WELCOME

WELCOME

Freddie's Focus

For Parents & Carers

Freddie's Focus

For Parents & Carers

Things to celebrate

  • This week was ‘Freddie’s Focus on the Stars’ week . It was wonderful to see so many of our students being recognised for their efforts and successes in their subjects. Ask your child if they made it into the celebrations!
  • On Thursday evening, we welcomed parents of Year 11 students for a presentation from our Mental Health Support Team (MHST) who offered information and strategies to support students as they embark upon the final weeks before their exams. We received some excellent feedback from those involved.
  • Friday finished with our Year 11 celebration event where students were welcome to come, relax and simply enjoy some fun following an intensive half term of study and revision.
  • Year 11 hoodies are now available for purchase and can be worn by students on Fridays. It has been wonderful to see many students wearing theirs with pride.
  • Year 7 football students played extremely well at this week’s Manchester United event. They represented the school in a positive way.
  • Year 9 Rugby students competed in a Freddie’s origin Q v U band. Students showed a number of values such as commitment, resilience and respect. Every student showed 100% effort.
  • Jess Hodgkinson came 5th in the Greater Manchester Cross Country championships with a great performance.
  • Ava Broomes (Year 7) received a personal best for 60 metres at 9.1 seconds, and the long Jump at 4.02M. These are both records for Leigh Harriers.

School Reminders

  • Year 11 - Core Mock Examinations

    Year 11 core mocks will commence on the first week back. Students have received their timetables and should be using their half term to revise alongside rest and time to connect with family and friends.

  • Year 9 - Options Meetings

    Year 9 options meetings with the Senior Team will take place online via School Cloud on Wednesday 15th February, or face to face on Thursday 16th February. Please use the School Cloud booking system to book onto one of those nights. The booking system will go live at 5pm today (Friday 10th February).

  • School Closure - Half Term

    School will close for the half term break on Friday 17th February at 3pm and will re-open Monday 27th February. We wish all our students a happy half term.

  • General Reminder

    Could we please ask all parents and carers to support us in ensuring that your child returns to school after the break without false eyelashes, false nails or fake tan. This helps us immensely to ensure a smooth start to the term and maintain our high standards.

School Reminders

  • Year 11 - Core Mock Examinations

    Year 11 core mocks will commence on the first week back. Students have received their timetables and should be using their half term to revise alongside rest and time to connect with family and friends.

  • Year 9 - Options Meetings

    Year 9 options meetings with the Senior Team will take place online via School Cloud on Wednesday 15th February, or face to face on Thursday 16th February. Please use the School Cloud booking system to book onto one of those nights. The booking system will go live at 5pm today (Friday 10th February).

  • School Closure - Half Term

    School will close for the half term break on Friday 17th February at 3pm and will re-open Monday 27th February. We wish all our students a happy half term.

  • General Reminder

    Could we please ask all parents and carers to support us in ensuring that your child returns to school after the break without false eyelashes, false nails or fake tan. This helps us immensely to ensure a smooth start to the term and maintain our high standards.

Homework and Self-directed study

We have six types of homework which we set in order to broaden, consolidate and enhance your child’s learning.  Each week we will share with you one of the types of homework. 

Please see below for this week’s ‘Read it’ examples and our reason for setting this type of homework task:

Satchel:One

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.

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.

School Policies

We would like to remind parents about some of our school policies:

Mobile Phones

These are not allowed to be used in school. Our rule is ‘once through the school gates’ mobile phones must be switched off or on silent.

Make-up

Students are not allowed to wear any make-up. This is creeping into school and we ask for the support of parents with this. Students should not be bringing make-up to school

Hoodies/Tracksuit tops

School coats must be waterproof; our expectation is for students to wear coats not tracksuit tops or ‘hoodie’ style tops.

Students not following these policies will be spoken to and our policies on confiscation and detentions will follow if necessary.

Message from the Headteacher

Dear Parents and Carers,

I’d like to take this opportunity to provide you with a quick update on the new school. Progress on the build is moving at pace, although the contractors have lost several days due to inclement weather. We hope to know in the next few weeks when the building will be handed over to us and the move can take place; it will be sometime in the Autumn term.

In the meantime, we are preparing extensively for the transition. Having been involved in the planning of the new school from the offset, I can tell you that the building will present so many new opportunities for the school and allow us to make significant improvements to the routines and systems that we currently have in place. The changes we make will greatly benefit your child. Members of my team and I have also been spending time in other schools and settings where they have recently experienced a new build. This is helping us to plan and think about the most effective way to transition: moving 1300 students into a new building is no small feat, as well as learning about new routines and systems that we can put in place. I will of course keep you updated on all of these developments.

Regards,

Mr Davies.

How Yondr Works

Frequently Asked Questions

We want our students to be engaged in their learning. A child at high school should not really have a reason to contact a parent during the day; however, if there is a genuine reason e.g. they have forgotten their packed lunch, a phone call can be made home from the school office. If a parent needs to contact their child in an emergency, they should contact the school office. If you need to contact your child during the school day, contact the main office on 01942 883796.

In case of a school emergency, we direct our students to safety first, following our school emergency procedures.

 

Students are in possession of their phone - in their Yondr pouch - for the entire school day. We will advise students to store the pouch safely in their school bag or blazer pockets.

If a student damages their Pouch or is caught on their phone, we will confiscate the phone and issue a sanction which is likely to be a suspension.

Note: Damage consists of any signs that the physical integrity of the pouch has been compromised, whether intentional or unintentional, as determined by the school or Yondr staff.

Damaged pouches will be charged to parents at a cost of £20.

They will be searched and wanded with a handheld scanner by a member of SLT. If they are found to have their phone on their person they will be expected to place it in their pouch. Refusal will be met with suspension.

If a student forgets their Pouch, their phone will be confiscated.

As per our previous mobile phone policy;

  • Confiscated phones will be taken to reception where the phone will be secured in the school safe.
  • Parents will be alerted to the phone confiscation via the school office.

Parents will have the option to collect the phone at the end of the day. If parents do not collect the phone, the phone will remain in school until the end of the week or until the student has their pouch.

In Yondr’s experience, this almost never happens. All students funnel past the unlocking stations at the exits, they want their phones back and don’t forget to unlock their pouches. If they do arrive home with a phone in a pouch, they can either come back to school to unlock it, or have a phone free evening!

The unlocking process is quick and takes under a second per student. 

As a privilege, Year 11 will be able to unlock their phones as they go off site at lunchtime; however, they will be expected to put their phones back into their pouches when they return to school for period 5.

Yes. There is an adapted version of the pouch which uses a Velcro fastener instead of a magnetic lock. This means the student still follows the policy, but the adapted pouch gives them easy access to their phone when required. If the student abuses this, they will face a sanction. We are already aware of these students.

Your Office 365 account username is your school network account username followed by @flhs.wigan.sch.uk 
The password is the same password that you use in school to access computers.