13-17 December 2010

A hectic final week of term has been filled with Christmas music in all the divisions of the school! Not least in the Girls' Division where the Middle School Choir has won the Bolton News' X-Mas Factor Song for Christmas! The competition showcased the musical talents of young people across Bolton and involved 7 schools who offered a variety of Christmas songs in a range of styles. The Bolton News came into school and filmed the 75 strong Middle School Choir, conducted by Mrs Carter, singing "Something Told the Wild Geese". The seven song videos then ran on the Bolton News website followed by three days of voting by the people of Bolton to choose their favourite. The video can be viewed on the Bolton News website here.

Earlier in the week the girls performed this song at the Girls' traditional Ceremony of Carols in front of a full to capacity Great Hall as a large congregation of parents, governors, former pupils, staff and former staff, gathered for the event. The service featured enchanting performances from all the school choirs along with a variety of beautiful readings, and the congregation joined in with a number of well loved carols throughout the service. Festive sounds also filled the Boys' Division Great Hall at their annual Christmas Festival where the audience were treated to a spectacular evening of seasonal celebration with performances from the choirs interspersed with readings and reflections. During the evening, audience participation was called for and the Great Hall resonated to stirring renditions of popular carols. All monies collected on both evenings will be donated to charity.

Junior Boys too held their Annual Christmas Carol Service treating family and friends to performances from the Upper and Lower School choirs along with vibrant performances from the Recorder Group and the Strings Group, and several Christmas readings from the boys. Their end of service collection was for Ondukuta Combined School in Namibia which the Junior School is now partnered with.

From Music to Classics - three Bolton School boys have been successful in the Jowett Sendelar Classics National essay competition. Year 10 pupil James Chia was ranked 5th for his essay on the Greek Gods, Year 8 pupil Mohammed Fazal was ranked 22nd for his essay, also on Greek Gods, and Ben Tillbrook, also Year 10, was ranked 38th for his essay on Warfare.

Also this week pupils handed over a cheque for £703.49 to Debbie Dowie of cancer charity ‘Boot Out Breast Cancer’. The donation was the combined result of fundraising efforts by pupils in Boys' Division, Girls' Division and Junior Girls' School.

And if you are looking for a different kind of holiday or weekend away - Tenacity, the boat built by Bolton School pupils is now available for commercial hire. The boat is a 60 foot ketch which can take 10 crew and her 2 professional crew, and we have a number of weeks availability over the 2011 sailing season –you can view the sailing programme here and find out further details of how to book.

From everybody at Bolton School we would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a very happy and prosperous New Year.

6 - 10 December 2010

The School is already starting to get into the festive spirit as we head towards Christmas, none more so than the Girls' Division Middle School Choir which has entered the Bolton News' X-Mas Factor Song for Christmas. The competition will involve about seven schools, some entering full choirs and others just a few singers, and aims to showcase the singing talents of young people across Bolton. The Bolton News came into school this week to film the 75 strong Middle School Choir, conducted by Mrs Carter, singing "Something Told the Wild Geese". The Years 7, 8 and 9 girls were busy rehearsing the song for the Ceremony of Carols, which will take place in the Great Hall on Tuesday 14 December at 7.30pm. The school was featured in the Bolton News and the video can be viewed on their website here. Voting via text or phone will commence on Monday 13 December.

This week has been a great week for charity efforts in the School! Our sixth form boys donned their wackiest and craziest shirts in order to raise money for Boot Out Breast Cancer – the day was organised by Year 13 pupil Ollie Dowie in order to raise funds for the charity, which was recently founded by his mum Debbie Dowie after she beat breast cancer herself.

Pupils at Beech House have been busy collecting toys and gifts to donate to the Bolton Lions, who distribute the gifts to less fortunate families who cannot afford to buy presents for their children this Christmas. Volunteers at the Lions collect toys from local schools, churches and businesses as part of the 'Caring Christmas Appeal' which is run each year.

And four Bolton School teachers are clean shaven once again after sporting moustaches for the whole of November to raise funds and awareness for men's health by taking part in 'Movember' - a worldwide moustache growing charity event that raises funds for The Prostate Cancer Charity.

Elsewhere, Year 10 Spanish students were treated to an authentic Spanish banquet to help immerse them in the culture and food of Spain. As part of their GCSE course, the year 10 pupils learn all about Spanish food and drink, fiestas and celebrations so it seemed only fitting that they should try out the food for themselves.

29 November - 3 December 2010

Minds Exercised in Physics Olympics
Gifted and talented Year 9 pupils from fifteen schools from across the borough had a day of fun and learning on Friday as Bolton School hosted a Physics Olympics. The event was organised by Mr Mark Ormerod, who is Bolton's Ogden Physics Teaching Fellow based at Bolton School, and aimed to spark an interest in Physics among local 11-16 year old pupils. Teams of four pupils from different high schools moved around the laboratories undertaking a range of Physics-related tasks, ranging from designing and building, taking measurements and testing.

And it wasn’t just local high schools visiting Bolton School this week as we also gave primary school children the chance to try out a range of foreign languages including Russian and Japanese, with the annual Primary Schools' Modern Foreign Languages Festival. This is the second year the event has been held and it was open to Year 5 pupils from the Bolton LEA. The day involved a series of workshops where pupils gained an introduction to the language and culture of five different countries and peoples. Small groups of boys and girls from 9 local primary schools took part in the day, sampling French, Russian, German, Spanish and Japanese. The aim was to awaken a love of languages in young people, and inspire them to want to learn about other cultures, people, and the languages they speak.

Good news as a team of Bolton School Sixth Form Boys has won the regional heat of the eleventh annual Target Two Point Zero - The Bank of England and The Times Interest Rate Challenge. The competition gave the team of Year 13 pupils the chance to take on the role of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee by analysing UK and global economic data, making decisions on interest rates and presenting their conclusions to a panel of Bank of England judges. They will now go on to the area final to be held in February/March 2011, with the national final to be held on 18 March at the Bank of England in London.

And Bolton School Junior Girls got into the spirit of Christmas with their Nativity Celebration 'Following the Star' in which they told the nativity story through song, music, narration, poetry and dance to a packed audience of parents.