It has been a wonderful end to the term this week, and we have had a really strong finish. Thank you so much for your continued support.
Your encouragement and partnership make a real difference to the experience and success of our students. As we move into the break, we are proud of all that has been achieved and grateful for the role you play in that.
We wish you and your family a restful and enjoyable holiday, and we look forward to welcoming students back next term, ready for another positive start.
Our Summer term enrichment schedule is now live on our website: https://www.meacentral.org.uk/beyond-the-classroom/enrichment. This is an excellent way that students can Turn Up, Join In and Stand Out. We know that colleges, universities and employers highly value applicants who have a broad range of experiences. Having excellent academic grades is a minimum expectation, it is the enrichment opportunities that set our students apart.
We have a wide range of opportunities available including cooking, drama, boxing, skateboarding and art! We will be encouraging all students to attend at least one enrichment activity so please have a look at the schedule to see what is available. We pay for external coaches to come in to run enrichment sessions which students request these. For example, in the Spring term we have had Boxing which is run by Longsight Boxing Club.
This week, we were proud to hold our half-termly celebration assemblies for each year group, recognising the many achievements of our students across the Spring Term.
Every student received a CAP certificate, celebrating their consistent effort and commitment to our school values. Alongside this, subject-specific awards were presented, as well as individual recognitions for those who have gone above and beyond in their learning, attendance, and contribution to school life.
We believe it is incredibly important to recognise and celebrate students’ efforts and achievements. Attending these formal assemblies not only acknowledges their hard work but also helps to build a sense of pride, encouraging all students to reflect on their successes and continue striving for excellence.
We have also selected two Central Scholars from each year group who consistently demonstrate our core values of Achievement, Citizenship and Participation, whilst showing a strong growth mindset as they develop into resilient scholars.
We have shared some of our award winners below, but please join us in congratulating all of our students for their hard work and achievements this term. Each and every student should feel proud of the progress they have made and the contributions they have given to our school community.
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Head of Year Award |
Pastoral Manager Award |
Spring Central Scholar’s |
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Year 7 |
Mira - 9D |
Ibrahim - 9D |
Omer - 7E Adam - 7N |
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Year 8 |
Ahmed - 8H |
Mahida - 8R |
Eesa - 8N Madina - 8E |
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Year 9 |
Farah - 9R |
Sahasra -9H |
Inayah - 9R Zainab - 9H |
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Year 10 |
Tayyib - 10M |
Kaiden - 10A |
Emaan - 10N Tayyib - 10M |
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Year 11 |
Abu-Bakr - 11E |
Raees - 11H |
Subhan - 11E Simrah - 11N |
As we head into the two-week break, it’s a great opportunity for families to rest, recharge, and stay active together. Regular physical activity is not only important for children’s physical health, but also supports their mental wellbeing, helping to boost mood, reduce stress, and improve sleep.
We encourage students to aim for at least 60 minutes of activity each day and to limit screen time where possible. This doesn’t have to mean structured exercise. A family walk, bike ride, playing in the park, dancing at home, or even helping with active chores like gardening can all count.
Spending time outdoors, where possible, is especially beneficial. Fresh air and natural light can help children feel more energised and positive. It’s also a great way to connect as a family and make lasting memories.
To help encourage participation, you might:
Set small daily activity goals like the Daily Mile or Joe Wick’s Gamer Challenge: Gamer Challenge
Try something new together, like a sport or active game in the park
Create a simple activity chart or challenge for the week
Join in as a family. Children are more likely to stay active when adults take part too
Children and young people thrive on good-quality sleep. It helps with concentration, emotional regulation, and physical health. While it can be tempting to stay up later and sleep in during the holidays, large changes to sleep patterns can make returning to school more challenging.
Here are some simple tips to support healthy sleep habits over the break:
Keep a consistent routine: Try to maintain similar bedtimes and wake-up times each day.
Create a calming wind-down time: Encourage quiet activities before bed such as reading, drawing, or listening to music.
Limit screens before bedtime: Devices like phones, tablets, and TVs can make it harder to fall asleep. Aim to switch off at least an hour before bed.
Make the bedroom sleep-friendly: A cool, dark, and quiet environment helps promote better sleep.
Stay active during the day: Regular physical activity can help children fall asleep more easily at night.
Manchester Healthy Schools have a great Healthy Lifestyle resource with links and guidance for parents and carers: Manchester Healthy Schools Padlet
Summer Term Travel to School
With brighter days ahead, it’s a great time for students to walk, cycle, scoot, or wheel to school. Active travel boosts wellbeing, reduces traffic, and helps create a safer, cleaner environment.
Top tips for a safe travel to school:
Walk part or all the way
Wear helmets when cycling or scooting
Stay sun‑safe: sunscreen, hats, water bottles
Keep phones and headphones away while travelling
Free Breakfast Club
A reminder that all students are welcome to attend our Free Breakfast Club throughout the summer term. All students are welcome to join us for a positive, calm start to the school day with a healthy breakfast and time to settle in before lessons begin. Students have the option of toast, porridge, waffles, bagels, cereals, fresh fruit, hot drinks, juice and water.
Time: 7:30am – 8:30am Last Entry: 8:10am
Breakfast Club is a great way to:
Make mornings less stressful for families
Ensure students start the day energised and ready to learn
Provide a safe, supervised space before school begins
Build positive routines and support school attendance
No booking required.
Packed Lunch Reminders
MEA Central is a nut free school. To help ensure students have the energy they need for learning throughout the day, please keep the following in mind when preparing packed lunches:
Healthy choices to include:
Fresh fruit and vegetables
Wholemeal sandwiches, wraps, or pasta
Yoghurt, cheese portions, or other healthy snacks
Water as the main drink
Please avoid:
Sweets, chocolate or sugary treats
Fizzy or energy drinks
Crisps or high‑salt snacks
A few tips:
Aim for a balance of carbs, protein, fruit/veg, and dairy.
Small, simple swaps like fruit instead of chocolate can make a big difference.
Please label all lunchboxes and water bottles.
We are very excited to announce our first every careers day is taking place on 1st May this year! All of our students will be experiencing a different element of careers:
Year 7 – Aviva Studios – Creative Careers – Consent on Arbor
Year 8 – Science and Industry Museum – STEM Careers – Consent on Arbor
Year 9 – Work Insight – Experience a Workplace – confirm with QR code (letter provided to students)
Year 10 – Financial Awareness / College Speakers / Mock Interview Prep / Careers Fair
Year 11 – University Speaker / College Speakers / Maths Mastery / Careers Fair
We have launched our creative holiday projects with students this week and they will have brought home a printed copy of the brief. We look forward to seeing and celebrating their creations. These projects are designed to enrich the curriculum being taught in school and are a keyway that students can demonstrate our scholarly habits. As usual there will be a £15 gift voucher for the best entry in each year group.
Year 7 – Design a Menu for a French or Spanish restaurant.
Year 8 – Design a Castle
Year 9 – Science ‘Your body, the fish that evolved’
Year 10 – Newspaper article ‘Addicted to Smartphones’
The project briefs can be found here Easter .
What a wonderful last week of term for our Year 9 scholars – we are so excited to share some celebrations and successes in this week’s newsletter!
A reminder we have provided all of Year 9 with their Work Experience letters. Some students have communicated they have had issues with the QR codes on the letters, but we have now confirmed, with OurFutures, that the QR code link has been completed.
One of the letters is for the employer and the other one is for you, the parent/carer, to sign. Every student should fill these in by the 17th of April. A reminder, below, of some essential information for all scholars to bear in mind for our Work Experience day on the 1st of May:
Purpose of the day: shadow a professional at their place of work for the day and get inspired by future career options.
Skills: learn skills and knowledge that will help you in school and life. Remind your child not to worry about how this will link to their career as an adult – every job matters and will teach them something valuable.
School values: follow the MEA Central school values of Citizenship (Being Kind), Achievement (Working Hard) and Participation (Taking Part) on the day. Remind your child these values apply to not only school, but also real life!
Be proactive: we have advised your child to try and secure the placements as soon as possible and to make the most of the two weeks off coming up for our Easter Break to do this and fill in the forms provided in the letters.
The next round of Big Tests are just around the corner, taking place between 20th-30th April. Your child should have received their Revision materials from their teachers throughout this week and should now have all updated Knowledge Organisers in their folders.
We advise all scholars to continue to revise during the Easter Break and to complete their homework on Sparx as this will help them get the best results they can and to ensure that, after a restful two weeks, they attend school every day and on time to ensure a smooth exam season.
Thanks for your continued support this half term as we could not do our jobs without you.
Year 9 had their Celebration Assembly on Period 5 on Thursday. Here are all the subject awards that each department gave to the students:
Maths Award: Rowan
English Award: Amelia
Science Award: Wilfred
Design Technology Award: Laith
History Award: Raha
Geography Award: Sophie B
Art Award: Deacon
Music Award: Lola
Drama Award: Sahasra
Girls PE Award: Miral
Boys PE Award: Rafferty
Spanish Award: Alia
French Award: Lhavel
RE Award: Logan R.
Computing Award: Hana
Reading Award: Lucia
Trailblazers Award: Semhar
A huge well done to all of you for your excellent efforts in these subjects!
The Heads of House have selected the following students to win awards for the participation in the Art House Competition this half term:
Civitas Award: Amina (9M)
Simul Award: Rowan
Auxilium Award: Lucia
Lastly, the Head of Year and Pastoral Manager Awards have gone to these wonderful scholars who have consistently been working hard, taking part in their lessons and school events and been kind to staff and students alike:
Head of Year Award: Farah
Pastoral Manager Award: Sahasra
We are really proud of you!
We are happy to announce that the best attendance per form this half term is for 9Morrison!
All scholars in 9Morrison will have a free breakfast provided by school on the first week back to celebrate their success.
CAP Champions
We are happy to share the CAP Champions for Year 9 so far this year:
M. Abdullah (9M) 306 CAPs
Lola (9S) 239 CAPs
Z. Mustafa (9A) 235 CAPs
Cesar (9S) 225 CAPs
Isabella H. (9S) 210 CAPs
Head of Year Messages |
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Year 7 – Ms. S Bryan As we reach the end of the Spring Term, we would like to take a moment to reflect on just how far our Year 7 students have come since joining us seven months ago. It has been a real pleasure to see them grow into increasingly independent young scholars, developing confidence, resilience, and a strong sense of belonging within our school community.
This week, we have taken time to celebrate and show gratitude in a number of ways. Students have written thoughtful postcards to their teachers, expressing appreciation for the support and guidance they have received. We also held our half-termly celebration assembly, where we recognised the many achievements across the year group.
All students received certificates for their CAP points, and many were recognised for their contributions in lessons, outstanding effort, and excellent attitudes to learning. We also celebrated our incredible 100% attenders, alongside a number of individual award winners. A special congratulations goes to Mira (7D), who received the Head of Year Award for her outstanding attendance, consistently scholarly behaviour, and for being a kind and positive member of our community. We are equally proud of Ibrahim (7D), who was awarded the Pastoral Manager Award for his resilience during a challenging time and his determination to show up for himself each day.
Looking ahead, our Enrichment Challenge will begin in the first week of the Summer Term. Please ensure your child has chosen their enrichment activity and is ready to sign up.
We hope all families have a restful and enjoyable Easter break. Thank you for your continued support. We look forward to welcoming our Year 7 students back for what promises to be an exciting and successful Summer Term. |
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Year 8 – Ms. C Gates
Thank you for a fantastic end to the half term! It has been wonderful to see how our Year 8 scholars have finished strong. In particular, equipment is really strong across the year group, and after a big push this half term it has been great to see students arriving to school each day fully prepared to learn. The positive attitude, focus and consistency shown by so many students has set us up brilliantly as we look ahead to Summer 1.
I hope everyone has a restful break, but I also want to remind you of the upcoming Year 8 Big Tests. Revision will be uploaded today, so please encourage scholars to look at this over the half term and complete some revision. The focus is always on progress and feeling confident that we have given it our best. Even a small amount of revision each day can make a big difference, and we want all students to return feeling prepared and ready to succeed.
Have a wonderful easter break! Ms Gates and Mr Chowdhury
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Year 10 – Mr C Blackburn Last week, Year 10 completed their Work Experience, and we could not be prouder of how well they represented MEA Central. Students showed real maturity in securing their placements, communicating professionally, and demonstrating independence, positivity and strong work ethic throughout the week. The feedback from employers was exceptional, and this experience will play a vital role in strengthening their future college applications and developing their confidence in the world of work. Attendance & Punctuality – Every Day Makes a Difference As we begin the summer term, attendance and punctuality remain two of the biggest factors influencing final grades and college offers. Some key reminders:
Please support your child in attending school every day and arriving punctually. Strong habits now will create strong outcomes later. Summer Term – A Fresh Opportunity The summer term is a great chance for students to reset, refocus and finish Year 10 strongly. As I mentioned in assembly, all Year 10 data, including attendance, punctuality and behaviour, is used by colleges when making decisions. Students will also sit another round of Progress Exams, so early preparation is vital. We encourage all scholars to aim for Grade 1 scholarly habits, which provide the foundation for success going into Year 11. Our character focus this term is on three key values alongside the CAP values, the three words are:
These qualities will help students grow not only academically but personally. Email Communication With Students Moving forward, I will be communicating with students more frequently via email in preparation for life after school. We expect students to:
This will help prepare them for the expectations of college, apprenticeships and future employment. Wishing you all a happy and well‑deserved Easter break. School resumes for the summer term on 20th April 2026, please may I remind all students to arrive by 8:35 and in perfect uniform. Best wishes and thank you for all your on going support.
Mr Blackburn and Miss Kreszentia
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Year 11 – Mr J Roper
WOW – what a term it has been!
Our Year 11s have truly stepped up to the challenge and shown us just how determined, focused and resilient they can be. We couldn’t be prouder of the effort, maturity and consistency they have demonstrated across all aspects of Year 11 life.
This week alone has been a shining example of their commitment. Students have taken part in Practical Drama exams, attended Hospitality and Catering after‑school booster sessions and completed important surveys to help guide their next steps beyond Year 11. Alongside this, they’ve continued to engage in countless fantastic lessons, showing real drive as they approach the final stretch of the year.
To top it all off, we are about to embark on a residential for over 50 Year 11 pupils, focused entirely on Maths - a brilliant opportunity for students to consolidate their learning in a focused and supportive environment.
Below is some vital information for the Easter Study school programme. As with the last holiday study session, we hope that most of the year will take the opportunity to use this fantastic offer to work with class teachers to enhance their understanding of key topics and areas.
Easter Revision School
You are all invited to Revision School during the Easter holidays.
There will be supervised study sessions running each day where you can work silently on independent revision.
Teachers will invite you to specific sessions that they are running.
Key Information
You can only arrive/leave between:
9:45 and 10am
12 and 12:30
2:30pm
A delicious lunch will be provided.
Wear your own clothes.
The usual school rules apply. No mobile phones. Show our values of Citizenship, Achievement and Participation at all times.
It has been an incredibly busy but equally inspiring term. A huge well done to all of our Year 11s for their hard work and positive attitude. Keep it up—you’re making us proud every single day!!
Have a great holiday - Mr Roper & Ms Renshaw