Managing the Parent Portal and App FAQ

This article covers common questions regarding the management of the Parent Portal and App. If you cannot find an answer to your query in this article, check our dedicated section of the Help Centre here.

Can guardians view or download attachments on the Parent App?

No, guardians cannot view or download attachments on the Arbor Parent App. Attachments can only be accessed from the online Parent Portal.

Can we do a test roll out of the Parent Portal and Parent App?

Once you've followed these instructions to switch on the Parent Portal, any guardians would be able to log in (providing they know how to get to the login page). You don't need to update access in bulk or individually, as this is automatically applied.

However, they won't be automatically notified by email, SMS or any other method that they can log in. To let parents know they can log in, you need to manually send them a welcome email: Sending and resending login details to Guardians

Because Arbor works in this way, you can't switch on the Parent Portal and Parent App for only one or a few guardians. However, you can select a specific guardians to send the welcome email to, have them log in, then send out the login details to the rest of your guardians to give them access in bulk.

Can guardians see pinned notes on the Parent Portal and Parent App?

Most pinnable items on student profiles will not show as pinned notes on the Parent Portal and Parent App. Notes that are not pinned will also not show.

However, for behaviour notes only, you can choose whether to display these or not from the Parent Portal Settings page.

Can guardians see school notices on the Parent Portal and Parent App?

School Notices or 'latest announcements' can only be viewed by staff members logged into Arbor.

• Guardians are not able to view them on the Parent Portal and Parent App.
• Students are not able to view them on the Student Portal.

If you need to send a message to guardians, you can send an in-app message.

You can see more about school notices here: School Notices on your homepage.

Can guardians see Assignments on the Parent Portal and Parent App?

Guardians can see assignments on the Parent Portal and Parent App, but they can't submit assignments on behalf of their children. You can see how this works here: Assignments on the Parent Portal and Parent App

It isn't possible to disable this, switch this off, or prevent assignments from showing.

Can guardians see Medical Events on the Parent Portal and Parent App?

No, medical events are not visible on the Parent Portal or Parent App, in the medical section on their child's profile.

Schools should record medical events via Arbor if they wish to have an electronic copy, and follow their normal procedure to notify guardians. This article explains how to create a medical event for a child: Medical Events (first aid, accidents, checkups etc).

Can parents see UDFs on the Parent Portal or Parent App?

Guardians cannot see any details of User Defined Fields (UDFs) on the Parent Portal or Parent App. This means schools can use UDFs for data they don't wish or need to share with parents.

If you did want to share any information about what data is help in UDFs with guardians, you could share them in an email or SMS: Creating a Mail Merge using data from a Custom Report Writer report.

How do we translate Arbor into other languages for non-English speakers?

Although Arbor itself does not offer direct translation as a feature, most web browsers have translation functionality built into them.

This means that when using the Parent Portal, guardians can set their preferred language in their browser and Arbor will be automatically translated.

Both Chrome and Safari have guidance on how to do this - these are linked below:

• Chrome
• Safari 

When using Ask Arbor to help draft communications, you can add 'Write in [language]' at the bottom of the prompt and it will translate the text into that language.

Can guardians of Guest Pupils access the Parent Portal and Parent App? 

Yes, guardians of Guest Pupils will be able to access the Parent Portal and Parent App. This is because the Guest enrolment mode on their profile still classifies them as attending your school. 

Can we hide a student's calendar or specific events on their timetable from the Parent Portal or App?

No, it is not possible to hide a student's whole calendar or specific events (or event types) the student is invited to (like an intervention) on the Parent Portal. Parents are always able to see the details of their child's schedule on the Parent Portal or App via the calendar.

The only exception to this is the ability to hide next academic year's calendar, more on that here: Prevent users from seeing next year's calendars - Parent Portal

Can guardians see details about interventions on the Parent Portal or App?

Yes, parents can see certain details about an intervention if their child is scheduled to attend this event.

Important Note: If you have sensitive intervention names (e.g., "Social Skills Support"), remember that parents will see exactly what the intervention is called if it is scheduled on the timetable. Many schools use coded names or broader titles (like "Pastoral Session") to maintain student privacy.

The visibility of Intervention features on the Portal and App is as follows:

• Intervention Name/Time - This is visible to parents if the intervention is scheduled (i.e. if it appears on the student's calendar). To hide this, ensure the student is not a scheduled participant in an intervention session. Moe on this here.
• Intervention Progress/Goals - This is not visible to parents. This data is strictly for staff.
• Intervention Costs/Notes - This is not visible to parents. This data is strictly for staff.
• Intervention Attendance - This is only indirectly visible through any roll call marks that might be affected by the intervention attendance. If the intervention does not count towards a student's roll call mark, this is not visible.
• Behaviour Awards in Intervention Sessions - If the points scale the [oints are awared in, these are visible. To disable this, you would need to remove the visibility of the whole scale in your Parent Portal Settings.