WELCOME

WELCOME

Freddie's Focus

For Parents & Carers

Freddie's Focus

For Parents & Carers

Things to celebrate

  • Last Friday, a group of our Year 7 students took part in a trip to Manchester Airport with our Computing department. It was very successful trip with students’ behaviour and attitude praised by the airport staff.
  • This week, we have hosted ‘Breakfast with your Head of Year’ for all students who have had good attendance last term. We are so proud of their commitment and ask them to keep it up.
  • Some of our students attended the Mental Health Ambassador training earlier this week.  We are incredibly proud of the students who volunteered to take part and demonstrated such maturity and kindness throughout the day.
  • Our Year 11 students received their Mock results on Thursday. It was wonderful to see so many pleased faces, whilst others now have a clear picture of their priority subjects and areas for improvement.

School Reminders

  • School Musical Production

    The highly anticipated ‘Grease’ (our next school musical) tickets are now on sale. Performances will take place 14th-17th March. For tickets see below.

  • Year 11 Parents' Evening

    On Thursday 19th January, our Year 11 Parents’ Evening will take place in school from 16.30.

  • Dates for the diary

    Our Year 9 Parents’ Evening will take place on Thursday 2nd February in school from 16.30. On the 15th and 16th February Year 9 Options interviews will be held. Further information on this to follow.

  • General Reminder

    Could we please ask all parents and carers to support us in ensuring that your child does not wear jewellery for school.

School Reminders

  • School Musical Production

    The highly anticipated ‘Grease’ (our next school musical) tickets are now on sale. Performances will take place 14th-17th March. For tickets see below.

  • Year 11 Parents' Evening

    On Thursday 19th January, our Year 11 Parents’ Evening will take place in school from 16.30.

  • Dates for the diary

    Our Year 9 Parents’ Evening will take place on Thursday 2nd February in school from 16.30. On the 15th and 16th February Year 9 Options interviews will be held. Further information on this to follow.

  • General Reminder

    Could we please ask all parents and carers to support us in ensuring that your child does not wear jewellery for school.

Homework and Self-directed study

Staff are continually encouraging our students to take pride in the quality of their written work. To help, we have introduced the new Freddie’s Proofreading Guidance. Please encourage your child to check all of their work, avoiding making any basic errors by proofreading carefully.

Satchel:One

You can keep track of your child’s homework using Satchel:One

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.

Attendance

Dear Parents and Carers,

At the start of a new year, it is important to reflect on last term. Please have a look at our ‘Attendance Diamond’ and review what level of attendance your child is currently at. You can see this on Satchel:One via the parent app, and all students are shown their attendance in form time on a weekly basis.

We would like all students to aim for 97%+ (which still equates to 6 days absence per year) and at the end of the year in order for students to be eligible for our rewards trips, students will need to achieve 95% attendance or above. EVERY DAY COUNTS is our key message.

The link between success at school and attendance is clear; we want all our students to succeed. Being in school on time are key ingredients for students to do well at school.

Message from the Headteacher

Dear Parents and Carers,

It was fantastic to see such a positive and mature response from our Year 11 students during our Mock Results Day on Thursday. For obvious reasons, this was not quite as nerve-wracking as the real day in August, but it still gave our students a real sense of what lies ahead. Also, whilst grades may not yet quite be where the students need or want them to be – the key word here is ‘yet’. Hopefully over the coming months, students can learn from any mistakes made during the mock exams and build on the experience in anticipation for the real exams in the Summer.

Don’t forget we also have Year 11 Parents’ Evening on Thursday 19th January from 4:30pm – we look forward to seeing you then. Your child’s results and reports have been sent home with your child.

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.