Freddie's Focus
For Parents & Carers
- Issue 145
- December 12, 2025
Freddie's Focus
For Parents & Carers
- Issue 145
- December 12, 2025
Message from the Headteacher
Dear Parents & Carers,
Thank-you for all your donations to our Christmas Hamper appeal so far, they have been greatly received. We will still be collecting donations up to and including Wednesday 17th December.
A huge well done to all of our winners in the daily ‘Freddie’s 15’ prize draws which is having a significant and positive impact on our attendance at this time of year. As we approach the end of term, numerous Christmas activities are taking place in school. This week we held a Christmas Quiz in the Library and on Friday our annual Senior Citizens’ Christmas party for members of our local community. We look forward to the Christmas Concert on Tuesday 16th December and our traditional Christingle Service at St. George’s Church for all of our students in Year 7. We finish the term on Friday 19th December at 12:20pm with our usual, end of term celebration assemblies.
Aside from these festive events, it is important to stress that normal lessons will continue and, as we often raise in our communication with parents, every lesson counts, regardless of whether or not we are moving towards the end of term. One missed day is 5 missed lessons and gaps in knowledge are quickly created and take much longer to fix.
Thank-you for your continued support.
Mr Davies
Message from the Headteacher
Dear Parents & Carers,
Thank-you for all your donations to our Christmas Hamper appeal so far, they have been greatly received. We will still be collecting donations up to and including Wednesday 17th December.
A huge well done to all of our winners in the daily ‘Freddie’s 15’ prize draws which is having a significant and positive impact on our attendance at this time of year. As we approach the end of term, numerous Christmas activities are taking place in school.
This week we held a Christmas Quiz in the Library and on Friday our annual Senior Citizens’ Christmas party for members of our local community. We look forward to the Christmas Concert on Tuesday 16th December and our traditional Christingle Service at St. George’s Church for all of our students in Year 7. We finish the term on Friday 19th December at 12:20pm with our usual, end of term celebration assemblies.
Aside from these festive events, it is important to stress that normal lessons will continue and, as we often raise in our communication with parents, every lesson counts, regardless of whether or not we are moving towards the end of term. One missed day is 5 missed lessons and gaps in knowledge are quickly created and take much longer to fix.
Thank-you for your continued support.
Mr Davies
Things to celebrate
- This week has been our Self-Evaluation week. This is an opportunity for students in Years 7 to 10 to reflect on their celebrations over this term and to decide on their areas for development next term.
- Today we have hosted our Senior Citizen’s Christmas Party. This is a wonderful event which brings the community together. We are incredibly proud of the way in which our students who performed and hosted conducted themselves today.
- Our Year 11 students have completed their mock examinations this week. Their conduct through this exam period has been exemplary.
- Rehearsals for our school show ‘Oliver’ are well underway.
- On Wednesday, a group of Drama students visited Octagon Theatre Bolton to see a performance of ‘A Christmas Carol’. The students represented the school extremely well and everyone enjoyed the performance.
- 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
What we do at Freddie's and why we do it
Self-Evaluation week
Over the course of the academic year, we provide an opportunity for our students to reflect on their learning, achievements, and areas for improvement. This is called our ‘Self-Evaluation’, and it will take place next week. We want all of our students to take ownership of their learning journey and to be able to reflect on what is going well and their next steps. We also ask students to consider any pieces of work that they are most proud of in preparation for their end of year ‘Student-Led Conference’. Please discuss the importance of this week with your child.
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
At Freddie’s we set six specific types of homework to broaden, consolidate and enhance learning.
As part of our ‘Retrieve it’ homework, you will see that quizzes are set on ‘Satchel One’. In Science, students are asked to complete a test three times over the course of a two week period. The tests should not be completed in succession but with a time lapse in between. This is a spaced retrieval strategy proved to strengthen the memory and consolidate learning so that it is retained. See ‘Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve’ below:
The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve, discovered by Hermann Ebbinghaus, shows how we rapidly forget new information over time, with the steepest drop occurring within hours or days, unless we actively review it. This exponential decline highlights that memory retention fades quickly without effort, but spaced repetition (revisiting info at increasing intervals) and making learning meaningful are key to strengthening memories and improving long-term recall, a principle widely used in education.
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.
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.