Freddie's Focus
For Parents & Carers
- Issue 171
- September 11, 2026
Freddie's Focus
For Parents & Carers
- Issue 171
- September 11, 2026
Message from the Headteacher
Dear Parents & Carers,
It has been wonderful to welcome all of our students back to school, and I wanted to take a moment to say how impressed we have been with the way they have returned.
From the moment they arrived, students have shown a positive attitude, excellent behaviour, and a real readiness to learn. They have settled quickly into routines and have made a fantastic start to the new school year.
I would also like to thank families for their support in ensuring students have returned looking so smart. The standard of uniform has been excellent and students are wearing it with pride, helping to create a strong sense of belonging and high expectations across the school.
As we look ahead, attendance will be one of our key priorities. Every day in school matters, and strong attendance gives students the very best chance of success, both academically and socially. We appreciate your continued support in ensuring your child attends school every day, on time, whenever possible.
The positive start we have seen this week gives us great confidence for the year ahead. We are excited about the opportunities, achievements and experiences that lie ahead for our students, and we look forward to working in partnership with you throughout the year.
Thank you for your ongoing support, and here’s to a fantastic year ahead!
Mr Davies.
Message from the Headteacher
Dear Parents & Carers,
It has been wonderful to welcome all of our students back to school, and I wanted to take a moment to say how impressed we have been with the way they have returned.
From the moment they arrived, students have shown a positive attitude, excellent behaviour, and a real readiness to learn. They have settled quickly into routines and have made a fantastic start to the new school year.
I would also like to thank families for their support in ensuring students have returned looking so smart. The standard of uniform has been excellent and students are wearing it with pride, helping to create a strong sense of belonging and high expectations across the school.
As we look ahead, attendance will be one of our key priorities. Every day in school matters, and strong attendance gives students the very best chance of success, both academically and socially. We appreciate your continued support in ensuring your child attends school every day, on time, whenever possible.
The positive start we have seen this week gives us great confidence for the year ahead. We are excited about the opportunities, achievements and experiences that lie ahead for our students, and we look forward to working in partnership with you throughout the year.
Thank you for your ongoing support, and here’s to a fantastic year ahead!
Mr Davies.
Things to celebrate
- A superb start to the school year. It has been wonderful watching our older year groups support our new Year 7 students as they transition into high school and life at Freddie’s.
- This week our rehearsals for the next school show ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ began.
- Sporting Success this week
Earlier this week, we received notification that Ava has been nominated for Young Sports Achiever of the Year at the Wigan Council & Be Well 2026 Believe Sports Awards, a well-deserved recognition of her outstanding commitment and success in sport.
Ava lives and breathes football and has been passionate about the game from a very young age. Her dedication is remarkable, with training sessions and matches occupying most evenings and weekends. Through her hard work, determination and love of the sport, Ava has earned a place in the Burnley FC Women’s Under-12s squad, where she continues to develop and excel.
In addition to representing her club, Ava also plays at district level for Wigan Schools Football Association Under-13s, proudly representing both Wigan and Fred Longworth High School. Her achievements are a testament to the countless hours she invests in improving her game, as well as the commitment and enthusiasm she brings to every training session and fixture.
Everyone at Fred Longworth High School is incredibly proud of Ava and this prestigious nomination. We would like to congratulate her on this fantastic achievement and wish her the very best of luck at the awards ceremony.
Girls football practice is every Thursday after school on the school astro.
This is a fantastic achievement and a reflection of Riley’s dedication, hard work and commitment to rugby league. Securing a second year on scholarship is a significant milestone and demonstrates the progress he continues to make within one of the country’s leading rugby league clubs.
Everyone at Fred Longworth High School is incredibly proud of Riley and all that he has achieved. We look forward to following his continued success and wish him every success for the future
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
Earlier this week, we received notification that Ava has been nominated for Young Sports Achiever of the Year at the Wigan Council & Be Well 2026 Believe Sports Awards, a well-deserved recognition of her outstanding commitment and success in sport.
Ava lives and breathes football and has been passionate about the game from a very young age. Her dedication is remarkable, with training sessions and matches occupying most evenings and weekends. Through her hard work, determination and love of the sport, Ava has earned a place in the Burnley FC Women’s Under-12s squad, where she continues to develop and excel.
In addition to representing her club, Ava also plays at district level for Wigan Schools Football Association Under-13s, proudly representing both Wigan and Fred Longworth High School. Her achievements are a testament to the countless hours she invests in improving her game, as well as the commitment and enthusiasm she brings to every training session and fixture.
Everyone at Fred Longworth High School is incredibly proud of Ava and this prestigious nomination. We would like to congratulate her on this fantastic achievement and wish her the very best of luck at the awards ceremony.
Girls football practice is every Thursday after school on the school astro.
This is a fantastic achievement and a reflection of Riley’s dedication, hard work and commitment to rugby league. Securing a second year on scholarship is a significant milestone and demonstrates the progress he continues to make within one of the country’s leading rugby league clubs.
Everyone at Fred Longworth High School is incredibly proud of Riley and all that he has achieved. We look forward to following his continued success and wish him every success for the future
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
Information for parents of SEND students
We’d like to signpost to parents a new PADLET that has been created by Wigan LA to make parents aware of specific services that are available to support neuro-diverse students.
https://padlet.com/Thrive_in_Wigan/neurodevelopmental-support-n944neepu5gjvosy
This is additional to the other Wigan PADLET which serves as a useful gateway to all the services that support children in the Wigan area. Both PADLETS are regularly updated so it is worthwhile frequently checking-in for current information and updates.
https://padlet.com/WiganCAMHS/wigan-mhst-info-board-nu69chp8ifamla8q
Embrace also offer a range of on-line courses to support parents. Details of these can be found here:
https://www.embracewiganandleigh.org.uk/behaviour-support-workshops/?cn-reloaded=1
The following link provides a useful gateway to all services that support children in the Wigan area. This page is regularly updated so it is worthwhile frequently checking-in for current information and updates.
https://padlet.com/WiganCAMHS/wigan-mhst-info-board-nu69chp8ifamla8q
We can also recommend this website as a source of useful information for the parents of neurodiverse children and teens.
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.
We want there to be no learning time lost! 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
How to support your child to become an independent learner
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 take you to a short clip which explains how learning happens:
Add Your Heading Text Here
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.
Homework Intervention
If your child is not meeting deadlines or completing homework to the best of their ability, their teachers and/or Head of Year will refer them to our homework intervention group. Parents/ carers will receive a letter notifying you and to explain the night that your child will be required and for how long. This is a supportive intervention which is used to get students back on track with homework if they are struggling in this area.
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.
Please ensure your child speaks to staff of any lessons where they miss work due to absence, this is to mitigate any impact of absence.
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.
