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.
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.
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.
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
Form takes place at 8.45am each day and we have a full programme of activities throughout the week:
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.
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]
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
If your child experiences difficulties with logging into Microsoft Teams or you have any general questions about online learning, please contact us by:
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
Deputy Headteacher – Pastoral | Mrs C Kilroy | [email protected] |
Assistant Headteacher – Pastoral | Ms K Guest | [email protected] |
Deputy Asst Headteacher – Pastoral | Mr A Taylor | [email protected] |
Head of Year 7 | Mr D Canning-England | [email protected] |
Head of Year 8 | Ms N Johnson | [email protected] |
Head of Year 9 | Mr J Pyatt | [email protected] |
Head of Year 10 | Mr G Jones | [email protected] |
Head of Year 11 | Mr A Stephens | [email protected] |
Assistant Headteacher – Inclusion | Mr J Parker | [email protected] |
SENDCO | Ms K Whitehouse | [email protected] |
You can email the Student Welfare team: [email protected]
Mrs Chance, Mrs Sinclair & Mrs Kilroy
Your email will only go to the staff in this team.
You can also email Mrs Kilroy direct at [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 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]
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:
YoungMinds provide help and advice on mental health for both children and their parents.
Every Mind Matters provides expert advice and practical tips to help you look after your mental health and wellbeing.
For foodbanks visit Find Foodbanks Brum
Kooth is an online chat and resources website providing direct help for 10 – 25yr olds.
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.
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 :
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.
7th January – 27th January 2021
We hope that you have been able to tune in and watch some of the festival broadcasts, if not, please take the opportunity to view some of the inspiring and touching content that has been created by our participants and partners on the festival website.
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:
Each week in our parent newsletter we publish a quick and easy recipe that you can make at home. These can be downloaded here:
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.
You can email the Student Welfare team: [email protected]
Claire Kilroy | Lead Designated Safeguarding Lead | [email protected] |
Joanne Chance | Deputy DSL | [email protected] |
Emma Sinclair | Deputy DSL and Delegated Designated Teacher for Looked After Children | [email protected] |
Andrew Taylor | Designated Teacher for Looked After Children | [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
We take the following approaches to support those pupils to access remote education.
We recognise that some pupils may not have suitable online access at home. We take the following approaches to support those pupils to access remote education.
All pupils that do not have a device or internet access at home can contact us and we will do our best to provide a device. This will be prioritised in the first instance for examination year groups and SEND pupils, this will be coordinated by the Assistant Headteacher – Assessment/Data. Those requiring support will be contacted by a member of staff to discuss the individual requirement for each pupil. If you feel you require support, please contact [email protected].
Pupils who do not have a device will be loaned a laptop. Pupils who do not have internet access at home will be given a Vodafone 30GB SIM.
Pupils who do not have access will be given printed information that can either be collected or posted home (please be aware that if it is posted then this may cause a delay in specific learning time).