Freddie's Focus
For Parents & Carers
- Issue 114
- February 28, 2025
Freddie's Focus
For Parents & Carers
- Issue 114
- February 28, 2025
Message from the Headteacher
Dear Parents & Carers,
I’d like to thank all the Year 9 Parents and Carers who attended our one-to-one options interviews this week. For the senior team and me, these interviews provide us with a unique opportunity to speak to students individually about their aspirations and their future plans, and it is an absolute pleasure for us to guide the students and their families through this important process. Choosing your options is a key milestone in school and I am always impressed by the maturity of each child and by the serious manner in which they approach the process. A reminder that the option forms need to be completed and handed in by Friday 7th March.
Next week, Thursday 6th March is also our Year 8 Parents’ Evening and a separate communication about this event has been sent out to parents.
Thank-you for your continued support.
Mr Davies.
Message from the Headteacher
Dear Parents & Carers,
I’d like to thank all the Year 9 Parents and Carers who attended our one-to-one options interviews this week. For the senior team and me, these interviews provide us with a unique opportunity to speak to students individually about their aspirations and their future plans, and it is an absolute pleasure for us to guide the students and their families through this important process. Choosing your options is a key milestone in school and I am always impressed by the maturity of each child and by the serious manner in which they approach the process. A reminder that the option forms need to be completed and handed in by Friday 7th March.
Next week, Thursday 6th March is also our Year 8 Parents’ Evening and a separate communication about this event has been sent out to parents.
Thank-you for your continued support.
Mr Davies.
Things to celebrate
- Over the Half Term a group of our students went on the Ski trip to Italy. A great time was had by all.
- This week we have hosted our Year 9 Options events. It has been lovely to speak to so many students and their parents and carers about the options process and next steps.
- This week we celebrated out ‘Freddie’s Focus Stars’. Please ask your child if they received a shout out for their effort in one or more of their subjects.
Wider cultural experiences at Freddie's
At Freddie’s our staff offer a wide range of clubs, activities, trips and events for our students. Here is a selection of what is on offer this term, in addition to the range of clubs and activities.
At Freddie’s we offer our students a wide range of other extra-curricular activities. For further details, click here.
- Sporting Success this week
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
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
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
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 PD curriculum into our timetable once per fortnight. The same lesson is not missed each week as we carefully map out the lessons over a rolling programme. During these lessons, your child is taught their PD 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, and we hope students find them informative and interesting.
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
Homework and Independent Learning
The OSCAR model is something that we are promoting at Freddie’s in order to support your child with independent/self-directed study at home.
The ‘O’ stands for organisation. To support your child with this important skill, the following questions and prompts may be useful:
- Start by checking your satchel on ‘Satchel One’ to see what homework has been set and what your priority homework is tonight.
- Prepare your resources and equipment so that you have everything to hand before you start your homework.
- Decide on your outcome: What are you aiming to know or have practised in this time?
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.