guide explains what Atlas is, what you might be asked to do in it, and what to leave to the academic team.
If you are a front office or administrative assistant at a school that uses Atlas, you may find yourself fielding questions about it without ever having had a proper introduction to what it actually does. Atlas is a curriculum mapping platform - it is where teachers and coordinators document what is taught, when, and how it connects to academic standards and frameworks. It is not a student-facing tool and parents do not log in to it.
Your role in Atlas is likely to be administrative rather than academic - managing accounts, supporting access, and occasionally helping the curriculum team with tasks that fall outside their technical comfort zone. This guide explains what you need to know to do that confidently.
Good to know: Atlas content - the actual curriculum maps, unit plans, and standards alignments - is best to avoid editing unless a coordinator has specifically asked you to.
What Atlas Is - and What It Is Not
Atlas is a tool for teachers and curriculum coordinators to document and review what is taught across the school. It is used for:
- Mapping curriculum units across subjects and year levels
- Aligning teaching to IB frameworks, national standards, or school-defined learning outcomes
- Providing evidence for accreditation reviews
- Supporting curriculum review and planning conversations between staff
Atlas is not used for:
- Student grades, attendance, or academic records
- Parent or student login - families do not have Atlas accounts. If you have chosen to share a public view of your curriculum, you can provide this direct link to those that reach out.
The Admin Tasks You Are Most Likely to Be Asked to Do
Adding new staff accounts
When a new teacher joins the school, they may need an Atlas account to access and contribute to curriculum maps in their subject. Adding a user in Atlas requires an admin-level account. You will need the teacher's name, email address, and the subject or programme they are joining. Once added, the teacher will receive a welcome email - let them know to check their spam folder if it does not arrive promptly.
Before adding a new account, confirm with the curriculum coordinator what access level the teacher needs. In Atlas, access can be scoped to specific subjects - a teacher should generally only have edit access to the subjects they teach, not to the whole school's curriculum maps.
Deactivating staff accounts when someone leaves
When a teacher or coordinator leaves the school, their Atlas account should be deactivated promptly. This is part of your standard staff offboarding checklist. Deactivating an account in Atlas does not delete the curriculum content they created - their units and maps remain in the system under the subject they worked on. The curriculum coordinator will need to review and reassign ownership of any units that were assigned specifically to the departing staff member.
Resetting passwords and login issues
If a teacher cannot log in to Atlas, the most common causes are a forgotten password or an expired invite link. You can send a password reset from the user's account settings in Atlas. If a teacher says they never received their welcome email, check the email address on file and resend - and ask them to check spam. If the issue persists, raise it with FariaSupport.
Pulling access for an external reviewer or accreditor
Schools preparing for IB or accreditation reviews sometimes need to give a visiting reviewer temporary read-only access to Atlas. This requires creating a guest account with view-only permissions. Confirm the reviewer's email address and the scope of what they need to see, then create the account with the appropriate access level. Set a reminder to deactivate the account after the review is complete.
Questions You Might Be Asked - and How to Answer Them
"Where do I find the curriculum maps for a particular subject?"
This is a question for the curriculum coordinator, not the front office. You can direct the person to the coordinator, or if you have view access in Atlas yourself, you can navigate to the relevant subject and year level and show them where the units are - but do not interpret or explain curriculum content, as that is the coordinator's domain.
"Can I export the curriculum maps to share with an external reviewer?"
Atlas has export functionality for curriculum maps - typically as PDF or structured data exports. This is something the curriculum coordinator should manage, as they will know which maps are ready to share and in what format. If the coordinator asks you to run the export, confirm with them exactly which programmes, subjects, and year levels they want included before you start.
"A teacher says they cannot edit a unit - how do I fix this?"
Check the teacher's access settings in Atlas and confirm they have edit permissions for the relevant subject. If their permissions look correct and they still cannot edit, check whether the unit is set to read-only or locked - some coordinators lock units to prevent edits during certain periods. This is a content decision for the coordinator, not a technical fix from admin.
What to Leave to the Academic Team
As a general rule, anything involving the content of curriculum maps should be handled by teachers and coordinators, not admin. This includes:
- Creating, editing, or deleting units or curriculum maps
- Aligning units to standards frameworks
- Deciding which standards or frameworks should be imported or used
- Reviewing or approving curriculum content
- Deciding which users can see or edit specific subjects
If you are asked to make a change to curriculum content - even something that seems minor, like correcting a unit title - check with the curriculum coordinator first. A unit title is often connected to standards alignment and reporting in ways that are not immediately visible.
In Summary
- Atlas is a curriculum planning tool for teachers and coordinators - parents and students do not use it, and it does not hold student grades or attendance data.
- Your admin role in Atlas is likely to cover accounts, access, and login issues - not curriculum content.
- Add new staff with subject-scoped access, deactivate leavers promptly, and set time-limited access for any external reviewers.
- Do not edit curriculum content without explicit instruction from a coordinator - even minor-looking changes can have academic implications.
If you encounter an Atlas account or access issue you cannot resolve, contact FariaSupport through your school's plan. Include the affected user's email address and a brief description of the problem.