Overview: Parent/guardian accounts

Want to watch the video above when you're not signed into Unifrog? Here's the link.

Here is what parents can do on Unifrog, and how these accounts are set up.
 

***Quick links to related guides***
If you have a teacher account, here are some related guides about parent accounts:

• How to create parent accounts
• Introducing parents to Unifrog: For international schools, For UK schools
• Managing parent accounts

In a nutshell

This special sort of Unifrog account allows a parent to: 

• Stay up to date: See their child’s next tasks, unfinished actions, upcoming events, placements, and the interactions added by their teachers
• Try out: Try all our student tools, from the quizzes to the libraries and university and apprenticeships search tools
• Learn: Find events (like webinars and fairs) and guides aimed at parents and caregivers
• Stay in touch: Sign up to our monthly parent newsletter (which tells parents and caregivers about news and opportunities to do with careers and progression).

To create an account:

• First: A parent has to have their email address added by the school to their child’s Unifrog profile, in the dedicated fields for parents/caregivers.
• Then: A parent can create their account either by using SSO on the normal Sign in page, or by using their email address on this page. 

Once a parent has created their account, from then onwards they can sign in on the normal sign-in page, using either their email and password, or SSO.

How do schools and colleges add parent email addresses to students’ profiles?
 

• IF YOUR SCHOOLS USES OUR MIS-SYNC INTEGRATION:
  
  Parent email addresses can be synced as part of the normal integration. This is an optional permission for the school to give Unifrog.
   
• IF YOUR SCHOOL DOESN'T USE OUR MIS-SYNC INTEGRATION:
  
  Use one of the following methods:
   
  • In bulk: Complete the ‘Student parent CSV’ template that is available here in Help, then send it back to us. We will use the file you send us to populate the fields.
     
  • Student-by-student: Teachers with editing permissions can add parent email addresses for students one-by-one on the Edit basics page of a student’s profile on the teacher side. 
     
  • On the Grid editor: Teachers with editing permissions can use the Grid editor view of the Manage page to quickly add and edit parent email addresses for multiple students. On this page, first pick the right school leaving year, then select ‘Parent/Caregiver’ as the field to edit.

Pro tip: As well as being how schools and colleges add parent email addresses to the platform, the above methods are also how teachers can edit parent email addresses. 

How does a parent open their own account?

As long as a parent first has their email address added against their child on the teacher side of Unifrog, a parent can create their parent account here (by either entering their email, or by using Google SSO (Microsoft SSO doesn't work for parents).

If a parent is unable to create their account, this is because either:

• Their email address hasn’t been linked to their child’s profile on Unifrog
• Their child doesn’t have a Unifrog account.

In both cases, the parent should contact their child’s school or college.

Does a parent need an account in order to get the parent daily summary emails?

Parent daily summary emails show parents what their child has been up to on Unifrog the day before, for example what shortlists they have made and what comments they've been sent by teachers. Schools and colleges can choose to have these emails switched on or off. If you're a teacher, you can see if your school/college has these emails switched on here.

A parent does not need to have a Parent account to receive these emails, they just need to have had their email address added for their child in the parent/caregiver field. 

If a school/college has these emails switched on, individual parents can opt out via a button in the emails, and also - if they do have a parent account - on their Settings page.

What will happen to 2050 student accounts?

Previously, we allowed parents to create ‘dummy’ student accounts (with their own separate leaving year, set to 2050) to explore the platform. If a parent has done this in the past, and they now create their parent account, the two will merge into one.

2050 accounts have now been discontinued - it is no longer possible to create them. Remaining 2050 accounts will be deleted in a few months. This won’t affect parents’ ability to create a parent account.

What happens if a parent has multiple children with Unifrog accounts, and at different schools?

As long as their email address has been added in the parent/caregiver field for each child, parents will see all their children in their account, even if the children are at different schools or colleges, and even if one child is at a primary school, and another at a secondary school.
 

What information about their child can a parent see?

Here is the information about their child that a parent can see:

BASIC INFORMATION: 

Student name, last login, form name, class teachers

UNIFROG USAGE INFORMATION: 

Parents have very limited access to what a student and their teachers have done on Unifrog. For example, a parent cannot see the results of quizzes a student has taken, the guides they've read or favourited, the events they've signed up to, the skills or activities they've recorded, the opportunities they've shortlisted, the essays or CVs they've drafted, the feedback or comments that teachers have sent them or that they've sent teachers, or applications the student is making or is intending to make.

The things parents can see are designed to help a parent have useful conversations with their child, in particular regarding what opportunities are open to their child. Here's what a parent can see:

• Placements
  • If they are the parent added for a specific placement (ie on the Student initial form): They can see the status of and review the information added by their child, and by the employer, in the forms completed before the placement takes place (the Student initial form and the Employer initial form).
  • If they are not the parent added for a placement: They can see the status of, but cannot open, the before-placement forms.
  • Regardless of whether they are the named parent for a placement: They can see the status of, but cannot open, the during placement forms (the check-in forms, and the logbook), and the post-placement forms (the employer review form, and the student reflection form).
     
• Latest interactions
  A summary of interactions added for the child by their teachers. Schools can choose to switch off for all parents the ability to see these. Whatever settings a school chooses, parents cannot see details added by teachers into the ‘Details’ field which students see, or the ‘Notes for teachers’ field; instead, there is a special ‘Details for parents’ field. We only show parents interactions added after 1 October 2025.
   
• Next tasks
  The next three tasks that the platform suggests the student does on Unifrog. For example, depending on what a student has done so far on the platform, a student's next task might be to start drafting their CV/Resumé. A parent cannot see the tasks their child has already completed.
   
• Unfinished actions
  Things their child has started to do on Unifrog but hasn't finished yet. The parent might be able to see, for example, ‘Personal statement: Min character count not reached’, or ‘UK universities shortlist: not saved yet'. A parent can't click in to see more about the actions - for example, they can't see their child's draft statement, or what programmes are in their child's unsaved shortlist.
   
• Upcoming events
  The names and timings of up to three upcoming Unifrog webinars and fairs that their child could attend. Parents can't see whether or not their child has signed up to events.

Can a parent see information about the other parent?

On Unifrog each student has two fields for parent details. If both of these are filled by the student's school, when a parent is looking at their child's profile, they can see: the name of the other parent, whether the other parent is signed up to notifications, and the last time the other parent logged in. They cannot see the other parent's email address.
 

Does a school/college need to get permission from parents before adding their details to the platform?

No, the school/college does not need to get parents' consent before adding their details to the Unifrog platform, they can rely on legitimate interests. The school/college and Unifrog have a legitimate interest in inviting parents to create their own Unifrog accounts, so that parents can view more information about their child's activities and opportunities on Unifrog, helping parents to support their children in relation to their decisions about careers, apprenticeships and higher education, improving outcomes for children. Parents can ask for their email addresses to be removed at any time, which is explained in our privacy policy. Unifrog has conducted a legitimate interest assessment as required by the GDPR; read it here.

What if a student does not want their parent associated with their account?

A student can see in their Settings if they have parent details added for them, and they can see if these parents have associated parent accounts. If the student wants to have these details removed, they can ask their school/college to remove them.

When are parent accounts deleted?

A parent can delete their account whenever they want to via a button for this on their Settings page.

A school / college cannot delete a parent account, because a parent account does not belong to a specific school or college. A parent account is a standalone account, which is linked to a specific student or students. 

However, a school or college can unlink a parent from a student at their school by removing the parent's email address from the field for ‘Parent / guardian email address’ in the student's ‘Edit basics’ page. This will:

• Remove the parent from the school's system on Unifrog, so they no longer appear anywhere for the school (unless they have another child at the same school, who hasn't been unlinked)
• Remove the student from the parent's account - so when the parent next logs in, they won't see anything at all about that child. 
  • If the parent has other children linked on Unifrog, they will continue to see information on their other children, and to see the upcoming parent events and parent guides.
  • If the parent has no other children linked on Unifrog, they will see only the parent guides and nothing else.

A parent account is deleted automatically from Unifrog when either of these two things happens:

• They haven't had any students linked to their account for 2 years
• It's been 4 years since the last of their linked children graduated school

What happens to a parent's account when their child is alumnified?

When a student is turned into an alumnus on Unifrog, their parent (if linked to the student) sees only this child's name, school name and form group, and the fact they are an alumnus. The parent no longer has the option to use the student side of the platform as this child, or to see parent events. The parent continues to access the parent guides, until their account gets automatically deleted.

‘Next steps’: a monthly newsletter for parents and caregivers

Parents and caregivers can sign up to ‘Next steps’, our monthly newsletter for parents. What's in it?

• An upcoming parent event (e.g. a webinar on supporting your child with applying to uni)
• A guide for parents (e.g. ‘How to support your child with dyslexia’)
• A feature from one of our university or employer partners (e.g. an upcoming apprenticeship opportunity with Lloyds Banking Group)
• 'Dates for your diary' (e.g. upcoming open days, apprenticeship deadlines, and university deadlines)
• 'Data bites' (a snapshot of 3 stats to do with careers/next steps, like LMI data, or the number of students who applied for a degree in psychology last year) 

Why are parent accounts so important?

A lot research suggests that parents and caregivers are the most important influencers when it comes to young people deciding on their next steps after school. We even found this in our own student survey last year, where 72% of students said they go to parents and caregivers for advice about their future, more than picked any other sort of influencer.

The new accounts are designed to help parents and caregivers support their children to find their best next steps for them after school or college. Parents and caregivers can explore the platform like their children do, see their children’s next tasks and unfinished business, see summaries of interactions added by teachers for their children, and sign up to events specifically aimed at parents and caregivers.