Co-op Academy Walkden Parent Portal - Being Walkden 12th September 2025

Attendance information

This month we sent an email regarding attendance and fixed penalty notices. This email was sent to all students in the academy. This is something that we share with parents to ensure you are aware of the rules and consequences involved regarding absence. This is not a direct reflection of your child's current attendance. We are sorry if this email caused any undue concern.

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

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.

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 possiblewalk-attendance@coopacademies.co.uk

Attendance	Impact	Hours lost per year
100%	0 days lost	0 hours lost
95%	9 days lost	45 hours lost
90%	19 days lost	95 hours lost
85%	28 days lost	140 hours lost
80%	38 days lost	190 hours lost
70%	46 days lost	230 hours lost

Minutes late each day	Impact per year
5 mins	3.5 days lost
10 mins	7 days lost
15 mins	10.5 days lost
20 mins	14 days lost
25 mins	17.5 days
30 mins	21 days lost

Thank you as always for your support.

Parent Pay guidance - Lunch payments

An email was sent last week with the below information.

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. 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.

lunch menu