Parent Portal and Parent App Settings

Go to Students > Parents & Guardians > Parent Portal Settings. On this page, you can update the settings to enable or prevent guardians from accessing certain data. You can also switch on or off access to the Parent Portal and Parent App from this page. 

Before turning on the Parent Portal, make sure you check to make sure the right amount of data will be displayed to parents. Although you can amend this at any time, setting your preferences before turning the Parent Portal on ensures no extra data is shared.

Top Tip: Switching this on will show all past, present and future data in this area. This cannot be changed. For example, switching on behaviour will show all past incidents, points etc.

Permissions

You will need the General Admin: Administer permission. If you don't have the permission, you'll need to ask your admin team to give you permission using these instructions.

Checking and Amending Parent Portal Settings

Go to Students > Parents and guardians > Parent portal Settings.

Activities

Click one of the fields to choose whether to show clubs or trips on the Parent Portal. This means that parents can see clubs/trips the student is eligible for, participating in and has attended, as well as sign up and pay for new clubs (If your school has enabled card payments).

If they are on, this will display on the dashboard and will also show on the student's profile.

Assessments

Click one of the fields to choose whether to show Progress results or curriculum tracking.

If they are on, this will display on the dashboard and will also show on the student's profile.

Attendance

Click the field to choose whether to show Attendance.

If this is on, this will display on the dashboard and will also show on the student's profile.

Behaviour

In Behaviour, you can choose to display Notes, Detentions, Behavioral Incidents and Point Award Scales.

Please note that neutral behaviour points and incidents are not reported in the Parent Portal and Parent App.

Click at the top to edit whether Notes and Detentions are displayed.

You can choose whether positive or negative incidents are displayed to parents - great if you want to share your positive incidents but not your negative ones! 

Please note, both types of incidents will automatically be set as Off, so if you would like them to display on the parent portal, click to toggle the feature.

If this is on, this will display on the dashboard and will also show on the student's profile.

You can choose whether each of your Behaviour Point Award Scales is displayed to parents - great if you want to share your positive scale but not your negative one! You can also toggle whether to include the comments, who the points were awarded by and in which event.

Change the field to Yes, show point scale and click Save Changes. 

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The points will then be displayed on the Parent Portal.

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Examinations

You can choose to display the Examinations Timetable for the current and past academic years and allow parents to download it as a PDF. You can also make available the statement of entry and exam results (including In-house exam results). Results will only be available to view once the embargo date and time you’ve chosen has passed.

These features are automatically off by default.

Communications

In Communications, you can choose to display and enable In-app messages. In-app messages are an easy and free way to communicate non-time-critical information with guardians. For more information on using In-app messages, see this article.

Payments

Showing accounts enables parents to see balances and make card payments for Meals, Clubs or Trips.

It also determines whether parents can see an overall balance for their accounts.

Top Tip: This will show as £0 if the balances are all 0 or all positive. This has been designed this way so that a positive account balance on one account does not hide a negative amount outstanding on another account.

This feature is on by default. If you want to switch this off, click the Payments total field, change this to No, do not show payments total, then click Save Changes.

You can choose to:

• Show payment accounts but not the Payments total
• Show both
• Show neither

Top Tip: You must have selected to show accounts to be able to show Payments total - you can't show the Payments total without showing accounts.

You can also choose whether to display each Customer Account Type set up on the parent portal - useful if some accounts are for school use only. This also determines what accounts parents can make card payments for.

You can also complete this action from the School > Payments > Setup > Customer Account Types page. Click here to find out how.

If you choose to switch everything off, it'll look like this, and parents won't be able to see or top up their balances.

Student Details

Manage how much student information the parent can see and edit on their child's Student Profile. Please note that the changes may have to be approved by the school. See the section below for more information.

Click a field to edit these settings.

Automatic/Manual Acceptance of Student Record changes

Using the settings in the Security & Privacy section, you can toggle whether parents can edit basic details about themselves and their children. Remember, that it is only Primary Guardians that will have access to the Parent Portal.

If you do not want Arbor to auto-accept changes without any administration checks or approval from the school, then make sure it is set to 'No, do not auto-accept student record changes'.

If you select 'No, do not auto-accept student record changes', then you will be able to accept or decline requests to change said information in the Data Quality Dashboard. To see how to do this, click here.

Enabling access to Parent Portal

When you are ready, click into the Security & Privacy section to switch on your Parent Portal (and enable them to use the Parent App too).

• Change Parent login to Yes to enable Primary Guardians of your current students to log in. These are guardians of students who are currently enrolled in your school, and students who have a future enrolment date.
• Change Applicant parents login to Yes to enable Primary Guardians of your applicants to log in. These are applicants to your school for this or future years who have an application status that is not Enrolled, Withdrawn or Rejected - read more about this process here