The Arbor parent app: a parent's guide
Logging in, what the app shows, booking parents' evening before the slots go, giving consent, paying with Arbor Pay, and getting a second parent onto the account.
By The AskBobbie team · 29 September 20261 min read
Arbor is the management system behind a large share of English academies, and its parent app is where absence, clubs, consent, bookings and sometimes payments live. It is good once you know its habits. These are the habits.
Getting in
The school sends a welcome email to the address it holds for you. Press the link, set a password, and download the Arbor app (or use the website; both work). Your login is that email. If the link has expired, use Forgot password with the same email.
If two of you should see it, the office must add the second parent as a guardian with their own email. It cannot be done from the app.
What you will see
- Dashboard: today's timetable, attendance, notices.
- Calendar: school events the office has published (not the class ones from ClassDojo or the newsletter).
- Clubs: sign up and, in some schools, pay.
- Consent: trips and activities that need a tick.
- Parents' evening: booking, when open.
- Payments, if the school uses Arbor Pay: dinner money, trips.
- Messages: what the school has sent you, and a reply box in some schools.
Parents' evening
The email says when bookings open. Be in the app at that minute: Parents' evening, pick the teacher, pick a slot, confirm. A confirmation email follows; no email, no booking. See getting a slot and using the ten minutes.
Consent and payment
Like ParentPay, consent and payment are separate. A trip needing both shows two things to do. Do both, and check the item shows both done.
A second email
Arbor writes to whatever email the school holds. To have its emails read for you as well, ask the office to add your Bobbie address as a second contact email, or forward Arbor's emails with a rule from your own mailbox. See giving the school your address.
Further reading
Questions people ask
- I can't log in to Arbor.
- The login is the email the school holds for you, and the first time you set a password from the link the school emails. If the link has expired, use Forgot password on the app with the same email. If the email itself is wrong, only the office can change it.
- Can both parents use Arbor?
- Yes, if the school has both of you as guardians with an email each. Ask the office to add the second parent; they cannot be added from the app.
- Why do I get the email before the app notification?
- Arbor sends the email at once and the push notification through the app store's service, which can lag. For anything time-sensitive, like parents' evening bookings opening, trust the email.