Freddie's Focus
For Parents & Carers
- Issue 118
- March 28, 2025
Freddie's Focus
For Parents & Carers
- Issue 118
- March 28, 2025
Message from the Headteacher
Dear Parents & Carers,
I am sure that many of you have watched with interest and concern the brilliant TV show Adolescence that is currently airing on Netflix and provoking so much discussion and conversation. I have to admit, whilst I was slightly disappointed with how schools are portrayed in the series, there is absolutely no argument with the central issue raised in the series – which is absolutely on point. I have subsequently seen several interviews with Stephen Graham where he discusses his inspiration for the show and his frequent use of the proverb ‘it takes a village to raise a child’. In relation to social media and the use (or misuse) of technology, I’d like to reassure parents that through our PD curriculum, we openly talk to our students about the dangers of technology. All too often in our line of work, we see how easy it is for students to become obsessed with their devices and social media and to the point where it starts to have a negative impact on their behaviour and attitudes in school. It is for this reason that we have a strong mobile phone policy in place and is why students will have their phone confiscated if we see them being used on site. Most parents are supportive of our policy. If your child does have their phone confiscated it is because it has been seen in school or has been misused in some way. If this happens, please support us and follow up with a further consequence at home. Collectively, we need to be on the same page here to ensure that all our children are safe by not becoming too obsessed with their devices, to the point where they can barely function without them.
Sadly, we also deal with, all too frequently, the impact of fallings-out between children which have occurred in on-line spaces outside of school. As parents, can I please ask for your support by monitoring your child’s mobile device to ensure that they are not engaging with or contributing to inappropriate content or unpleasantness on-line. That is fundamentally a parental responsibility – not the schools. We only pick up the pieces when things have already gone wrong.
Thank-you for your continued support.
Mr Davies.
Message from the Headteacher
Dear Parents & Carers,
I am sure that many of you have watched with interest and concern the brilliant TV show Adolescence that is currently airing on Netflix and provoking so much discussion and conversation. I have to admit, whilst I was slightly disappointed with how schools are portrayed in the series, there is absolutely no argument with the central issue raised in the series – which is absolutely on point. I have subsequently seen several interviews with Stephen Graham where he discusses his inspiration for the show and his frequent use of the proverb ‘it takes a village to raise a child’. In relation to social media and the use (or misuse) of technology, I’d like to reassure parents that through our PD curriculum, we openly talk to our students about the dangers of technology.
All too often in our line of work, we see how easy it is for students to become obsessed with their devices and social media and to the point where it starts to have a negative impact on their behaviour and attitudes in school. It is for this reason that we have a strong mobile phone policy in place and is why students will have their phone confiscated if we see them being used on site. Most parents are supportive of our policy. If your child does have their phone confiscated it is because it has been seen in school or has been misused in some way. If this happens, please support us and follow up with a further consequence at home. Collectively, we need to be on the same page here to ensure that all our children are safe by not becoming too obsessed with their devices, to the point where they can barely function without them.
Sadly, we also deal with, all too frequently, the impact of fallings-out between children which have occurred in on-line spaces outside of school. As parents, can I please ask for your support by monitoring your child’s mobile device to ensure that they are not engaging with or contributing to inappropriate content or unpleasantness on-line. That is fundamentally a parental responsibility – not the schools. We only pick up the pieces when things have already gone wrong.
Thank-you for your continued support.
Mr Davies.
Message from the Headteacher
Dear Parents & Carers,
I am sure that many of you have watched with interest and concern the brilliant TV show Adolescence that is currently airing on Netflix and provoking so much discussion and conversation. I have to admit, whilst I was slightly disappointed with how schools are portrayed in the series, there is absolutely no argument with the central issue raised in the series – which is absolutely on point. I have subsequently seen several interviews with Stephen Graham where he discusses his inspiration for the show and his frequent use of the proverb ‘it takes a village to raise a child’. In relation to social media and the use (or misuse) of technology, I’d like to reassure parents that through our PD curriculum, we openly talk to our students about the dangers of technology.
All too often in our line of work, we see how easy it is for students to become obsessed with their devices and social media and to the point where it starts to have a negative impact on their behaviour and attitudes in school. It is for this reason that we have a strong mobile phone policy in place and is why students will have their phone confiscated if we see them being used on site. Most parents are supportive of our policy.
If your child does have their phone confiscated it is because it has been seen in school or has been misused in some way. If this happens, please support us and follow up with a further consequence at home. Collectively, we need to be on the same page here to ensure that all our children are safe by not becoming too obsessed with their devices, to the point where they can barely function without them.
Sadly, we also deal with, all too frequently, the impact of fallings-out between children which have occurred in on-line spaces outside of school. As parents, can I please ask for your support by monitoring your child’s mobile device to ensure that they are not engaging with or contributing to inappropriate content or unpleasantness on-line. That is fundamentally a parental responsibility – not the schools. We only pick up the pieces when things have already gone wrong.
Thank-you for your continued support.
Mr Davies.
Things to celebrate
- This week students have completed their self-evaluation during Form time. Please discuss this with your child. See below for further details.
- The week began with our ‘Freddie’s Focus on the Stars’. Please ask your child if they received a shout out in one or more of their subjects for their effort over the past two weeks.
- On Tuesday evening many of our students took part in the ‘Factory’ gig in Manchester. A great night was had by all. What an incredibly talented group of young people!
- On Thursday we welcomed our Year 10 parents and carers into school for Parents’ Evening. It was wonderful to see so many parents and carers in school.
- The feedback that we have received from our Year 10 work experience has been superb. We are incredibly proud of their maturity and work ethic.
- On Wednesday, our Girls Sports Leadership Team supported a primary football festival at Leigh Sports Village. They received many positive comments from the event organisers and participating schools.
Wider cultural experiences at Freddie's
At Freddie’s our staff offer a wide range of clubs, activities, trips and events for our students. Here is a selection of what is on this term, in addition to the range of clubs and activities.
At Freddie’s we offer our students a wide range of other extra-curricular activities. For further details, click here.
- 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 can parents 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 can parents email Mr Gregory with any information so we can share with everyone on Freddie’s Focus – gregoryi@flhs.wigan.sch.uk
School Reminders
Did you know that you can read previous editions of Freddie’s Focus from this Academic Year? To do so, click here.
School Reminders
Did you know that you can read previous editions of Freddie’s Focus from this Academic Year? To do so, click here.
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 takes place during Form time in the week commencing 24th March. 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.
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 JWY Power Bank/Skip the queue pass/Calculator/£5 Amazon voucher
250 JWY £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 JWY £10 Amazon voucher/£10 off Prom
200 PDA £15 Amazon voucher/£15 off Prom
Homework and Independent Learning
The OSCAR model is something that we are promoting at Freddie’s in order to support your child with independent/self-directed study at home.
The ‘R’ stands for re-visit, retrieve and remember.
You can encourage your child to do any of the following tasks to help them revisit knowledge, and make sure it has been learnt – stored in the long-term memory:
- Create a set of flashcards (key vocabulary on one side, and definition or explanation on the other.)
- Create their own mini-quiz by creating a set of questions and answers based on the information they are focussing on. You can then use this to quiz their knowledge.
- Use the ‘look, cover and write’ technique.
- Dual code the information that they are trying to learn by condensing key points into an image and a word or sentence to trigger the memory.
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-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.
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.