Most organisations won't need to deal with most of the features here such as routing and hosts. There are some useful things to configure in the 'User settings' however. We've set out some useful configurations below: (top tip - use the 'Search settings' feature to quickly get to the relevant setting)

Disable POP and IMAP access.

• This means that users have to use the Gmail web interface or mobile app and means you won't have to troubleshoot Thunderbird or Microsoft Outlook

Sharing settings

You may want to restrict younger students from sharing outside the domain here. You can also un-check the box to enable users to create Team Drives.

Migration settings

Check this box if you are going to be using Team Drives as it will enable users to move files from their personal Google Drive into a Team Drive.

Manage Team Drives

Get an overview of all Team Drives in your domain and manage membership permissions

Data Access

We would recommend not allowing the Backup and Sync Application or Google Drive for Mac/PC. This mitigates the risk of sharing potentially corrupted files across PCs.

Resources

Resources are entities that can be booked out by specified users via their Google Calendar interface and are great for shared Chromebooks/devices, meeting rooms and mini buses. Think of them as a digital version of a first-come, first-served paper sign up sheet stuck to the notice board in the staff room! This Google Support article explains everything you need to know to get them setup.

Teacher permissions

You can control who in your domain has the ability to create Google Classrooms. If you select 'Verified teachers only' then only teachers who you put in the groups called classroom_teachers@yourdomain.com will be able to create Classrooms.

Guardian access

The guardians functionality allows parent/guardian emails to be associated with students and they can opt in to receive daily or weekly summaries of the work their child does in Classroom. As an admin, you can turn this functionality off, or restrict teachers from adding parent emails here.

Hangouts is an instant chat service and video conferencing tool. Within the settings we would recommend that you have selected to keep the chat history on - this also means that all conversations are backed up via Google Vault. If you are concerned about students using Hangouts chat inappropriately, you may wish to turn Hangouts off for your student organisation.

If you wish, you can restrict organisations from creating and editing sites. Please note that the sharing permissions of Sites is taken from the Drive sharing permissions.

For example, if you have restricted students to only sharing within the school domain, they will only be able to make a site that is visible to users within your school (i.e. not a public site). This is worth bearing in mind if you would like students to make Google Sites e-portfolios that they would like to share with their parents.

Google Vault is a tool that archives mail and Drive data within your domain. You can opt to make some users exempt from this by turning Vault off for certain organisations. Find out more about Vault here.