Principal's note

Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome to the latest newsletter, which marks the end of an action packed half term at Co-op Academy Walkden. Here, you'll find snippets of some of the activity over the past few weeks, but for more regular updates, please do check out our social media channels, which are updated most days, celebrating success and providing key information.

We have made a huge transition over the past half term to the new management system - Arbor. We now have the majority of parents logged into Arbor and the initial feedback is that it's useful, albeit very different to Classcharts. By the end of January, we are aiming to switch off Classcharts entirely and I therefore urge all parents to log into Arbor, so that we can continue to switch features on and ensure that all communications go smoothly through this one platform.

I want to remind parents and carers about the Parent Governor nominations which are live and close on Friday 5th January 2024. Please do not hesitate to contact me should you wish to discuss this important role.

For now though, I want to wish you all a wonderful Christmas break. We look forward to welcoming all pupils back into the academy at 8.30 sharp on Wednesday 3rd January, refreshed and raring to go for the new term ahead.

Mr Hacker

 

Dear Parents/Carers,

Arbor - Management Information System

You may remember from the recent newsletter that we have introduced a new management information system called Arbor. The next step in the roll-out is to get all parents and carers logged into Arbor, so that we can eventually move all communications, timetables, attendance, homework, rewards and behaviour data onto this one platform. In the near future, you will no longer need either Classcharts or MyEd as everything will be in the one place, which I am sure we can all agree, will be a very positive step for everyone.

Actions for all parents and carers

Please visit Arbor at login.arbor and/or download the app from Google Play (Arbor) or the Apple App Store (Arbor). If you are downloading the app please enable push notifications.

Please log in to Arbor using the forgotten password routine and the email address that you use with us at school. If the email address matches with the one we have in school already, you will receive a password reset link via email, and once completed you will be asked to verify your account using your child's date of birth. 

If you do not receive the reset password email please let us know your updated email address using the form sent via MyEd. Once we have updated your email address with us, then you should then be able to log in to Arbor. For those with pupils at different Arbor schools you will see Co-op Academy Walkden listed to be able to easily click between all of the pupils attached to your account.

You will be able to update any changes of address, phone numbers or email addresses directly through Arbor. 

All legal guardians can and should create separate logins on Arbor.

We will gradually switch on the features that you will be able to see on Arbor and at a suitable point in the future, we will then switch off the other apps, so that everything is in one place.

Thank you in advance for supporting us with this transition. There is lots of support available on the Arbor website here.

Yours sincerely

 

Matt Hacker

Principal 

A note from your Principal. 

Dear parents and carers,

Welcome to the first Co-op Academy Walkden newsletter of the year. The end of our first half-term has certainly come very quickly, but it’s fair to say that all students are ready for a short break, to recharge their batteries and be ready for the next half-term.

There has been a lot to celebrate over the past 7 weeks and you can read about some of those successes here in the newsletter or, as always, on our social media channels.

Our new Year 7 students have now completed their first half-term with us and have settled in really well. Starting a new school can be very daunting, but they have fully immersed themselves in the life of the school. Lots are already involved in our additional clubs, trips and visits and the majority of the year are soon to go away together to the Conwy centre in Wales, which will be a brilliant experience.

I want to take the opportunity to welcome and introduce some new colleagues who have started with us during this half-term:

Mrs J Clarke - Head of Food

Miss A Beech - DT Teacher

Miss L Foster - DT Teacher

Miss E Dassie - Foreign Language Teacher

Mr P Gardner - Head of Science

Mrs L Heppolette - English Teacher

Miss R McGinley - Deputy Safeguarding Lead

Mr W McHugh - Head of Year 9

Mrs S Garner - Head of Year 11

Mrs R Vaughan - Communications and Marketing Officer

Many students are already familiar with our new colleagues and are helping them to settle into our community.

I'd like to thank all parents and carers for your engagement and support over the last few weeks. I am particularly grateful for your ongoing support towards improving attendance. Our whole school attendance is currently 93%, but we need all students to be in school unless they are genuinely ill. On this note, I’d like to share some updated guidance about respiratory infections. You only need to keep your child off school if they:

•  Have symptoms  of a respiratory infection (e.g. cough)

•  They have a high temperature

 Classcharts and MyEd

After the half-term break, we are introducing a new management information system called Arbor. This is the system that stores all of our student, staff and parental information. It will be a very positive step for us, not least because it will allow us to move towards a single point of communication between school and home. I will write separately after the half term to explain these changes in more depth.

For now though, I want to wish all of our families a good half-term break and we look forward to welcoming all of our students back on Monday 30th October.

 

Matt Hacker

Principal

 

Dear Parent/Carer

Dear Parents/Carers,