14-18 February

Chess Grandmaster Back at Bolton School

This week has been an exciting final week of term as Nigel Short, the UK's most renowned chess player, returned to Bolton School to help celebrate one hundred years of competitive chess at the school. Having left the independent day school in 1981 as a child prodigy and the youngest International Chess Master in history, he went on to become Britain's strongest Chess Grandmaster of the twentieth century. He returned today to talk to pupils about his meteoric rise in the chess world and about his recollections of life at Bolton School, and following his talk, he simultaneously played thirty of the School's best junior chess players in the Great Hall. Nigel will return to Bolton School tomorrow to play a further simultaneous display against thirty local junior chess players in an event organised by Manchester Chess Federation.

The sixth Bolton and Bury Business Awards were launched this week and Bolton School is proud to be a sponsor for the second year running. The School will sponsor one of the new categories this year - We're backing Bolton and Bury - which recognises businesses which, through their success, have not only secured publicity and profit for themselves but have helped to raise the profile of the Bolton or Bury boroughs. There are 11 award categories and judges will choose the overall winners from a shortlist of finalists in each category. The winners will be announced at a ceremony at the De Vere Whites Hotel at the Reebok Stadium on Thursday 16 June where Steve Davis OBE will be the guest speaker.

If you find yourself in Bolton’s Marketplace shopping centre take a look at the artwork of our Year 6 boys who have an exhibition of landscape paintings on the top floor of the centre. The paintings make a colourful display with scenes ranging from beaches, countryside, the sea, mountains and waterfalls.

And the Senior Girls have also been impressing this week as nine Year 7 girls showed nerves of steel by competing in front of the whole year group in a French Spelling Bee Competition. The pupils were already winners, having won their respective French Spelling Bee form challenges in the run up to Christmas but were competing to see which four of them would go on to represent the Girls' Division in the regional final, to be held at Manchester Metropolitan University next term. The winners of the regional heat then go on to a national final. Also in Senior Girls, Dr Fiona Edmonds, a lecturer at Cambridge University, returned to her old school to give the Sixth Form and Year 11 students a talk on Lancashire's Medieval History as part of their Gifted and Talented programme.

5 February - 11 February 2011

Enterprise Trophy for Girls' Vision: Just eight points separated the four finalists in this year's Hi-Life Diners' Club Enterprise Trophy. The teams from Year 12 of the Girls' Division and Boys' Division presented their business proposition to a judging panel in a concept similar to "The Dragon's Den". The professional pitches left the jury in a quandry and they certainly earnt their evening meal. Ultimately, Spectrum ran out winners with their designer glasses concept which allows you to change your spectacles according to your apparel. The night was the culmination of a competion which has involved the whole of Year 12 and began back in the Autumn Term as the Sixth Formers learn about the world of business.

Sixth Form students were also celebrating Oxbridge offers this week and for the Boys' Division it was a record breaking year with almost 10% of the cohort being offered a place at either Oxford or Cambridge.

Emma Saunders, another Sixth Form student, was also celebrating having won the prestigious British Swimming Splash Young Swimmer of the Year. She picked up the award at a black-tie event at the exclusive Hurlingham Club in London.

Meanwhile in the girls' Senior School there was also much to celebrate for swimming teams after success in the town championships.

Both Senior Schools showed this week just how varied a Bolton School education can be. Whilst the girls were enjoying a masterclass in samba drumming, the whole of Year 9 boys indulged themselves in a day-long Modern Foreign Languages Festival.

Extra-curricular activity was similarly reflected in the two junior schools. Junior Boys, once again, performed outstandingly to reach the semi-final of the ESPCA national chess competition, which will be held at Prestatyn. Their counterparts in the Junior Girls' School meanwhile were enjoying a Travelling by Tuba show.

Externally, the School was receiving a number of plaudits, including an outstanding review of the School Nursery in the respected Practical Pre-School magazine and the Senior Boys' School was praised in a blog by John Duffy on the Love Rugby League website.

31 January - 4 February 2011

Stunning New Sixth Form Centre to Provide Best of Both Worlds
Students and staff at Bolton School are celebrating this week , having had planning permission granted by Bolton Council for the building of a new £7m Sixth Form Centre in the heart of our Chorley New Road campus. Architecturally, the glass and sandstone elliptical building promises to provide a stunning contrast to the School's Neo-Gothic façade and turrets, and the new centre will link to the main building with two-storey glazed walkways. It will provide independence for over 400 Sixth Form students and will include an ICT suite, seminar rooms for project work and tutorial sessions, quiet study areas, a common room, a refectory café area, exhibition space and the main school reception.

More exciting news as we announce that Nigel Short, the UK's most renowned chess player, is to return to Bolton School to help celebrate one hundred years of competitive chess at the school. Having left the independent day school in 1981 as a child prodigy and the youngest International Chess Master in history, he went on to become Britain's strongest Chess Grandmaster of the twentieth century. He returns on Friday 18 February to talk to pupils about his meteoric rise in the chess world and about his recollections of life at Bolton School. Following his talk, he will simultaneously play thirty of the School's best junior chess players in the Great Hall.

Sport has again been on the agenda as Year 13 pupil Sam Higgins represented the country as part of the Independent Schools Barbarians U18 National rugby squad, in an impressive first match against Irish Exiles. The Barbarians beat the Irish Exiles 55 points to 17 in their first game of the season with Sam scoring 'an excellent breakaway try'. A team of five Bolton School boys beat off the competition to become the U14s badminton County Champions, and are now set to represent Greater Manchester in the regional round in March, with the prospect of making the final of the National School Championships, and girls and boys from both the junior and senior schools of Bolton School met with success at the Northern Semi Final of the English Schools' Biathlon event. An outstanding team effort from the Year 6 boys meant they finished first overall and automatically qualify for the National final in London in March. The rest of our teams and individual entrants also gave excellent performances and now wait to find out if they have made it through.

And the SHINE: Serious Fun on Saturdays dinner was a huge success as forty one pupils from five Bolton primary schools and their proud parents enjoyed their "graduation" at Bolton School, celebrating the completion of the programme.