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School Communications
At Northdown Primary School we use an school communication app called Arbor.
The Arbor Parent Portal can be accessed via and app or online. This will allow you to receive messages from the school, view attendance statistics, book parents evening appointments and more.
Downloading the Arbor App & enabling push notifications
Download the app via your phone’s app store. Android users, ensure you have turned on push notifications by going to Settings > Apps > Arbor > Notifications.
iOS users will be prompted to receive push notifications when you download the app, ensure you select ‘allow’.
You must enable push notifications to receive a notification when you have a new in-app message. If you do not enable this, you will not be alerted to a new message and may miss important information.
The App is available on Apple & Android devices please click below to download the appropriate app.
Click here to download the app for iOS (Apple/iPhone)
Click here to download the app for Android (Google Play Store)
Logging in to the app for the first time
You must enter your email address to log in.
Please note that this must match the email address that we hold on Arbor for you at the school. If you have any issues logging in, please email us at office@northdown-tkat.org so that we can ensure our records match. Once we hold your correct email, you should be able to login without an issue.
You then need to select the correct school.
The first time you log in, you will be asked to read and confirm Arbor’s terms and conditions. As a security measure you will be prompted to confirm your child’s date of birth. (If you have more than 1 child at the school, please confirm the date of birth of your eldest child. Once you are logged in, you will be able to switch between children)
In-App Messages
The school will begin to send in-app messages via Arbor to your phones, this will help us reduce the number of text messages that we send. When you are sent an in-app message, you will receive a push notification (ensure you have enabled this feature on your phone, as detailed above.)
In the Arbor App you will see a notification at the bottom right of your screen on the profile icon. Tap this notification, then click to see your messages. You will be taken to the messages page where you can see all messages received. All new messages will be marked as 'new' and will be written in bold. Read messages will be written in normal text.