Key Dates

Year 11 Mocks – 13th February – 3rd March

Fairtrade Fortnight – 20th February – 5th March

Welcome

Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome to this half-term’s newsletter. Whilst we try to keep you up to date almost daily with our social media feeds, it’s nice to be able to bring some of the highlights together and to be reminded of the great things our students have achieved and are involved with, in these newsletters.

This term, personal development has been a high priority for us. We have been busy rolling out a range of opportunities for students to support their development in lots of ways. Our personal development curriculum, which students experience every day with tutors, is going from strength to strength and covers a wide range of important and often hard-hitting topics that equip students with crucial knowledge and skills. 

Our Relationships and Sex Education Curriculum falls within personal development and it was great to see so many parents and carers at the recent consultation evening, led by Mr Hemmings, with lots of great questions and comments from all who attended.

Additionally, we have been strengthening our student leadership programmes, including prefects, school council representatives, equalities and diversities representatives and Co-op Young Leaders. We’ve also developed a team of reading ambassadors to support our younger readers in their own development.

Our extra curricular offer is increasing all of the time too and it’s great to see so many students involved with sports and other clubs in their lunchtimes or after school.

Careers continues to be a central part of our personal development pathway and last week we welcomed the BBC Careers Roadshow for all of Year 7 to 9. We also continue to offer a wide range of other opportunities to hear from employers, including the RAF recently, as well as taking students for visits to universities to help build a rounded view of what they could do in the future.

I know how much our students value all of these opportunities, but I felt it was important to share with you, some of the work taking place in this key area of school life.

There is so much more to read about in this newsletter, so for now, I want to wish you all a wonderful Christmas break. We really look forward to welcoming all students back on Thursday 5th January 2023. My very best wishes for the new year when it comes.

Matt Hacker

Principal

A message from the Praise & Rewards Co-ordinator, Mrs Hammond

It has been so lovely to reward lots of wonderful students this term. We have had two very successful Golden Ticket Weeks. 12,282 tickets have been awarded to students for a variety of reasons, from exceptional manners, and a caring attitude, to producing an exceptional piece of work. We are proud of all recipients, well done.

There have been some fantastic competitions this term. Computer Science entered students into the UK Bebras Challenge. The challenge is set up and coordinated by Oxford University and the Raspberry Pi Foundation, to test computational thinking and computing fluency. 17 of our students who were entered achieved in the 10% nationally, of which there were 329,466 entries. Amazing, well done to all. Food Tech students from Year 10 designed and made Christmas cakes with Mrs Kettle, the standard was high and judging was extremely difficult. Great effort everyone.

Maths also entered students into the BHM Mathematician Poster competition and the Maths Problem of the Week competition. Winners were awarded fantastic prizes. Thank you to all staff and students involved in these fantastic enrichment opportunities. ‘Rewards’ was the theme of the final assembly of the term. We were delighted to celebrate students making good progress alongside students who have impressed PD tutors, support and pastoral staff.

Well done to all students who were mentioned in the assembly this week. We are having a festive film afternoon for KS3 students who have not accrued any negative behaviour points. A huge congratulations to all students who have been invited to this special event.

We also enjoyed an evening of entertainment and refreshments with our 2022 leavers this term. It was so lovely to welcome students back into our Academy to collect their GCSE certificates together with some special awards and prizes.

As always, if you have any information you would like to share about our students and their achievements outside of the Academy please get in touch!

Places to go, things to do.

We have created a calendar which is packed with plenty of things to do for everyone! From socials to festivals, our calendar will see you through the Christmas break so you will have plenty to do with your family. Click here to view

Stem Club

Our students in Stem club have had a blast this term, trying new crazy experiments with our science department. From making sparkles out of iron filings for bonfire night, to creating invisible ink with lemon juice under UV light.

Stem club offers a creative outlet into the world of science for our students, by showcasing and getting them to participate in experiments and drawing conclusions, they can have tons of fun and learn at the same time!

Stem club runs every Wednesday 3pm-4pm in D2.

 

Modern Foreign Languages – Leader Board Results!

In our MFL department, we use a host of different websites and apps to help students get more out of their language lessons. Throughout the term we follow the LanguageNut website to complete homework and tasks and then at the end of each half term, we look at the leaderboard to see where our students place against other Schools and Academies around the world!

The results are in for the full term leaderboard on LanguageNut! Results are based on how many words are learnt whilst using the website. In our class leader board, we have 11B/Fr1 in first place with a total of 325700 words learnt. Amazing work from individual students’ results and also by succeeding together with the world result!

Our top 3 performers in the Academy are:

. In 1st we have Brad in Year 11 with a score of 49500

. In 2nd place we have Grace in Year 11 with a score of 44200

. In 3rd we have Sahir in Year 7 with a score of 43700.

Makers Market – The Hive

The Hive was buzzing with excitement when year 10 hosted their annual makers market. The year 10 and 11 students are all working towards their BTEC Prevocational qualification and have been creating a range of beautiful Christmas gifts and decorations to sell to staff and parents.

Our students raised £170 and will be using the money to put together Christmas food packages for Age Uk and will be distributed to the community. Well done to Miss Howe and the team for an excellent event and for spreading the Christmas Spirit around the academy. 

Young Carers

Calling all Young carers! If your child is a carer for yourself or any other family member, please let us know – we like to ensure all of our young carers are fully supported in the Academy.

Please can you email our Family Support Worker, Mrs Corry on lindsay.corry@coopacademies.co.uk with your child’s name and your telephone number.

Mrs Corry will then contact you to discuss the services and support on offer for your child both in and outside of school. For further information, please go to https://www.gaddum.org.uk/carers/young-carers/

BBC Roadshow Visit

The BBC Roadshow visited the Academy this half term to showcase the vast range of careers available with the BBC and MediaCity. They also gave information on more general local careers to Key Stage 3 students.

BBC Radio 1 DJ Robyn Ritchford led a panel of BBC employees who discussed their career journeys that led them to their current role and then they spent time answering questions from the students.

Computer Science

In Computer Science, students have been entered into a computing competition called  ‘The Bebras Computing Challenge’ which introduces them to computational thinking.

It is organised in over 50 countries and designed to get students all over the world excited about computing. Each pupil answers questions online that are focussed on computational and logical thinking.

If students are successful in the first round, they will be entered into the next round which will take place on 16th – 20th January 2023.

Following the entry of our KS3 students and KS4 Computing students into the UK Bebras Challenge, we have now received the results, which I thought I would share with you. The challenge is set up and coordinated by Oxford University and the Raspberry Pi Foundation, to test computational thinking and computing fluency.

Students who achieve in the top 10% of the national entries (of which there were 329,466 entries, across the categories we entered our students into), achieve a Gold award and a personal invite to the Oxford University Computing Challenge which will be held during the week between the 16th – 20th January 2023.

This is the first time we have entered our students for the challenge and 17 of our students have achieved in this top 10%, which is a fantastic achievement. I have listed their names below. They will all receive a Gold Award certificate, a personal invite and a prize for each of them.

Theatre Trip

A group of GCSE Drama students went to see the classic Agatha Christie ‘whodunnit’ – The Mousetrap. The students enjoyed the play and are now honour bound to keep the secret of The Mousetrap and not tell who the murderer is. Ms Saunders and Mr Booth were absolutely delighted with all of the students on the trip who behaved in an exemplary way and were even complimented by members of the public on their manners and behaviour.

Football –

With the nights drawing in, temperatures dropping and the NW weather changing on a daily basis, school football has done well to survive the winter term and one such team who has enjoyed the last few weeks has been our U14B team.

The boys started this term off with a 7-0 victory at Irlam & Cadishead to secure their place in the knockout stages of the Salford Schools’ Cup – goals from Hulme 3, Greenwood 2, Aguiar and Holden sealed an impressive victory

At the beginning of November, the boys’ attention turned to the English Schools’ Cup for B Teams as they made the trip along the M62 to Liverpool to face St Margaret’s Academy in the 2nd round.

On a rain soaked afternoon, Hulme once again took the headlines with 4 goals, with further strikes coming from Wilkinson, Greenwood & Bond in a dominant 7-0 victory which took the boys into the last 32. In the final week of term, our 3rd round tie against West Hill School, Stalybridge was played in freezing conditions with the boys prevailing in a 10-goal thriller. Leading 2-0 in the first half, before trailing 4-2 with 20 minutes to go, the boys produced a stirring second half comeback to score 4 goals in 10 minutes and complete a 6-4 victory. Hall’s hat trick set the tone for the turnaround, with our other goals coming from Burrows, Greenwood & Hulme. The victory means the boys are now into the last 16 in the country, and face an away trip to either Madeley Academy (Telford) or Sandbach School in Round 4, with the tie to be played by 14th January.

Thank you – Christmas Can Collection

We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who contributed to this years’ Christmas can collection. Ourselves and Bridgewater Youth Centre were overwhelmed by the number of donations we received. We want to give a special shoutout to the Year 11 students who volunteered to come along to Bridgewater youth centre to help set up, categorise the contributions and make up the boxes for the Youth Centre in preparation for them to be distributed to families over Christmas.

Abbey, Ava, Eva, Emily, Brad and James did a stand-out job! The students were asked to set up the hall ready so that the staff at the centre will be able to go around each section of the food and pack them up efficiently.

Keeping up to date!

Please help us to update our records and ensure we have up to date information for you and your child. You should have received an email asking you to check the details we hold for your child. Please ensure these are correct and change or add information where needed. If you have not received an email please send a message to walkden.info@coopacademies.co.uk.

If your child is diagnosed with asthma, please ensure they carry an inhaler with them at all times. They should also have a spare inhaler kept at the first aid office. Students are not allowed to carry any other medication with them. If your child does need medication at school please contact Mrs Fletcher by email at victoria.fletcher@coopacademies.co.uk

There are a number of unclaimed items in the lost property including winter coats, PE kits and items of school uniforms. If your child has lost any items, please send them to Reception/Student Services.

Have something to contribute?

Has your child done something amazing inside or outside the Academy?

Why not get in touch and let us know about it?

We want to feature our students’ successes in the newsletter and let our community celebrate with you.

Email success stories and feedback to walkden.info@coopacademies.co.uk.

Got feedback about the newsletter? Let us know at the same address!

We always appreciate your feedback.

Have an amazing Christmas and a very happy New Year!