Freddie's Focus
For Parents & Carers
- Issue 146
- December 19, 2025
Freddie's Focus
For Parents & Carers
- Issue 146
- December 19, 2025
Message from the Headteacher
Dear Parents & Carers,
As we come to the end of a busy and rewarding term, I would like to thank you for your continued support and partnership. Our students have shown real commitment and resilience this term, and we are proud of the progress they have made both academically and personally.
Christmas offers a welcome opportunity to pause, reflect, and enjoy time together as families. I hope the holiday period brings you rest, joy, and special moments with loved ones.
On behalf of all the staff, I wish you a very happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year. We look forward to welcoming our students back refreshed and ready for the term ahead.
Warmest wishes,
Mr Davies
Message from the Headteacher
Dear Parents & Carers,
As we come to the end of a busy and rewarding term, I would like to thank you for your continued support and partnership. Our students have shown real commitment and resilience this term, and we are proud of the progress they have made both academically and personally.
Christmas offers a welcome opportunity to pause, reflect, and enjoy time together as families. I hope the holiday period brings you rest, joy, and special moments with loved ones.
On behalf of all the staff, I wish you a very happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year. We look forward to welcoming our students back refreshed and ready for the term ahead.
Warmest wishes,
Mr Davies
Things to celebrate
- On Tuesday evening we hosted our ‘Step into Christmas’ Concert in the Sports Hall. This was an incredible event which involved a large amount of our students (past and present) either performing or helping with technical and front of house.
- On Thursday our Year 7 students attended our annual Christingle service at St George’s Church.
- Today a number of our students received prizes in their Year team assembly for their behaviour, achievement and/or attendance this Term.
- Our final whole school Christmas assembly took place today. This is always an incredible celebration at the end of the Term which involves a large number of our students performing.
- We would like to thank everyone for their contribution to the Freddie’s Christmas Hampers. We received vast amounts of food items to donate to members of our community who require support over the festive period.
School Reminders
While we want all students to enjoy a well-deserved break over the Christmas holidays, we encourage you to support your child in continuing to engage with these resources. Maintaining some academic momentum during this time will help them feel confident and prepared when they return to school.
School Reminders
While we want all students to enjoy a well-deserved break over the Christmas holidays, we encourage you to support your child in continuing to engage with these resources. Maintaining some academic momentum during this time will help them feel confident and prepared when they return to school.
- 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
We celebrate excellence and reward our students in the following ways:
- Class teacher rewards
- BEST tickets (which go into a prize draw at the end of Term)
- ‘Freddies Focus on the Stars’
- BEST awards
- Post cards home
- End of Term assembly prizes for students who have received a high number of positive points and have had excellent attendance
- ‘Freddie’s 15’ for 100% attendance over the final 15 days of the Term
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.