WELCOME

WELCOME

Freddie's Focus

For Parents & Carers

Freddie's Focus

For Parents & Carers

Things to celebrate

  • This week we have hosted our attendance breakfast for all of our students who have achieved above 95% attendance. 
  • On Thursday morning our Year 11 students received their mock examination results.  We hope for many, this will provide a clear picture of where they are currently at, where the gaps are and what they must do to ensure every success when it comes to their real exams. 
  • Adam Corbally, ex ‘Apprentice’ star  has been in with the Y10 students this week for their enterprise challenge that they have been working on since September. The students have had the opportunity to pitch their business ideas to Adam to win some prizes and showcase the work they have been doing.
  • On Friday our Year 7 students had the opportunity to meet and question Phil Earle, author of the book ‘When the Sky Falls’.
  • On Sunday our Brass band are performing in a joint concert with the British Army Brass Band Catterick. Freddie’s Band will open the concert and our program will feature a solo by our principal cornet, Grace Anderson (Y8). The army band will perform, and then the two bands will form a massed band and perform three pieces for the finale – ‘You can’t stop the beat’, the hymn ‘Manchester’, and ‘Prismatic Light’. The army band will also speak to the Freddie’s players in the afternoon about careers as a musician in the armed forces.
  • Indoor athletics event

    A group of Y10 sports students helped at the ATSA KS1 indoor athletics event last Friday. This was a great opportunity for the students to show case their leadership skills and Mr Grogan and the staff involved were very impressed with their contribution. Well done to everyone involved.

  • Climbing assessment

    Another group of Y10 sports studies students visited Howe Bridge last Friday to complete their climbing assessment for their OAA unit. The students demonstrated a great attitude and overcame many personal challenges to climb the walls. Mr Gregory was very impressed with the student's skill application and levels of resilience.

  • Football event

    A massive well done and thank you to Tommy Hampson (Y11) & Olivia Wells (Y8) for officiating the KS2 ATSA football event on Friday after school. Again, there was positive feedback from the staff and students involved. If anyone would like to officiate any football games moving forwards, please see Mr Gregory, the games will take place on the school 3G every Monday and Friday after school.

Sporting Success this week

  • Indoor athletics event

    A group of Y10 sports students helped at the ATSA KS1 indoor athletics event last Friday. This was a great opportunity for the students to show case their leadership skills and Mr Grogan and the staff involved were very impressed with their contribution. Well done to everyone involved.

  • Climbing assessment

    Another group of Y10 sports studies students visited Howe Bridge last Friday to complete their climbing assessment for their OAA unit. The students demonstrated a great attitude and overcame many personal challenges to climb the walls. Mr Gregory was very impressed with the student's skill application and levels of resilience.

  • Football event

    A massive well done and thank you to Tommy Hampson (Y11) & Olivia Wells (Y8) for officiating the KS2 ATSA football event on Friday after school. Again, there was positive feedback from the staff and students involved. If anyone would like to officiate any football games moving forwards, please see Mr Gregory, the games will take place on the school 3G every Monday and Friday after school.

School Reminders

  • Year 11 Parents' Evening

    Year 11 Parents’ Evening will take place in school on Thursday 25th January from 4.30pm.

  • Year 10 GCSE Event

    On Thursday 8th February we will be hosting an event for our Year 10 parents and carers at 6.30pm. This event aims to provide advice for parents and carers regarding supporting your child through GCSEs. A letter will be sent out next week containing further details.

  • Good Manners

    This term, we are going to have a huge focus on good manners – encouraging our young people to be the best version of themselves that they can, responding with respect and kindness.

  • General Reminder

    In light of the recent cold weather, could we please ask for your support in ensuring that your child comes to school in a suitable school coat. For further information regarding suitable school coats, please consult our school uniform policy.

School Reminders

  • Year 11 Parents' Evening

    Year 11 Parents’ Evening will take place in school on Thursday 25th January from 4.30pm.

  • Year 10 GCSE Event

    On Thursday 8th February we will be hosting an event for our Year 10 parents and carers at 6.30pm. This event aims to provide advice for parents and carers regarding supporting your child through GCSEs. A letter will be sent out next week containing further details.

  • Good Manners

    This term, we are going to have a huge focus on good manners – encouraging our young people to be the best version of themselves that they can, responding with respect and kindness.

  • General Reminder

    In light of the recent cold weather, could we please ask for your support in ensuring that your child comes to school in a suitable school coat. For further information regarding suitable school coats, please consult our school uniform policy.

How we learn

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. In schools, we use ‘Retrieval tasks’ to help information stick. These tasks include:

  • ‘Do Now’ starter questions based on prior learning  
  • Quick quizzes during lessons  
  • Regular testing of things recently learned – from last lesson, last term and last year  
  • Using images alongside words (dual coding)  
  • Re-visiting information through our interleaved curriculum  
  • Knowledge Organisers which we return to and can use for tests  
  • Presenting/organising information in a different way such as through graphic organisers  
  • Setting homework tasks that will help your child to retrieve information 

Parents and carers can support their children at home to retrieve material learned in class so that it has more chance of sticking.  Encouraging children to create their own mini quizzes based on their learning is a great way of doing this.  Even better if you then become the quiz master and test them on the questions that they have created.

The video below shows a short clip which explains how learning happens.

Homework and Self-directed study

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

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.

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.

Message from the Headteacher

Dear Parents and Carers,
 
With the extreme cold weather this week, we recognise that it has made journeys to school more difficult for some. When students have arrived late with genuine reasons this week, lates detentions have not been issued. Going forward, I just want to reiterate to all parents how we would normally deal with lateness to school.
 
Students who arrive at the school after the bell has rung at 8:35 or who are not in their Line Ups at 8:35 will be marked late and they will be issued a lates detention. Our reason for doing this is simple, it is to instil the habit of good punctuality which is a key life skill.
 
If there is a genuine reason why your child is going to be late for school and to avoid a lates detention, please inform us.
 
On another note, if you have not see my letter that was sent home this week a link to it can be found below. This contains updates about the lunchtime arrangements and changes to the school day from after February  half term, rewards, uniform and attendance.
 
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.