Freddie's Focus
For Parents & Carers
- Issue 102
- November 8, 2024
Freddie's Focus
For Parents & Carers
- Issue 102
- November 8, 2024
Message from the Headteacher
Dear Parents & Carers,
Mrs Robinson and our History team have engaged our students in a unique and interesting project working with the Anne Frank Foundation for Holocaust Education. Last week 19 Year 9 students trained as ambassadors for the Foundation. Following their training, the Year 9 students this week began teaching the Anne Frank story to their peers. They have been working with classes in both Year 7 and Year 8, and with local primary students. It has been a privilege to watch the students grow in confidence and to deliver the lessons of the Holocaust in such an informed and passionate manner. The representatives from the Foundation itself have commented on how wonderful the students have been during this project. Well done to everybody involved.
As is tradition here at Freddie’s, this week also saw the Year 7 visit to Winmarleigh. The trip has been a huge success and will hopefully have provided some lasting memories for all those involved. Our social media pages contain many photographs from the trip of some very smiley but muddy children!
On a separate note, I want to share with parents again the letter that was sent out just before Half Term about the changes we are making to uniform in September 2025. Some students are already keen to make the switch to trousers as we come into the winter months. As a reminder to all parents, the details of what are deemed appropriate trousers for school are contained in the letter, details of which can be found at the bottom of this message.
Finally, we have recently completed an audit of the number of parents who are regularly accessing and using Satchel One to monitor their child’s progress and homework in school. The current figure is 79% of parents on average, across all year groups, regularly access Satchel One. Thank-you.
If you have not yet signed up to Satchel One, we would urge you to do so. A communication to individual parents will be sent out over the next few days to help you to sign up. When students do well in school, it is because there is a positive partnership between school and home and because their parents take an active interest in their child’s education.
Thank-you for your continued support.
Parental Engagement with Satchel One by Year Group:
- Year 7 – 94% engagement
- Year 8 - 89% engagement
- Year 9 – 77% engagement
- Year 10 – 66% engagement
- Year 11 – 73% engagement
Thank-you for your continued support.
Mr Davies.
Message from the Headteacher
Dear Parents & Carers,
Mrs Robinson and our History team have engaged our students in a unique and interesting project working with the Anne Frank Foundation for Holocaust Education. Last week 19 Year 9 students trained as ambassadors for the Foundation. Following their training, the Year 9 students this week began teaching the Anne Frank story to their peers. They have been working with classes in both Year 7 and Year 8, and with local primary students. It has been a privilege to watch the students grow in confidence and to deliver the lessons of the Holocaust in such an informed and passionate manner. The representatives from the Foundation itself have commented on how wonderful the students have been during this project. Well done to everybody involved.
As is tradition here at Freddie’s, this week also saw the Year 7 visit to Winmarleigh. The trip has been a huge success and will hopefully have provided some lasting memories for all those involved. Our social media pages contain many photographs from the trip of some very smiley but muddy children!
On a separate note, I want to share with parents again the letter that was sent out just before Half Term about the changes we are making to uniform in September 2025. Some students are already keen to make the switch to trousers as we come into the winter months. As a reminder to all parents, the details of what are deemed appropriate trousers for school are contained in the letter, details of which can be found at the bottom of this message.
Finally, we have recently completed an audit of the number of parents who are regularly accessing and using Satchel One to monitor their child’s progress and homework in school. The current figure is 79% of parents on average, across all year groups, regularly access Satchel One. Thank-you.
If you have not yet signed up to Satchel One, we would urge you to do so. A communication to individual parents will be sent out over the next few days to help you to sign up. When students do well in school, it is because there is a positive partnership between school and home and because their parents take an active interest in their child’s education.
Thank-you for your continued support.
Parental Engagement with Satchel One by Year Group:
- Year 7 – 94% engagement
- Year 8 - 89% engagement
- Year 9 – 77% engagement
- Year 10 – 66% engagement
- Year 11 – 73% engagement
Thank-you for your continued support.
Mr Davies.
Things to celebrate
- This week we hosted the Anne Frank Trust Museum. A group of our Y9 students trained as guides and were exceptional at talking to visitors and other year groups about the exhibition.
- On Monday to Wednesday our Year 7 students went on our annual visit to Winmarleigh Hall. A wonderful time was had by all.
- On Thursday our Year 8 students took part in the ‘Faraday Challenge’ which is a STEM related Design and Engineering event in which our students competed against five other local schools.
- We are incredibly impressed by the number of our students who are getting involved with all the extra-curricular activities on offer to them. Please encourage your child to get involved.
- Sporting Success this week
KS3 boys football team.
We are always excited to learn of any sporting successes outside of school so we can celebrate the student’s achievements. Please can parents email Mr Gregory with any information so we can share with everyone on Freddie’s Focus – gregoryi@flhs.wigan.sch.uk
Sporting Success this week
KS3 football team practice.
We are always excited to learn of any sporting successes outside of school so we can celebrate the student’s achievements. Please can parents email Mr Gregory with any information so we can share with everyone on Freddie’s Focus – gregoryi@flhs.wigan.sch.uk
Extra-Curricular Activities
The Arts faculty extra-curricular timetables are now available. All students are welcome to attend the sessions, and we look forward to seeing you.
At Freddie’s we offer our students a wide range of other extra-curricular activities, including STEM club, Physical Education and many more. For further details, click here.
School Reminders
Did you know that you can read previous editions of Freddie’s Focus from this Academic Year? To do so, click here.
School Reminders
Did you know that you can read previous editions of Freddie’s Focus from this Academic Year? To do so, click here.
What we do at Freddie's and why we do it
Our Personal Development curriculum:
The Department for Education specify that it is your child’s entitlement to a Personal Development education. The aim is “to promote discussion, challenge misconceptions and allow students to reflect on matters that are usually outside a typical lesson.” We therefore build our Personal Development curriculum into our timetable once per fortnight starting this Half Term. The same lesson is not hit each week as we carefully map out the lessons over a rolling programme. During these lessons your child is taught their Personal Development curriculum by their Form Tutor or a member of staff attached to their year group. Our expectation is that these lessons are treated in the same way as all other lessons.
Year 7 to Year 10
100 HoY Mug/Earphones/Water Bottle/Skip the queue pass
175 JWY Power Bank/Skip the queue pass/Calculator/£5 Amazon voucher
250 JWY £10 Amazon voucher/Skip the queue pass
350 PDA £15 Amazon voucher/Skip the queue pass
Year 11
100 HoY £5 Amazon voucher/£5 off Prom
150 JWY £10 Amazon voucher/£10 off Prom
200 PDA £15 Amazon voucher/£15 off Prom
On the run up to the Musical ‘The Wiz’, students with 250 rewards (150 Y11) may opt for a free ticket to see the musical when they see Mr Whalley.
Homework and Independent Learning
Helping your child to understand how we learn:
The diagram above demonstrates the fact to learn means to remember. Remembering means that information is embedded into the Long Term Memory.
Our Working Memory can only hold a few pieces of information for up to 30 seconds until it is lost/forgotten. This is why we have to do something with that information to make sure that it is not lost.
Actively engaging with information and tasks which involve retrieval and repetition help information stick.
Applications that we use for learning
The following applications are used by our students during their time at FLHS to aid their learning. You can learn more about them below.
Microsoft Office
Did you know that your child can access Microsoft Office at home for free? As a student at Fred Longworth High School, your child is allowed to download a fully working free copy of Microsoft Office 365 to use on their computer, smartphone and tablet whilst they are a student at our school. Click on the button below to learn more.
Satchel:One
Satchel:One is the school online learning platform for students and is the parental portal for all information related to your child’s overall progress within school. You can keep track of your child’s homework using Satchel:One. It is advisable to remind your child to get into the habit of checking their homework on Satchel:One regularly. Relying upon notifications is not the right approach and we advise students to turn off notifications so that they are not disturbed by them.
GCSEPod
GCSEPod is an online study platform and is the perfect resource to help your child learn, retain and recall all the information they need to achieve their GCSE goals. GCSEPod provides 3-5 minute bursts of audio-visual, teacher written learning which can help to reinforce and consolidate key GCSE topics covered in lessons. Experts read and explain everything clearly including all the right facts, quotes, keywords, dates and diagrams on screen. GCSEPod is only available to students in Year 10 and Year 11.
Homework Club
Please remind your child that homework club is available to all students Monday-Thursday in the Library (apart from Monday week B) where support and IT equipment is is available.
Attendance
We want to do all we can to support your child to be in school every day and ask that you support this important message from home, encouraging your child to avoid missing curriculum content through absence. Here is a breakdown of the absences for the following attendance percentages:
Thank you for your continued support with attendance.
Can we please remind all our parents and carers to use the correct channels of communication should they wish to raise a concern or question. You continued support is invaluable to us.
Belonging, Engaging, Succeeding Together.
Can we please remind all our parents and carers to use the correct channels of communication should they wish to raise a concern or question. You continued support is invaluable to us.