We have worked hard to refine our remote learning offer, based on our experience of the first lockdown and the past term. Your child’s education will be as close to in-person learning as possible. It includes Personal Development sessions, assemblies as well as a full timetable of subject-specific sessions. 

Arena Academy Remote Education Provision: A guide for parents.

During this period of lockdown all of our lessons will be using the Microsoft Teams platform.

Below are a number of guides to help you connect and continue learning. Please follow these guides but please don’t hesitate to contact the school if you continue to have problems. Email [email protected]

Click the headings below to access the user guides.

– Student guide on how to access Microsoft Teams

– Student guide on how to access Microsoft Teams on Smart TV, Xbox and Playstation

– Staff guide on how to access Microsoft Teams

We will continue to connect with the school community and deliver the curriculum at home through ‘live’ lessons. All students should use Teams (via Office 365) to access curriculum work set by their teachers.

Students will register at the same time and have form class will begin at 8:45am for all year groups.

Please see the online support and equipment section of the website – in this section you also find information about equipment and devices.

We recognise that some pupils may not have suitable online access at home. We aim to support those pupils who are unable to access online learning. If you require a ‘loan laptop’ or you require technical support to access live learning, email

Registration and Form

Form takes place at 8.45am each day and we have a full programme of activities throughout the week:

• Monday – Assembly
• Tuesday – Arena Conduct Cup and Celebrating Success
• Wednesday – PSHE
• Thursday – PSHE
• Friday – Catch-up

Timetables

Please follow the below Timetables each day.

Online learning will continue as normal this week from Monday 1st March. When pupils are not in school for testing they should be continuing with their lessons. Due to staff being involved in the testing of pupils there will be some lessons where staff are not available to ‘live’ teach the lesson but work will be set for pupils to do.

Year 7 Timetables

Year 8 Timetables

Year 9 Timetables

Year 10 Timetables

Year 11 Timetables

The teachers have set up class groups in Microsoft Teams and will set work via Assignments in Teams groups which can be accessed via Office 365. This will require students to log-in to their school email. Students will also enable you to communicate with teachers during the school shutdown by using this email. Downloading Microsoft Outlook on your phone is one way to do this.  

The email address is the year student joined the school, their surname and first letter of their first name. The password is the same password used to log-in to the computer at school. E.G Joe Bloggs in Year 11 would be: [email protected]  

If your child experiences difficulties with logging into Microsoft Teams or you have any general questions about online learning, please contact us at: [email protected]

A guide to accessing Teams can be found here: 

A guide to accessing MS Office apps can be found here:

Equipment  

CORE Education Trust is committed to ensuring every student has access to a laptop or tablet device so that they can continue to receive high-quality education.  Should you need to borrow a device for this period please get in touch and arrangements will be made for you to collect a laptop from school.  If you do not have access to an internet connection we will support you. Please call the Academy on 0121 729 7310

Questions & Troubleshooting 

If your child experiences difficulties with logging into Microsoft Teams or you have any general questions about online learning, please contact us by:   

• Calling the school on 0121 729 7310 between 8:00 am and 4:00 pm   
• Emailing us at [email protected]   

We understand the stress and anxiety that students and parents will be experiencing. Tutors will continue to keep a close eye on students’ resilience and wellbeing. We have excellent pastoral care in place for any student who requires it. Should you have any concerns about your child’s welfare, please do not hesitate to contact their tutor to discuss any additional support we can provide.

Free Parent Webinar – Parenting During Lockdown 3 
Thursday 11th February, 7:00-7:45pm

Alicia is delivering a Free Webinar on Parenting During Lockdown 3, exclusively for Hub members. She will give tips and advice on how to cope and support young people, with a Q&A at the end.

Registration Link for Parents
Webinar ID: 830 0030 2955
Webinar Passcode: 602979

Following the success of Wildheart’s previous Mental Health and Wellbeing webinars, they are excited to announce the next in the series. This webinar is the second in the series of four which will help you understand how to support adolescents to manage difficult emotions and how the parental role changes to support this. The webinar will be led by Alicia Drummond, one of the UK’s leading adolescent therapists and founder of Teen Tips.

Places are limited, so will be offered on a first come first served basis. Please register your place here.

Children’s Mental Health Week is taking place between 1st-7th February. This year’s theme is ‘Express Yourself’ and children (and adults) are encouraged to explore how we can express ourselves and the creative ways that we can share our feelings, our thoughts and our ideas.

Please visit the CMHW website for a video message from HRH The Duchess of Cambridge, plus videos, resources and tips on how to improve our children’s mental health.

https://childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk

Form Tutors and Pastoral Contacts:

You can also contact the Well-Being team via email:

Government Free School Meal Vouchers 

For those families who qualify for Free School Meals (FSM) Mrs Mullen will be in touch as to how you can claim your voucher.  Vouchers have a value of £15 per child per week & we are issuing vouchers on a two week cycle. Therefore if you have one child you will receive a voucher for £30, if you have two children you will receive a voucher for £60. 

Please contact Mrs Mullen if you have any questions regarding accessing FSM vouchers. [email protected]

Parents and carers supporting home learning 

We know as parents and carers it can be difficult to know how best to support your child. Here are some quick tips for supporting your child outside of the virtual school day:  

Remember, you are not alone, many parents are facing the same challenges. Gov.UK provides some detail guidance on the website.

Outside of the school community there are several support services available to students and parents:  

Here you will find enrichment opportunities in addition to your Timetabled lessons.

For both our mental health and physical wellbeing it is important we keep moving over the coming months.  

We invite students and parents to take part in CORE Educations Trust’s daily 25-minute fun fitness films. Suitable for all ages and abilities, the films offer a wonderful way to stay active. You can access the films via our YouTube channel:

Make sure you check out Arena’s live workouts on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays too. Including Mr Grigg and Mr Stephens live from a mystery location, and Mr Taylor in fancy dress!

What’s more, we’re delighted to be able to offer students and parents access to Les Mills BORN TO MOVE programme. These Netflix-style fun-filled screen-based classes incorporate a range of movement patterns – including Strength, Stretching, Martial Arts, Core, Dance, Yoga and mindfulness – designed to support physical literacy, confidence and self-esteem. 

To access the Les Mills platform visit:Les Mills on demand

If you are not shielding or self-isolating, taking the time to go outside for your daily exercise is also great idea. There are several resources online which provide ideas around exercising outdoors, whether it is a high intensity work out in the garden or a walk around the block. 

Whilst the majority of our students will be learning remotely, we are providing school provision to vulnerable and critical worker families.  

If you need to access this provision, please email Claire Kilroy our Lead DSL: [email protected]

Students who are on site will be accessing their live learning timetables using devices and headphones, supervised by pastoral staff.

Full information around vulnerable children and who is classed as a critical worker can be found on the Government website.

Letter from Ms Kilroy: Further clarification for parents and carers who are Critical (Key) Workers. 12th January 2021

If your circumstances have changed and you qualify as a critical worker, please contact the school :  

• Call: 0121 729 7310 between 8:00am and 3:00pm
• [email protected]    

Guidance for students in school:

• Students arrive at 8.45am and leave at 2.45pm
• Students are not required to wear school uniform to enable students to wash and wear clean clothes each day
• There is lunch available on site for students to purchase, Free School Meal students will be provide with lunch.
• Students need to bring headphones with them where possible to enable them to access their online learning.

Alongside your online lessons, there are several external websites that can help to extend and enrich student learning. Please see below for available resources and further down the page for specific links from subject areas.

Cooking with your family from Mellors

The pack provides a range of healthy recipes for the whole family to cook and eat together, including ideas for hosting your own theme day and staying active.
Engaging children in learning at home can be a challenge but cooking can be a great way to incorporate all sorts of learning and development of new skills with the added bonus that the family also get a nice tasty meal at the end.

Find your family cook book here:

Arena Steady Cook!

Each week in our parent newsletter we publish a quick and easy recipe that you can make at home. These can be downloaded here:

Additional Educational Resources

Below are internet links gathered by our Heads of Faculty to aid the learning process during lockdown. Click on each subject to be taken to a page of links for that subject area.

We’re in this together and we urge you to stay in touch. We will be in touch with parents as much as possible and if you have any issues with online learning or need support with access to our learning portals, please contact: [email protected]

CORE Education Trust is committed to ensuring every student has access to a laptop or tablet device so that they can continue to receive a high quality of education.  Should you need to borrow a device for this period please contact: [email protected]. We will then contact you when a device is ready for collection.

Safeguarding

You can email the Student Welfare team: [email protected]

The emails are checked between 9:00am and 3:30pm weekdays during Term Time. You can also speak to the team directly on 0121 679 4663

For further information including about external support, please visit our Student & Parent Wellbeing Page using the link below:

Here you will find the most recent and up to date Headteacher home communications.

A guide for parents and carers on COVID-19 testing in school and at home is available in the Parent Area and can be found here:

Dear Parents and Carers,

As you will know, the Prime Minister has announced that schools will re-open on Monday 8 March and I am very much looking forward to welcoming students back to Arena Academy. Students have worked incredibly hard to continue their education from home and I am very proud of the remote learning and support we have been able to offer during these past challenging weeks. However, no virtual experience can replace face-to-face teaching and it is really good to be returning to the classroom.

We are finalising our plans for the first week back, which will include staggering return dates for different year groups. I will confirm these with you as soon as possible. As has been the case throughout the pandemic, the welfare of students and staff is our priority and we will do everything we can to make the school environment as safe as possible.

Along with our existing, stringent measures of staggered timetables, creating dedicated bubble zones, ensuring social distancing and wearing of face masks, we will also be introducing testing. We have already successfully implemented testing for staff and key worker children in school since January. Now, we are considering how best to scale up our approach ahead of 8 March, while keeping disruption to a minimum. Please be reassured that we will follow government guidelines and best practice to ensure testing is safe and efficient.

All staff involved have undertaken rigorous training and we will follow stringent processes to manage any positive results, isolating those affected and completing thorough track and trace to limit the spread of the virus.

All students must have permission from their parent/carer to be tested therefore, can you please click this link and complete the form if you consent to your child being tested:

We will be sending a detailed Information pack to all Parents which will include essential information about how pupils will be returning to school and home testing.

In addition to this, we will also be hosting virtual Parent forums next week which will give you an opportunity to ask us any questions about testing and the return of pupils. My team will be using the next week to fine-tune our plans to ensure we have everything in place to welcome students back.

Our focus will be on helping them adjust after this period away from school, and to supporting their catch up in whatever way is necessary.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your patience and support over this past term – it has been a real community effort.

Kind regards
Mr Mann
Headteacher

24th March 2021

Headteacher End of Term Letter to Parents 09.02.2021

Letter from Ms Kilroy: Further clarification for parents and carers who are Critical (Key) Workers. 12th January 2021