The Newsletter – Summer

Welcome

End of year update

It’s the end of another year at Co-op Academy Walkden. We’ve had our fair share of challenges along the way, not least the unusual weather conditions of the last few days, but we can reflect back on a really positive year overall. I want to congratulate all of our students on their achievements and I want to thank parents and carers for your continued support.

Start of the new term

A reminder that the start of the new term is Tuesday 6th September for Year 7 only and for all other year groups it is Wednesday 7th September. We look forward to welcoming the whole school back on the 7th and for the first time we will have more than 1500 pupils. The changes we have implemented for September will really help to ensure that we operate smoothly and safely and whilst I know that it will take a little getting used to, the changes will be very positive in the long run. To support this we’ll be spending some time on the first days, familiarising students with the new routines.

Start of the day and new student entrance

With lessons starting at 8.30am each morning from September, good punctuality is crucial. We understand that traffic around the Academy and surrounding area can be a challenge, but ask that you factor this in when planning your child’s morning journey. To assist with this, we run a breakfast club from 8.00am each morning, accessed through the sports entrance.

The timings of the school day are as follows:

8.30am Period 1

9.30am Period 2

10.30am Break

10.50am Period 3

11.50am Period 4

12.50pm Personal Development/Lunch (Split by Key Stage 3/4)

1.50pm Period 5

2.50pm Finish/Enrichment clubs

Student entrances to the academy will be open between 8.20am-8.30am: please ensure that you leave time when dropping off your child for them to walk round to their entrance well before 8.30am. If they only arrive at the gate at 8.30am they will be late. The Year group entrances are:

Year 7 Discovery Front
Year 8 Discovery Stairwell
Year 9 Creative Front
Year 10 Creative Stairwell
Year 11 Sports Corridor

Student entrances will close promptly at 8.30am each day. If any students arrive after 8.30am they must sign in at Student Services, accessing the building through the Sports Entrance around the rear of school, not through the main reception. They will also use the Sports Entrance if they need to sign out of school.

Students arriving between 8.30am and 9.00am will be issued a late mark and given a note for their first lesson. Those without evidence of a medical/other appointment may be issued a Community Conduct lunchtime detention.

We will follow Department of Education guidance, closing morning registers at 9.00am. Students arriving after 9.00am without a clearly evidenced explanation will therefore be registered as an unauthorised absence and issued a lunchtime detention: please be aware that repeated occurrences can lead to a penalty notice warning and fine for persistent poor punctuality.

Medical appointments should always be arranged outside of school hours where possible. We ask parents/carers to use Class Charts to inform the Academy of any medical appointments where a student needs to arrive late or leave early. A copy of texts received or appointment cards is needed to confirm their absence and allow authorisation on registers.

Water Safety

I am sure you will be aware of the water safety messages we have been promoting with our students and via our social media feeds. At this time of year, we realise that some young people may be tempted to jump/swim in open water and sadly this has resulted in the tragic loss of a Salford teenager just last weekend in Salford Quays. Our hearts go out to his family and friends and together we must all do what we can to prevent another tragedy.

We delivered assemblies to students last week and on Tuesday afternoon this week, we paused Period 5 for a few moments across the whole school to deliver a strong message to students, with information from the local Fire and Rescue team. I urge you to talk to your child about water safety whether you are staying at home or going away this summer, so that by raising awareness and encouraging young people to act safely we can reduce the chances of tragedies such as this being repeated.

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue have a website dedicated to the issue which can be found here:

https://www.manchesterfire.gov.uk/your-safety/water-safety/

Thank you in advance for your support with this.

‘Kids Eat Free’ and Food Vouchers – Summer 2022

There are a number of food outlets that will be offering the chance for children to either eat free or for £1 over the summer holidays.

Local Government Grant free school meal vouchers have been sent to eligible families this week. Should you have any queries regarding these, please contact us via email on victoria.haye@coopacademies.co.uk.

Cashless System

A reminder that we will be operating a cashless system from September 2022. With this in mind please remember to login to parentpay over the summer to ensure you can access your account. We will issue a reminder of login details and pupil pin numbers before students come back to school in September.

Staff farewells

As is often the case at this time of year, we say farewell to some of our colleagues. The following staff are moving on to pastures new and we wish them all the very best for the future.

Mrs Quinn (Technology)

Mrs Johnson (Technology/Construction)

Miss Harrison (English)

Mr Harper (English)

Mrs Kutryk (Maths)

Mr Hurst (Maths)

Mrs Hayton (Science)

Mr Nubi (Science)

Mr Palmer (Art)

Mr Adu-Opoku (Inclusion)

Mrs Lindley (First Aid)

As always, I’ll introduce new staff when we start the new term.

We’re really proud of everything our students have achieved this year and we know they’ll enjoy a well-earned summer break. I want to finish the year by wishing all of our families a happy, peaceful and safe summer period and we look forward to an exciting year ahead in September.

Matt Hacker

Principal

Head of Year messages

Year 9 – Mrs Simpson

Well done Year 9, you have worked really hard this year academically and personally. It has been lovely to support you over the year and especially in choosing your KS4 options. It has been lovely to see students taking part in extracurricular activities such as Cadets, Girls out loud, Reach project and all the sporting achievements. Myself and Mrs Bentley are looking to welcoming you back in September to start the next chapter of GCSE’s.

Year 11 – Miss Hodgkinson

Friday, 24^th June 22, was your official day as a Year 11 Co-op Academy pupil, and what a day we had, excitement, sadness and laughter celebrating your 5 Year Journey,

Since we met, we challenged you to always aspire to great things, to be the best you could be, embark on every opportunity, live life enjoying every day wearing your best smile. You rose to that challenge over and over again, especially through some extremely difficult times.

We are extremely proud of you, it’s been absolutely delightful working side by side and watching you blossom into mature young adults, we laughed, cried and had the odd temper paddy, leaving us with some amazing memories we will cherish, water fight possibly number one! We want to wish you all the very best, please keep in touch and let us know how life is treating you.

Keep smiling, be happy and follow the rainbow

Best wishes

Miss Hodgkinson, Mr Simmons and Mr Green

Year 7 – Miss Rogers

Watching my year group complete Year 7 has been a real pleasure. I feel lucky and privileged to work with such a hard working and determined group of young people who I know will thrive and continue to shine in Year 8. I would like to wish each and every one of them a fun, restful and safe summer. See you all, ready and prepared, in September.

Year 8 – Mrs Hammond

What a year! We are incredibly proud of how much progress you have all made this year, both academically and personally. We very much look forward to welcoming you all back in September for your final year of key stage 3. We have so much to look forward to and we could not think of a better cohort of students to be working with.

Mrs Hammond & Mr Lamara

Year 10 – Miss Hamilton

Congratulations Year 10 on successfully completing your first year in KS4. I am excited to begin our final year together and to continue to watch you grow and mature into the lovely young people you are.

The progress each and everyone of you have made whether that be academically, personally, in following our ways of being or in overcoming barriers has been outstanding.

It certainly is my pleasure to be able to share this life journey with you and a true privilege to be your Head of Year.

Keep aiming high and believing in yourself as much as I believe in you. Always remember, nothing is impossible. Keep shining.

We Will Rock You

On 6th and 7th July we were once again wowed by the talented students at the academy, this time through an absolutely fantastic production of the School’s edition of the musical ‘We Will Rock You’! The cast and band of the show made up of performers from a range of year groups did an amazing job and the hours they had spent honing their craft was well received by an almost sell out audience each night, with audience members dancing and singing in their seats. Indeed, it is hard to put into words just how proud the staff team behind the show are of these fabulous students. The show is the first after a Covid induced two year break and has certainly re-ignited a passion for the performing arts at the academy and we are already considering which show will be next – so watch this space.

A message from the PE department

The PE team would like to say a huge well done to students who participated in the Whole School Sports Day and the Hive Sports Day. Our students were amazing and we are all proud of them for showing all of our Co-op values. Well done everyone!

Salford Schools’ Athletics Championships 2022

In the Year 10 competition, our boys’ team recorded an abundance of top three finishes with Jake first winning the 200m (23.6s) and then following that gold with another in the Triple Jump (11.80m). Kels won bronze in the girls’ 100m before Sophia produced a superb effort to win the 1500m. Archies’ 3rd place finish in the 800m was followed by a gutsy display by James to win the 1500m (4.55:1). In the field events, our boys again took top three finishes; bronze for Joel (1.30m) in the High Jump, Leo winning bronze in the Shot Put (10.50m) and Corran winning silver in the javelin (30.50m). In the girls’ field events, once more Walkden athletes filled the top three spots; Emily winning bronze in the High Jump (1.25m) and Amarachi in the Shot Put (7.00m), whilst Ruby won gold in the Javelin.

15 and Counting for Team Walkden…

On Thursday 16th June, our track and field stars took part in the Salford Schools’ Athletics Championships held at Cleavley Track. This was the first competition for 3 years and our pupils’ certainly made up for lost time with a string of fantastic performances.

The final events of the afternoon were the 4x100m relays and whilst the girls’ quartet were just touched out of the medals, the boys four of Monks, Nolan, Blackshaw and Nutsey produced a fine run to win bronze in a time of 50.44s. In the overall standings, both our Year 9 and 10 boys team finished 1st whilst our Year 9 girls took top spot and our Year 10 girls placed 2nd overall. Both our Year 8 boys and girls team finished 2nd, so with 6 of 8 of our teams finishing in the top three, Walkden were crowned Champion School for a fabulous 15th time in succession! Well done to everyone involved, not just the medal winners, but to all athletes who performed with such ambition and resilience. The support amongst all year groups was an absolute pleasure to witness. A real team effort from Team Walkden!

Food Studies – Healthy Eating Week

During the week of 13th-17th June, Co-op Academy Food Department celebrated and took part in activities promoting National Healthy Eating week in association with the British Nutrition Foundation.

A different activity was planned each day based around the theme, this year the theme was ‘Eatwell for you and the Planet!’

Monday: Focus on fibre – We had a variety of alternative snacks available for students to try and to swap their regular crisps at break time for lentil snacks. Lots of students were happy to try something new and enjoyed the alternative snack.
Tuesday: Get at least 5 A DAY – a challenge was set to grab a piece of fruit and eat it on the way into school.
Wednesday: Vary your protein – be more creative . We had lots of plant based vegetarian and vegan products available to try and lots of students and staff came down to the food room to sample foods such as tofu, vegan burgers, vegetarian sausages and soya milk, some for the first time. This was a huge success and some even preferred the vegan chicken nuggets to the real thing!!
Thursday: Stay hydrated – fill up from the tap. A hydration challenge was set to meet the recommended daily intake of 6-8 glasses per day with prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.
Friday: Reduce food waste – know your portions. A form time challenge was set. Students had a list of leftover ingredients to create a meal from. The winning entry was from Mrs Seddon who came up with a fabulous 2 course meal in the process winning the form a healthy breakfast as a treat.

Overall a successful week and we can’t wait to do it again next year with new and exciting challenges.

Computer Science

The students were introduced to the Google Sites software and asked to create a website for a topic that was of interest to them, such as a hobby. The students have created their own logos and included interactive content such as image galleries, working enquiry forms, maps and weather widgets and have created some exceptionally professional sites.

Work Experience

Over the past month, our Year 10 students got the opportunity to see what life would be like in the real world. The students joined a range of different industries for a whole week, gaining new skills and a new insight to the profession. For those students who could not find work experience, the academy organised a virtual work experience and also employees to come into school, such as civil servants who work for the Cabinet office , who lead workshops for them.

PRE Department Year 8 Spirited Arts Competition

Each year our Year 8 students get the opportunity to take part in the NATRE Spirited Arts competition. This forms part of the students work in their Philosophy, Religion and Ethics lessons about ‘Religion and Spirituality’. Students have yet again amazed both Mr Sims and myself at the outstanding work that has been produced for this competition and we are proud to show of a sample of the high quality work that has been produced this year. We are happy to announce the Year 8 winners – 1st place goes to Ella Savvides who created this masterpiece called “The face of humanity’s impact on God’s good Earth” Truly a unique and inspirational piece of spirited art using her own face as the canvas. 2nd place goes to Freddie Baker who stunned the class with his carefully constructed model of ‘Eden’ – Reminding humanity that it is the little things that count towards having a better world for us to live in. 3rd place goes to the amazing and talented team of Chase Oliver and Olivia Kirwin who created not just a piece of artwork but a piece of spirited poetry too questioning “Are we spoiling God’s good Earth? Congratulations to all the Year 8 students for all their hard work on the spirited arts project this year. We hope you enjoy our Spirited Arts Gallery!

Mrs D Crane – Subject Leader of PRE

Year 7 Dance Club

I am extremely proud of the Year 7 dance club who have shown a great deal of dedication and commitment this year. Apart from illness nobody has missed a rehearsal all year! Their hard work has paid off with fantastic performances in end of year assemblies, Parrs Hall Warrington, The School Production ‘We Will Rock You’ and finally The Salford Dance Explosion at the Lowry Theatre. I am looking forward to work with the talented young dancers next year.

PRE trip

Year 7 PRE students enjoyed an exciting day visiting two places of worship on the 4th July. The day began with a visit to the palacial Sri Guru Gobind Singh Gurdwara Educational & Cultural Centre in Chorlton. Students were given a workshop on Sikh beliefs while taking in the vast interior of the Gurdwara before they all headed down to the Langer Hall where food is traditionally served to all as a gesture of equality. Our students loved going back for more chips! In the afternoon we had the pleasure of visiting the Majestic Salford Cathedral. Students were mesmerised by the impressive architecture and wowed by the striking interior in this beautiful building, with the pride and joy being the gigantic stained glass window. The students had an outstanding day!

Success

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.

Co-op Academy Walkden

The Newsletter – Summer​​​​​​​