Open Evening

As you are probably aware, over the last 18 months Fred Longworth High School has been in the process of being rebuilt and on 31^st October 2023, the school will finally move into its brand new £24 million-pound state of the art building.

As we approach the final stages of the project, there are still a number of logistical challenges that the school must contend with. Most significantly, whilst additional groundwork is completed in September and October, we temporarily lose a significant amount of space on our site. This would normally be used for student social times and for additional parking which is required for important events such as Open Evening where we can normally expect around 600 people on site.

We have also commenced the removal of some equipment and displays from around school due to the challenging two-week decant window in October. This means that the school does not look the way it would normally do, and we are very much ‘living out of boxes’ as we prepare for the move.

As a result of these restrictions, we will not be able to organise a meaningful and enjoyable Open Evening this year. We appreciate how disappointing this will be for many prospective parents, as it is for us. We also fully understand how important Open Evenings are in helping parents make decisions about the school they choose for their child. To compensate for this there will be a number of alternatives in place.

• We will still be able to run our Year 6 taster days in September and all local primary schools will be contacted about these in the new school year.
• We have created a designated section of our website with information for prospective parents and students including:
  • A Frequently Asked Questions section. This will deal with many of the common questions that we get asked about our school. It will be updated as any new questions are sent to us.
  • A promotional video about the school to give you a flavour of our school.
  • Information about the new school development.
• We will also be providing the opportunity for parents with specific questions to contact us directly and where required, we will be arranging a very limited number of tours during the school day. Please send your questions to the email address questions@flhs.wigan.sch.uk and a member of our team will be in touch. For any parents who do have a tour of the school, we would ask that you bear with us as we prepare to move. Classrooms and corridors are starting to look quite sparce as we remove non-essential displays and equipment.

As frustrating as this is, it is only short term and from November we will have moved into our brand-new building. For all prospective parents, we will finally be able to invite you into the new building in July 2024 for our Year 6 Transition Evening.

Yours sincerely

Mr P Davies
Headteacher