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Letter from the Headteacher – 31/03/21

  • May 18, 2021

Dear Parents and Carers

I write to you as we approach the end of the very strangest of terms. In spite of all the many challenges, it has been wonderful to see the vast majority of students being able to return to school successfully and safely; although I fully understand the frustration that some of you inevitably will have felt when we have had to close bubbles, a stark reminder that the pandemic is far from over. I would like to thank the vast majority of parents for your support and understanding during this challenging time.

Year 11

The process of awarding Teacher Assessed Grades (TAGS) for Year 11 is well underway and as ever, it was good to see such high levels of parental engagement at our recent Year 11 Parents’ Evening. I hope you found the evening informative and helpful. If you have not seen our short video explaining the process behind TAGS, the video can be found here. We are still awaiting final assessment information from the exam boards and will inform you of further updates as soon as possible. There will be a dedicated section on our website containing all of this information. The GCSE results themselves will be published remotely on 12th August. We will be writing to you after Easter to ensure that we have the correct contact details for this.

It is important that students in Year 11 use the Easter Holidays to prepare for the final wave of assessments that will take place in May. These assessments will be used as part of the evidence base needed to grade your child. A timetable containing the dates of these assessments will be sent out to you in due course. Students need to use their time wisely and prepare for these assessments diligently.

Sometime after the Easter holidays, we will be able to inform you of the official leaving date for students in Year 11. Given the challenges the year group has faced, we want to make this as special as we can. More details will follow. Unfortunately, we are not in a position to arrange a prom for the year group. I appreciate that this will be disappointing for the students but the time frame for the lifting of Covid restrictions simply makes it impossible for us to arrange an event on this scale. Also, given the costs involved to you as parents, we would not want to go ahead whilst there is still a risk it could not happen. Mrs Hyslop and the Year Team are considering an alternative event sometime in the autumn.

Uniform

Understandably, there have been some challenges in regards to school uniform over the last few weeks but most of these issues are now resolved. A particular issue has been the wearing of hooded tops. These are not allowed and will be confiscated from students if they continue to be worn after the Easter holiday. May I take this opportunity to remind you that our basic standards of uniform remain as high as ever and to avoid any ambiguity, our expectations can be found in our policy here.

Home Testing over Easter

Your child has been provided with more home testing kits so that you can continue asymptomatic testing over the Easter Holiday. These tests should be conducted each Wednesday and Sunday. It is important for you to report any positive tests to the dedicated email address covid@flhs.wigan.sch.uk. If your child tests positive on Wednesday 31st March, we will have to contact trace close contacts from school. Any subsequent positive results (from tests on 4th April, 7th April, 11th April, 14th April and the 18th April) should also be reported even though there will be no need for the school to trace close contacts.

Building Works

Work is well underway with our new block and this is on schedule to be completed and open by July. In regards to the remaining school buildings, work with the DFE continues in relation to the plans for the new build. In spite of all the challenges presented by Covid, this really is an exciting time for the school and the local community.

Face Coverings

Parents can be reassured that we have had a phenomenal response from the school community in relation to the wearing of face coverings. There are only 15 students (out of nearly 1,300) who are not wearing face masks due to medical exemptions. It is important for us all to remember that the guidelines around face coverings have been put in place to protect other people by minimising aerosol transmission of the virus in situations where social distancing is difficult, and this includes in many of our classrooms. In every classroom there are individuals who are concerned about transmission and who may have vulnerable family members at home. Of course face masks are inconvenient, uncomfortable and an imperfect solution, but they are nevertheless a preventative measure that will offer some protection and some assurance to some very worried people. We have been led to believe that government guidelines around the wearing of face coverings in school are likely to remain in place after Easter but this is being kept under constant review. For now, you can assume our position on the wearing face coverings will remain the same after Easter, but should the situation change during the holidays we will inform you.

Thank-you for your continued support and I wish you all a pleasant and safe Easter break.

Yours sincerely

Mr P Davies

Headteacher.

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.