FAQ
The move to Arbor
Background
For over two decades the school has used a product called SIMS as the school information system.
Capita, the company who developed SIMS, sold it in 2020 to a private equity group that also includes ParentPay.
In November 2021 the new owners informed all schools across the country that they were changing their licensing terms to a 3-year rolling contract. Simply accepting this change would have put the academy in breach of procurement law. The trust therefore undertook a full cost/benefit analysis of SIMS versus the available alternatives. Having reviewed all the options, the trust took the decision that Arbor would be a better long-term fit for its schools.
Arbor is a newer system, built for multi-academy trusts, as opposed to SIMS that was developed for single school usage. Migrating to Arbor will help us better support the running and management of all schools in the trust.
EduLink is a third-party program, built purposely for making SIMS more accessible. Unfortunately, at present Edulink does not integrate with Arbor.
We are aware of some current shortcomings with the Arbor app and have passed these on to their development team. In the meantime, please use the more fully-featured web version of Arbor if the app does not yet support a specific function. This is available at:
There is also a link to Arbor on the homepage of the school website.
Logging in to Arbor
However we are aware that some parents may not have received the message.
Student have to use the Arbor website; there is currently no app for student use. The link to the website is:
There is a also link to this on the homepage of the school website.
User Guides
There are two guides available to help Parents and Carers
The “Getting Started” guide for the Arbor Parent App is available at:
https://support.arbor-education.com/hc/en-us/articles/360020147458-Getting-started-Log-into-the-Parent-Portal-and-the-Arbor-App
Additionally “A quick introduction to Arbor for guardians and parents” can be found here:
https://support.arbor-education.com/hc/en-us/articles/212097029-The-Arbor-Parent-Portal-quick-introduction#logging-in-0-0
The Arbor website and app
At present the app only shows the current lesson and the next; we have raised this with Arbor's development team.
Please use the website version of Arbor in the meantime to see the full timetable.
There is a guide to this here:
No, you don't have to use the app. You can go to the website instead if that's more convenient.
The address is https://login.arbor.sc/
Not at present.
Students need to login to Arbor using the link on the school website or the student portal. The link is
They should log in by using the same email address and password as in school.
If there are any issues, please contact itsupport@notleyhigh.com
Yes, as soon as teachers set homework in Arbor, it will be visible to parents/carers.
Homework is called "Assignments" in Arbor.
Yes, as soon as teachers set homework in Arbor, it will be visible to students.
Homework is called "Assignments" in Arbor.
Students can submit their homework ("Assignments") using the Arbor website; students cannot use the app at all at present.
Parents/carers can see, but not submit, their child's assignments.
Once a student logs into the Arbor website, their assignments will clearly visible - both ones that are due and any that are overdue.
To see/submit an assignment, click to see the details. If you need to send in a piece of work, either drag and drop your completed work into the My Submissions box, or click the upoad icon to select and upload it.
Students are unable to clear this themselves.
Please ask/get them to ask their teacher to clear any outstanding non-submission homework from the system.
Yes, this information is available in Arbor.
Both achievments and behavioural issues are under "Behaviour".
At present, Arbor doesn't support this feature, although the development teams are working on it.
Please log in to ParentPay to view this information.
Absence/Contacting the school
Parents/carers are able to use the app to send general messages to the school, or report student absence using the messaging option. The location of this option however, may not be immediately obvious.
Rather than being under the bottom left "hamburger" menu, it is currently located under the bottom right "settings/account" icon. If you click that icon and go to messages, you can send a message directly to the school admin team to report your child's absence.
Important Note:
The system does not currently tag your message with your child's details.
Please ensure you include the full name of your child, their year and tutor group, as this will allow our team to process the information correctly.
Please use Arbor's in app message service - see above.
Alternatively, please email attendance@notleyhigh.com or phone the appropriate school absence line
Year 7 - 01376 556347
Year 8 - 01376 556348
Year 9 - 01376 556349
Year 10 - 01376 556350
Year 11 - 01376 556351
Year 12 – 01376 556394
Year 13 – 01376 556393
At present Arbor doesn't support this; we have requested this function from Arbor's development team.
In the meantime, please email enquiries@notleyhigh.com using the contact details available here.
Alternatively, you can use the Arbor messaging function to send a message to the central admin team, who will forward it to the appropriate teacher. Please note however that the system does not currently tag your message with your child's details, so please ensure you include the full name of your child, their year and tutor group, and which teacher you wish to contact, as this will allow our team to process the information correctly.