Arbor Education Reviews 

Absolutely awful. The interface is so desperately confusing. There is no way to update things. I just.. why would anybody use this?

The user interface is absolute terrible and I hate that school imposes this on us as parents and then we have no choice but to use it. I dread to think what schools pay for it as it’s simply not fit for purpose. The reviews on the App Store and here should be putting schools off using it but I fear not. It makes me angry at the school. The admin staff at school are in a difficult position having to deal with technical issues that aren’t their fault. I’m sure they hate Arbor as well.

Only getting a star because I had to give one. Absolutely unfit for purpose. The 2 years I've used this app daily at my sons school has been the most stressful, frustrating, maddening time of my life

Terrible app, just use classcharts.

Worse than Parentmail, which is saying something. Like Parentmail they offer no support and direct to the school for anything (so any bug report is impossible to make). Unlike Parentmail it's impossible to have reminders for meal orders so it's much easier to forget. The UI is terrible and the UX is abysmal.

Absolute joke! In keeping with everything in this country! Unregulated capitalism. Some tossers are making money out of it. Embarrassing! I've given up. They are obviously in bed with some of these academies. We are going backwards and I hate all of it.

The most frustrating app I’ve ever had to use.
When marking absence I’m there for so long trying to log in it frustrates me adding to an already stressful morning of having the kids unwell etc

You can only mark absence the morning of

1 star is generous, why can’t we give zero? This app is beyond bad, terrible UI and UX. And a long list of bad reviews over years shows that they don’t care.

This is the most user-friendly piece of software i have ever used. I can only think that zero research and communication with schools and colleges was ever done. Everything is long winded not easily accessible and not always correct.
If you are a school thinking of investing i would think again

Arbor is undisputedly the worst homework app to use from a student's side. I don't know what it's like for the parent and staff counterparts, but it's inconvenient, messy, lacks so many typical features and is generally rubbishly designed. It does not have a notification feature. Teachers have to MANUALLY set each homework to be completed and therefore, there are always around 15 overdue assignments which have been completed! It lacks the ability to integrate with calendar apps or anything. If you're a school, don't use Arbor! It is awful and there are many more bad things I have not highlighted.

Rubbish app, no customer service for parents, the school moved to this app and its not working g from the start

Shockingly bad. The worst school app I've ever used and this is the third (kids in different schools due to moving/age gaps)
I don't have the time to type everything wrong with it. Infuriating

Dear Sir / Madam, We Request Mr.YEDHUKRISHNAN S/o C.KRISHNAN NAI, No.17F DD Tech Valley, Kulathoor , kazhakuttam. To Contact Bank To Repay His Loan Availed From Our Branch PERUMKADAVILA During The Year 2009-2013 For B.E ECE Course. Thank You Sir.

Why is it that I use the website, and I have to always sign in? Like bro, have they even invented "Remember me" checkboxes yet? We're going to go back to 2001 at this rate. Like, I'd rather have my school still use Sachel One because at least they are nicer.

What a steaming pile of worthless coding! Who even coded this website? A sixth form work experience student circa 2003? Sadly our school moved from parentpay to arbor, I can only imagine as a way to save money.
We are a quarter of the way through the 21st century and yet here we have a web portal not even optimised for phone use. You h e to endlessly scroll around a desktop page. Drop down menus disappear forcing you to flip between portrait and landscape to get a glimpse. Pointless sections on children’s hearing tests, health status and attendance. The fact that I’ve given up five minutes of my own time to write this review should stand as testament to how poor the user experience is.
If your school suggests switching please advise them not to!

My school switched from class charts to arbor and honestly I wish we hadn't. Arbor doesn't do anything that class charts didn't do but instead less, for example I got a negative and there is no way too who gsve me the negative or why so I'm left here confused because I did nothing and rarely get negatives

Worst app ever. Click to save password. It never saves
I have to set aside 15 mins each time I want to log on. Always says wrong password
Once you finally get in it’s not set to be used on a phone
Worst app ever
The school are prob paying a fortune

my piss became purple because of this

The Arbor system is antiquated by every modern IT metric.

When I tried to report an absence for my child, the school instructed me to “click the green button.” There is no green button. The interface relies entirely on color cues — a serious accessibility failure for anyone who is colorblind. I only discovered there was even a website (in addition to the broken app) after reading other reviews here.

It’s obvious this platform is a fork of an early-2000s open-source ERP. The design is dated and confusing: I can’t select my child by name — only by school. Yes, in 2025, I have to guess the correct child from a school list to reach the right profile. To switch, I must force-close the app because there’s no return option.
Do not have multiple children in schools using this system — it simply can’t handle it. In fact, it doesn’t even handle multiple children under one parent properly: you must create separate logins and passwords for each child.

The app’s priorities are equally baffling. The first thing displayed is how much money I owe — not attendance, not timetable, not messages. Typical actions like “report absence” are buried or nonexistent. The “Help” button simply opens a generic webpage — no context, no guidance.

The worst part: Arbor handles card payments yet provides no valid proof of purchase. No email confirmation, no PDF, no transaction ID, no date, no card reference — nothing that would qualify as a receipt.

From a parent’s perspective, there’s nothing positive to say. It’s a broken, outdated, inaccessible system that fails at every task it claims to handle.

Pointless i would be better of remembering my bloody homework than use this stupid crap