Freddie's Focus
For Parents & Carers
- Issue 132
- September 5, 2025
Freddie's Focus
For Parents & Carers
- Issue 132
- September 5, 2025
Message from the Headteacher
Dear Parents & Carers,
Welcome back to the start of the new academic year and a special welcome to all new parents and carers. I hope that you and your families have had an enjoyable summer.
It has been a pleasure to welcome back to school this week all of our students. They have made a positive start to the new academic year. Thank-you for your co-operation on all matters relating to uniform and for ensuring that your children have come to school looking incredibly smart, properly equipped and ready to learn.
A number of new staff have joined us this academic year. I would like to welcome into our school community Mr Taylor, Deputy Head; Mrs Poulton, Maths; Mr Nichols, History; Mr Whittingham DT, Mrs Wilkinson, Learning Coach; Mr John, Cover Supervisor; Miss Gentle, ITT Science and Mr George, ITT DT.
Major headlines in the news this week have focused on the importance of good school attendance and particularly at the very start of the new term. We want to help everyone in our school community to understand what good attendance looks like. The definition of good attendance is 98% or better. Some would say 90% is good attendance – In a test, scoring 90% would be great, but this isn’t the same for attendance. In fact, 90% attendance is equivalent to missing one day of school every fortnight! That is 19 days across a year missed or, in other words, almost a month of school
The latest research from the DFE has shown that students who miss days of school at the very start of term are particularly at risk of becoming persistently absent during the academic year. For students in Year 7, the first week at school is particularly important. It allows your child to meet their teachers, make new friends, get their head around new school rules and learn to navigate their way around their new school buildings. Did you know that children who had an unauthorised absence on any day in the first week of term, on average go on to miss a quarter of the school year with attendance rates of 75% compared to children who don’t miss a day in the first week having on average 98% attendance. This shows just how important attending every day in the first week is. Every year we also see the impact of low attendance in our GCSE results. Students who are not attending regularly are at risk of securing not even the basics when they leave school. Children who attend school regularly are far more likely to go on to further education, training or employment when they finish Year 11 than those who have less than 90% attendance in Year 10 and 11.
Please support us with attendance by ensuring that your child attends school every day.
We look forward to working with you and your children in the year ahead.
Thank-you for your continued support.
Mr Davies
Message from the Headteacher
Dear Parents & Carers,
Welcome back to the start of the new academic year and a special welcome to all new parents and carers. I hope that you and your families have had an enjoyable summer.
It has been a pleasure to welcome back to school this week all of our students. They have made a positive start to the new academic year. Thank-you for your co-operation on all matters relating to uniform and for ensuring that your children have come to school looking incredibly smart, properly equipped and ready to learn.
A number of new staff have joined us this academic year. I would like to welcome into our school community Mr Taylor, Deputy Head; Mrs Poulton, Maths; Mr Nichols, History; Mr Whittingham DT, Mrs Wilkinson, Learning Coach; Mr John, Cover Supervisor; Miss Gentle, ITT Science and Mr George, ITT DT.
Major headlines in the news this week have focused on the importance of good school attendance and particularly at the very start of the new term. We want to help everyone in our school community to understand what good attendance looks like. The definition of good attendance is 98% or better. Some would say 90% is good attendance – In a test, scoring 90% would be great, but this isn’t the same for attendance. In fact, 90% attendance is equivalent to missing one day of school every fortnight! That is 19 days across a year missed or, in other words, almost a month of school
The latest research from the DFE has shown that students who miss days of school at the very start of term are particularly at risk of becoming persistently absent during the academic year. For students in Year 7, the first week at school is particularly important. It allows your child to meet their teachers, make new friends, get their head around new school rules and learn to navigate their way around their new school buildings. Did you know that children who had an unauthorised absence on any day in the first week of term, on average go on to miss a quarter of the school year with attendance rates of 75% compared to children who don’t miss a day in the first week having on average 98% attendance. This shows just how important attending every day in the first week is. Every year we also see the impact of low attendance in our GCSE results. Students who are not attending regularly are at risk of securing not even the basics when they leave school. Children who attend school regularly are far more likely to go on to further education, training or employment when they finish Year 11 than those who have less than 90% attendance in Year 10 and 11.
Please support us with attendance by ensuring that your child attends school every day.
We look forward to working with you and your children in the year ahead.
Thank-you for your continued support.
Mr Davies
Message from the Headteacher
Dear Parents & Carers,
Welcome back to the start of the new academic year and a special welcome to all new parents and carers. I hope that you and your families have had an enjoyable summer.
It has been a pleasure to welcome back to school this week all of our students. They have made a positive start to the new academic year. Thank-you for your co-operation on all matters relating to uniform and for ensuring that your children have come to school looking incredibly smart, properly equipped and ready to learn.
A number of new staff have joined us this academic year. I would like to welcome into our school community Mr Taylor, Deputy Head; Mrs Poulton, Maths; Mr Nichols, History; Mr Whittingham DT, Mrs Wilkinson, Learning Coach; Mr John, Cover Supervisor; Miss Gentle, ITT Science and Mr George, ITT DT.
Major headlines in the news this week have focused on the importance of good school attendance and particularly at the very start of the new term. We want to help everyone in our school community to understand what good attendance looks like. The definition of good attendance is 98% or better. Some would say 90% is good attendance – In a test, scoring 90% would be great, but this isn’t the same for attendance. In fact, 90% attendance is equivalent to missing one day of school every fortnight! That is 19 days across a year missed or, in other words, almost a month of school
The latest research from the DFE has shown that students who miss days of school at the very start of term are particularly at risk of becoming persistently absent during the academic year. For students in Year 7, the first week at school is particularly important. It allows your child to meet their teachers, make new friends, get their head around new school rules and learn to navigate their way around their new school buildings. Did you know that children who had an unauthorised absence on any day in the first week of term, on average go on to miss a quarter of the school year with attendance rates of 75% compared to children who don’t miss a day in the first week having on average 98% attendance. This shows just how important attending every day in the first week is. Every year we also see the impact of low attendance in our GCSE results. Students who are not attending regularly are at risk of securing not even the basics when they leave school. Children who attend school regularly are far more likely to go on to further education, training or employment when they finish Year 11 than those who have less than 90% attendance in Year 10 and 11.
Please support us with attendance by ensuring that your child attends school every day.
We look forward to working with you and your children in the year ahead.
Thank-you for your continued support.
Mr Davies
Things to celebrate
- This week we have welcomed all our new Year 7 students. We have been incredibly proud of the way in which they have already started to settle in.
- During the Summer holiday we were hosts to the Royal Exchange Theatre who held their Local Exchange Festival at our school from 7th to 17th August 2025. This wonderful event also enabled some of our students to perform and exhibit their work.
- Over the Summer one of our Year 11 students, Ava Webster, was nominated for ‘Best Young Performer’ in the Inside Soap Awards. This is a superb achievement!
- One of our Year 8 students, Jake Roberts, had his business pitch published on the YouTube channel of entrepreneur Simon Squibb. Well done Jake!
- 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 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 email Mr Gregory with any information so we can share with everyone on Freddie’s Focus – gregoryi@flhs.wigan.sch.uk
Key Events
We will be holding the following events for parents and carers during this term:
Further information about these events will be communicated to parents and carers in due course.
What we do at Freddie's and why we do it
At Freddie’s we want our students to develop as excellent learners who ultimately achieve the very best from their time at school. Below are the FLHS BEST Standards.
These standards are displayed in all classrooms and referred to as a constant reminder of the positive learning habits that we want all students to display.
‘Habits accelerate learning’
At Freddie’s, celebration, praise and reward are at the heart of all that we do. We want all of our students to strive for excellence.
Year 7 to Year 10
100 HoY Mug/Earphones/Water Bottle/Skip the queue pass
175 MTA Power Bank/Skip the queue pass/Calculator/£5 Amazon voucher
250 MTA £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 MTA £10 Amazon voucher/£10 off Prom
200 PDA £15 Amazon voucher/£15 off Prom
Homework and Independent Learning
This diagram indicates how the memory works. The working memory has a very limited capacity. Information stored in the working memory that is not rehearsed can be lost between 18 to 30 seconds. This means that we need to do something with that information and regularly revisit that information to make it stick and remain in the long-term memory. To learn something means that there has been a change in our long term memory. We’ve now stored something there and it remains there!
The link below will demonstrate to you to a short clip which explains how learning happens:
It is our job as teachers to help students to learn information so that it sticks. Parents and carers can support their children at home to revise material learned in class so that it has more chance of sticking. Over the next few weeks, we will share with you some of the things that we do to help knowledge stick and some of the things that your children can do at home during self-directed study.
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 to Thursday where they can complete work in a quiet environment with staff on hand to support them, and computers for online quizzes and research.
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.
Please encourage your child to be in school every day.
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. Your 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. Your continued support is invaluable to us.