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Welcome from our Principal, Mr Hacker

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Dear parents and carers

It's the end of the academic year and I want to take the opportunity to thank you all for your continued support throughout this past year. There is much to celebrate and we're proud to say that with this year's focus on rewards and recognition for our pupils, we have seen a significant improvement in attendance and behaviour and  we're now in the top third of schools nationally. We're also expecting some great GCSE results in the summer and pupils in the rest of the school are making consistently better progress in all their subjects and we continue to focus on what matters most, not least high quality teaching and learning in the classroom. All of this relies on our partnership with you and I'm grateful for all your ongoing support.

This past few weeks have been particularly warm and it's been right that pupils have been able to wear PE kits. Assuming normal temperatures when we return in September, it's really important that everyone is wearing full uniform. A link to the updated policy, including examples of suitable footwear and trousers, can be found here. 

A reminder that the first day for our new Year 7's is Wednesday 2nd September. Year 11 are also invited in on this day and have been asked to arrive at 10.50am for the Post-16 carers Fair. The start date for everyone else is Thursday 3rd September and we are looking forward to a sharp and focussed start to the new academic year with every single pupil.

For now, I want to wish all of our families an amazing summer period and we hope our pupils will have an energising break, ready for the new year.

Best wishes

 

Matt Hacker

 

View our website

Noticeboard

Who to contact at Walkden

Please see the linked document for who to contact at Co-op Academy Walkden.

Communications

Please note the academy will be closed over the Easter break and all emails will be responded to on our return.

Attendance information

Pupils can see privately what band they currently sit in.  This helps pupils and parents to have a clear visual for attendance expectations. This also helps pupils set achievable short term targets to move into a higher band, and helps us to celebrate this when they do.

For more information about the attendance process and expectations, please see below.

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To report your child as absent, please use ONE of the available options below.

  • You can call our Academy to report absence 0161 8501625 (Option 1).
  • You can now use the 'log absence' function on your Arbor app. You can find this by going to Dashboard - Menu (three lines) - Attendance - Log Absence.

Please NO NOT use the in-app message function to report absence, as this will not be recorded.

For any pre-planned absences or appointments, please email our Attendance Team.

walk-attendance@coopacademies.co.uk and include an attached appointment card or letter as evidence of the reason for the planned absence.

Whichever method you choose to use, please do this each day that your child is absent from school before 8.30am.

As a helpful reminder, we wanted to share the below information that is useful to know when it comes to attendance.

The school bell is at 8.25am and students are expected to be in lessons ready to be registered by 8.30am.

Students who arrive late between 8.30am and 8.50am will be given a late mark; however, this does not affect their overall attendance percentage.

Students who arrive after 9am will be given a U code (unauthorised absence) on their register which equates to a half a day of absence, this does affect their overall attendance percentage.

The day is split into two halves with a morning attendance mark and an afternoon attendance mark, students must receive both marks to be registered in school for the full day.

Please note that medical appointments and authorised absences are marked differently and to authorise one of these absences or to make us aware of any exceptional circumstances please email our attendance team with prior notice where possible walk-attendance@coopacademies.co.uk

Thank you as always for your support.

Parent Pay guidance - Lunch payments

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We wanted to share a couple of reminders and options regarding your ParentPay account for breakfast/lunch payments.

If your child purchases meals at Co-op Academy Walkden, please ensure funds are topped up via ParentPay in advance of the week ahead. If a pupils has zero funds, our kitchen staff will ask them to go to Student Services for a note which enables them to get lunch and prompts us to contact you to request payment is made. Ideally we would prefer not to send a pupil away for this note so please ensure funds are topped up, you can ofcourse contact us if you need support with this. ParentPay has the function to set yourself an alert for when funds are getting low, if you would like this reminder please follow the process below

  • - Log into your ParentPay Account
  • - Click the three lines at the top left of the screen
  • - Communications
  • - Alert settings
  • - Balance alerts
  • - Set threshold per student
  • - Tick email (email is free to use / text messages can be set up, however there is a charge for this)
  • - Save

All students are offered a free bagel with spread during breakfast service, which runs between 8am - 8.25am.

Other breakfast items are also available to purchase during this time as well as during morning break at 10.30am.

Breakfast items range from 29p - 99p per item.

At lunchtime, students can purchase a meal deal which consists of a main meal and a dessert for £2.20

Please see our menus here

We encourage students to bring a refillable bottle as there are water fountains positioned in each zone of the academy. If your child would prefer bottled water, these can be purchased for 85p.

We believe that £5 is the most any student should need to spend on food/drinks throughout the day, which is why all students' daily spend is capped and will not let them spend more than £5 a day at school. If you would like this cap to be increased, then please let us know via this link Any changes can take up to three days to show on the catering system.

If your child is entitled to free school meals, they can have a free bagel at breakfast like all other students and then, when they put their PIN number in at the till for lunch, they can order a main meal and dessert (meal deal).

ParentPay log in details are sent via email to one parent/carer for each child at the beginning of each school year. If you have forgotten your password, you can select 'forgotten password'. If you believe you do not have an account set up for your child or if you have any queries about ParentPay and lunch payments, then please let us know via the same form here.

All students require their catering PIN number at the till when getting breakfast and lunch. If your child is entitled to Free School Meals, they still need to use their PIN number to get the meal. 

 

What's on at Walkden

Club/activity Where and when
Chess  Every break and lunch outside G9
Homework club Every Monday lunchtime with Mrs Davis - D1
Space Club Every Tuesday 3-4pm with Dr Gardner - D8
British Sign Language Every Tuesday 3-4pm with Mrs sayer - G3
Expressive Arts Club Every Wednesday 3-4pm with Miss Wharton - Drama Studio
Darts Every Tuesday and Weds lunchtime - Multi-Use

See below for all of our extra-curricular clubs

Extra-curricular Timetable 

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Government changes to Free School Meal Entitlement

From the start of the 2026-2027 academic year, all children from
households in receipt of Universal Credit will be entitled to a free school
meal.
The change means that all households receiving Universal Credit, above the current £7,400 income cap, will now qualify for this support.
Families will be able to check eligibility via a dedicated website. This is currently being set up and we will forward the link as soon as it is available and share any more information that we receive.

For those who are currently eligible for FSM, vouchers have been emailed out to the primary caregiver to cover the summer holiday break. 

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Highlights of the Year

We hope you and your children will agree we have had many things to celebrate this year, from early morning karaoke battles to darts competitions and charity events. 

We enjoy nothing more than celebrating our pupils inside and outside of the classroom. 

Here is a little snapshot of what we have been up to this year.

2026 Highlights

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Water safety

We want our pupils and families to have an enjoyable time over the summer holidays and remind you to stay safe always. Please see the letter below shared by Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service regarding water safety in summer.

Water Safety Letter

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Charity

At the beginning of this year, our pupils were asked to choose a charity for us to raise money for this year,  our pupils chose the wonderful local charity, Moya Cole Hospice. This charity has done so much for the families in our community and we could not be more proud of our pupils for choosing such a worthy cause. 

This year, we asked each year group to come up with their own fundraising events. We have had Year 7 & 9 Raffle Tombola, Year 8's Winter Wonderland Event, Year 10's Sponge the Teacher and Year 11's staff v pupils charity row. Amongst many other events throughout the year. 

We are proud to say that an impressive £2944.11 has been raised for Moya Cole.

Thank you to everyone for your generous donations. 

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Bus Timetable 2026/2027

Please see below upcoming changes to the local school bus services from TFGM

Bus Timetable 

 

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Breakfast Club

From September, our Breakfast Club offer will be changing. Instead, of a bagel, we will now have free buttered toast available for every pupil.

Free Breakfast Club is available between 8am - 8.25am every day. 

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Arbor Pay

From September, we will no longer be using Parent Pay. We will instead be using Arbor Pay. All funds will automatically be transferred from your Parent Pay account over to Arbor pay. We ask that you do not add any further funds to Parent Pay during Summer and we will send an email with information on how to top up your Arbor Pay account before the start of the next academic year.

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Walkden Social Media

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walkdencoop View Post
This week, our Year 8 Football team completed another successful year with a week at Shrewsbury School competing in the PBSportsworld festival. Over the course of three days, the team competed in a 6-a-side tournament, reaching the semi finals on Monday afternoon and then played six 11-a-side games against schools from Telford, Reading and Ellesmere Port. We finished the group stage in second place after wins against Ellesmere Port (4-0) and Reading School (2-1 & 2-0) on Tuesday, before a defeat in our last game against LCT set up a semi final with Ellesmere Port. Despite creating numerous chances, we fell to a 2-1 defeat. The week's football was completed when all schools got together on Wednesday night to watch the England game, and whilst we thought it was coming home - that dream ended in another agonising defeat. Well done to Nathan Q who was named player of the tournament and Heidi M who was awarded a special recognition award for being the first girl to participate in the boys' competition. We finished our week with a visit to Shrewsbury Town FC on Thursday morning and a look around the stadium before departing for home. Well done to all members of the team for their efforts and determination throughout the week in what was extremely testing conditions; the hot weather and dry pitches really took it out of them all. Here's to a very well earned rest of the summer holidays - Mr Tobutt
4 hours ago
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Co-op Academy Walkden View Post
This week, our Year 8 Football team completed another successful year with a week at Shrewsbury School competing in the PBSportsworld festival. Over the course of three days, the team competed in a 6-a-side tournament, reaching the semi finals on Monday afternoon and then played six 11-a-side games against schools from Telford, Reading and Ellesmere Port. We finished the group stage in second place after wins against Ellesmere Port (4-0) and Reading School (2-1 & 2-0) on Tuesday, before a defeat in our last game against LCT set up a semi final with Ellesmere Port. Despite creating numerous chances, we fell to a 2-1 defeat. The week's football was completed when all schools got together on Wednesday night to watch the England game, and whilst we thought it was coming home - that dream ended in another agonising defeat. Well done to Nathan Q who was named player of the tournament and Heidi M who was awarded a special recognition award for being the first girl to participate in the boys' competition. We finished our week with a visit to Shrewsbury Town FC on Thursday morning and a look around the stadium before departing for home. Well done to all members of the team for their efforts and determination throughout the week in what was extremely testing conditions; the hot weather and dry pitches really took it out of them all. Here's to a very well earned rest of the summer holidays - Mr Tobutt
4 hours ago
View Post

Important upcoming dates

School Photographs - Year 7
All Day
02
September
School Photographs - Year 10
All Day
04
September

Latest stories

21 Jun 2026
Being Walkden Newsletter
Read our Being Walkden Newsletter here 
Read more
30 Apr 2026
Walkden Wire 30th April 2026 Edition
This is our pupil lead Walkden Wire page, dedicated to connecting the community with our academy. Here you will find our Co-op Values in action!
Read more
11 Mar 2026
Attendance & Punctuality Update March 2026
Please see below letter from Mr Hacker regarding punctuality.
Read more
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