Arbor is by far the worst school app I have encountered. It is confusing and consistently makes errors. Messages from the school do not come through properly and it messes up simple things such as tim... See more
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At Arbor, we’re on a mission to transform the way schools work for the better, with brilliant, intuitive tools designed to make a difference. We’re the UK’s most popular cloud-based MIS, and are used by over 5,000 schools and 400 MATs to work more collaboratively, free staff from unnecessary admin and make a measurable improvement to the way they work each day.
Contact info
Floor 8, HYLO, 103-105 Bunhill Row, EC1Y 8LZ, London, United Kingdom
- hello@arbor-education.com
- arbor-education.com
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Pointless i would be better of…
Pointless i would be better of remembering my bloody homework than use this stupid crap
Not user friendly at all
Not user friendly at all, much preferred parent pay
Absolutely ridiculous App
Absolutely ridiculous App. Way too difficult to find what you're looking for. Far worse than the Teacher/Parent App. You have to drill down far too many menus to get to simple tasks like booking meals etc. This App needs to be scrapped and completely re-done. It was definitely not designed with parents in mind.
Homework app is unusable by students
Homework app is unusable by students because homework only is considered submitted when teacher records this. This means that students waste lots of time trying to identify what they have not done. Students need to be able to set their homework task as complete so that it disappears to another tab. Teachers can then confirm its submitted. We have just been told that Arbor will be assigning automatic detentions for ynsubmitted work but this can be due to teachers not confirming work as complete. Awful experience.
Logs you out all the time
Logs you out all the time. Saying password incorrect then the reset email doesn’t arrive! Not very intuitive, especially if you have more than one child registered.
If there was anything less than 1 star
If there was anything less than 1 star, I'd definitely use that cos what sort of user unfriendly app is this! Logs me out for no reason, says my details are incorrect when they are infact correct, refuses to send a change password link, I could go on and on.
Very horrible experience!
1 star is an overstatement
unnecessarily complicated, had much better apps.
false information shown, logs myself and others out so we cant access the app in times of need.
Not sure it's worth one star
Not sure it's worth one star. I have children at 2 different schools and this system is unavailable more times than it works. Reset password emails never send and you are stuck days without access. Total waste of money
Almost as if they TRIED to make it completely inaccessible
Just so so so awful. The kids hate it, parents hate it. Are they paying schools to use this? Could they not pay me? I have absolutely NO idea how to create an app so I'm probably more qualified to do it than the designers. It is almost as if they TRIED to make it completely inaccessible and frustrating.
Absolutely abysmal experience
Absolutely abysmal experience. Sometimes refuses to log in despite both details being correct with it always flashing an error like 'choose school' when it gives you no options. The whole system is laggy and incredibly slow. Do not use.
Terrible and not remotely user friendly
Honestly a truly awful app. It added a payment for one of my children to the other child so I can't book the nursery wrap around in as it put the money on my other child who does not attend nursery.
Incredibly hard to use, they clearly have done absolutely no user accessibility testing which in 2025 should be a core part of any app.
It is so hard to use, takes you forever to find the correct place to pay for things, it doesn't have any kind of calendar feature just a huge list that is really hard to decipher.
Honestly I don't think I have ever hated an App this much. School aren't keen either on it probably because they get lumbered with having to sort stuff because parents are either struggling or unable to sort their own tech issues out, it is like reception now need to be a service desk analyst for a third party. Just awful!
I now need to explain to school what Arbor has done to them to book in wraparound care and somehow transfer the already paid money across to my other child!!!
Truly terrible app!!
Terrible app you are forced to use
Terrible app you are forced to use.
if you are here because you are fed up with this pathetic excuse for a portal. welcome to the club. there is no good reason to use it, other than being forced to
Absolutely terrible user experience
Absolutely terrible user experience, is not showing as mobile compatible, I was disappointed with parent pats lack of repeat feature but this is immensely worse!
Shit app can't sign in to complicated
THIS APP IS AWFUL
thus app is awful it does not let me log on this is a new app in my school and tells me I cant change my password I recommend not using this app
If you live outside the UK and have a…
If you live outside the UK and have a child in school in the UK, which many boarding schools do, Arbor Education will not work for you, the say that the US is unsafe for allowing access.
consistently awful app
consistently awful app. can't believe schools routinely use it? dirt cheap maybe. bugs galore, latest one prevents me from updating meal choice.
From a school’s POV I am finding Arbor…
From a school’s POV I am finding Arbor the worst MIS ever (and I’ve used a few) Spending hours and hours going round and round in circles. Just about ready to pack my lovely job in, all thanks to Arbor. Some of the people helping are lovely BUT they know very little.
Loads of the wrong information was on…
Loads of the wrong information was on arbor for example my child’s middle name and loads more that I am unable to edit I think parents should of more editing control on the app.
Honestly the worst ever app I have…
Honestly the worst ever app I have used.
Not family friendly. Confusing. Can’t even find simple things.
UC is unable to work with it, so if you have support with childcare to work-you can’t get an invoice, you can’t get money!
They mix food, outings and wraparound care together and only show the daily price. No monthly invoice.
Who on earth managed to lie through their teeth to sell it to schools goodness knows. What a waste of money.
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