Freddie's Focus
For Parents & Carers
- Issue 137
- October 10, 2025
Freddie's Focus
For Parents & Carers
- Issue 137
- October 10, 2025
Message from the Headteacher
Dear Parents & Carers,
I would hope that all parents are now aware of our plans to make the school a mobile phone free school using the YONDR pouch system. We have had overwhelmingly positive feedback from parents about this change in policy and I would also like to thank the parents who took the time to attend the Parent Forums this week. Your feedback and insights have been invaluable. If you need a reminder about what the new policy will be and of the letter we recently sent to all parents please click here.
When we first informed parents of our intent to make this change, we explained that we would be rolling out YONDR in a phased manner starting with Year 7. Given the support we have received from parents, we intend to roll out YONDR with Year 7 next week. Once this is done, we will review the routines we are using to ensure students are using the pouches correctly and inform you of when we are rolling out with the other year groups. Please bear with us whilst we do this.
On other matters, the Year 10 Team would like to thank all parents who attended the workshop for Year 10 families on Thursday night. We hope you found this useful as your child embarks on their GCSE journey.
Finally for this week, please keep supporting with attendance, which continues to remain positive, and which is close to 95% for the whole school. Remember that just one day of absence means 5 missed lessons, as well as lost time spent with friends and doing extracurricular activities.
Thank-you for your continued support.
Mr Davies
Message from the Headteacher
Dear Parents & Carers,
I would hope that all parents are now aware of our plans to make the school a mobile phone free school using the YONDR pouch system. We have had overwhelmingly positive feedback from parents about this change in policy and I would also like to thank the parents who took the time to attend the Parent Forums this week. Your feedback and insights have been invaluable. If you need a reminder about what the new policy will be and of the letter we recently sent to all parents please click here.
When we first informed parents of our intent to make this change, we explained that we would be rolling out YONDR in a phased manner starting with Year 7. Given the support we have received from parents, we intend to roll out YONDR with Year 7 next week. Once this is done, we will review the routines we are using to ensure students are using the pouches correctly and inform you of when we are rolling out with the other year groups. Please bear with us whilst we do this.
On other matters, the Year 10 Team would like to thank all parents who attended the workshop for Year 10 families on Thursday night. We hope you found this useful as your child embarks on their GCSE journey.
Finally for this week, please keep supporting with attendance, which continues to remain positive, and which is close to 95% for the whole school. Remember that just one day of absence means 5 missed lessons, as well as lost time spent with friends and doing extracurricular activities.
Thank-you for your continued support.
Mr Davies
Things to celebrate
- Last Friday evening we hosted our annual Sports Award event at Tyldesley Rugby Club. An overwhelming number of students attended and received awards for their participation and outstanding contribution to PE at Freddie’s.
- On Thursday our Year 10 Sports Studies students completed their outdoor and adventurous activity aspect of their course. A great day was had by all and hopefully some good grades are already in the bag.
- On Thursday we hosted our Year 10 GCSE event and were delighted by the number of parents and carers who attended. Please see our website for the presentation and to access the online form for feedback.
- Earlier this week a group of our Eco-club students attended the Wigan Youth Climate Summit. This was a brilliant experience for all involved.
- This week we re-launched ‘Freddie’s Focus on the Stars’. This takes place once per fortnight and involves subject teachers rewarding five students in their subject who have excelled over the previous two weeks. Each student receives three reward points on Satchel One. We are incredibly proud of all of this week’s winners.
- Sporting Success this week
- Junior Mixed Team relay – 1st
- Intermediate Mixed Team relay – 2nd
- Junior Mixed Team freestyle – 1st
- Intermediate Mixed Team freestyle – 1st
We will now wait to see if the team qualify for the national finals. This is a tough ask, but we all agree that this is a massive achievement winning the northwest heats for 3 out of the 4 events we entered. Well done to the team, good luck and thanks to Mrs Hood for her continued support developing and promoting swimming at Freddie’s.
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
- Junior Mixed Team relay – 1st
- Intermediate Mixed Team relay – 2nd
- Junior Mixed Team freestyle – 1st
- Intermediate Mixed Team freestyle – 1st
We will now wait to see if the team qualify for the national finals. This is a tough ask, but we all agree that this is a massive achievement winning the northwest heats for 3 out of the 4 events we entered. Well done to the team, good luck and thanks to Mrs Hood for her continued support developing and promoting swimming at Freddie’s.
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:
We encourage all parents and carers to attend these events if they have a child in any of these year groups. Further information to follow.
What we do at Freddie's and why we do it
On the last Friday of this half term, four students from every form will receive a BEST Award. This is because they have demonstrated one or more of our character values seen above. We do this to highlight the importance of good character and to make sure that our students know that their positive contribution to our school is valued. All BEST Award winners will receive a certificate from their Form Tutor and five reward points on Satchel One.
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
At Freddie’s, there are six types of homework set in order to embed key knowledge and ensure that your child is equipped with independent learning skills. Below are the types of homework that we set:
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.
