19th - 23rd September 2011

A new pictorial history book of the Boys' Division has been launched this week by the two authors, David Shaw and Charles Winder, at an Old Boys' lunch held at the School. The book, Bolton Boys in Focus, is a collection of photos from 1875-2010 and shows the startling range of activities and events that the boys have been involved in over the years. The two authors both started teaching on the same day at Bolton School in September 1964 and both of them remained at the School until retirement, Charles in 1999 and David in 2002. Anyone interested in purchasing a copy should contact Mr Stuart Chell on 01204 434718 or at development@boltonschool.org
It was a successful week for publications as the School's History magazine 'The HistOracle' has won 'Best School History Magazine' 2011, as awarded by the Young Historian Project in conjunction with The Spirit of Normandy Trust. This is a huge honour for the School and the magazine, which is a biannual publication of eclectic historical essays and articles produced by boys of all ages and the School has come out ahead of all schools in the country to win.

Also this week our Junior Boys presented a cheque for £2389.87 to the Help for Heroes Appeal, raised through their Annual Charity Fun Run in May. Arthur Roe from Help for Heroes came to collect the cheque and gave a presentation in assembly, showing the boys how their money will be used to provide practical, direct support for wounded Servicemen and women. The amount being donated is half the proceeds from the charity fun run.
And Bolton School Year 3 pupils have the H Factor! The Junior girls and boys took part in an annual healthy eating initiative which saw the children making smoothies, researching healthy food options using netbooks, taking part in quizzes and sampling a range of foods. Over the course of the afternoon children had the chance to choose fruits from a selection to make and taste their own smoothie, and each designed their own school lunch menu, of which one will be chosen by the Head teachers of each school to be served in the dining hall one lunch time. They were introduced to plates of unusual and exotic fruits, vegetables and spices including dragon fruit, star fruit, ginger and rocket and were encouraged to touch, smell and taste the different foods. The afternoon was run by the school catering department who also produced some homemade yoghurt for the children to try.

12-16 September 2011

Old Boy and highly respected London Business School Professor of Accounting, Chris Higson returned to Bolton School this week to deliver a well attended presentation to the local business community about how to exit the recession and reindustrialise the British economy through the nurturing of SMEs. The lunch time address focused on the positives and reminded the audience that, despite the recession, the UK is still the sixth largest manufacturer in the world and top in terms of the proportion of its exports that are high tech. Earlier in the morning, Professor Higson had worked with Sixth Form girls and Sixth Form boys as they tried to understand the causes of the recession and how the UK might exit the current situation. Old Girl Dr Joyce Tyldesley also returned to School this week with some compelling advice for those students about to go out into the world. At the Sixth Form Presentation evening, Dr Tyldesley, a renowned Egyptologist, furnished the girls with a number of wise old maxims from Ancient Egypt, including "if you spit in the sky, it will land on your head". She then brought the sage advice up to date with three key messages canvassed from a poll of Old Girls. The advice from Dr Tyldesley, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Manchester, brought to a close an evening that celebrated another highly successful year for the pupils of Bolton School Girls' Division.

Sophie Bolton and Emily Robinson, who have just started their A Levels at Bolton School, have both been selected to receive a prestigious Arkwright Scholarship. The girls were chosen in part due to their GCSE Design and Technology projects for which Sophie designed and built a retro style iPod dock and Emily a rocking horse. Only 300 scholarships were awarded from over 900 applicants from 256 schools. The Arkwright Trust supports young people during their A Levels by awarding £300 a year to assist with the purchase of materials and books. Sophie and Emily will also carry the status of ‘Arkwright Scholar’ into university.

Meanwhile, year 10 pupil Alex O'Donoughue has been selected to represent ISFA (Independent Schools, Football Association) nationally at Under 15 level. Following the U14 programme last season and a series of trials at camps held in the Summer Holidays, the final squad was selected to represent the association during the 2011/2012 season and Alex secured his place.

Also over the summer, some of our Sixth Form boys experienced the trip of a lifetime with a two week conservation trip to Indonesia. The boys undertook conservation work and research for one week in the forests of Southern Sulawesi and another week diving and inspecting coral reefs on Hoga Island, which Jacques Cousteau, by far the most famous undersea explorer of the 20th century, described as one of the best places in the world for diving!
And former Sixth Form pupil Giles Makinson was part of the winning MCC Schools side in the annual match against the England Schools' Cricket Association at Lord's. The MCC Schools team consists of schoolboys who have played against MCC during the 2011 cricket season, and whose names have been put forward by MCC Match Managers as good cricketers, in addition to being players who would make good representatives of the Club. Throughout the year the MCC play against 250 schools, meaning Giles was selected from a pool of more than 2, 500 schoolboys. The scores were ESCA 199 all out and MCC Schools 200-3, meaning Giles' team won by 7 wickets.

7 - 9 September 2011

After a long Summer break we welcome back all our pupils and staff this week, and give a warm welcome to all those joining us. The first few days of the new term are always a hectic but exciting time and this year is no exception as we all settle into new routines. Our new pupils in all the Schools have been getting to know their new tutors and classmates and familiarising themselves with how the school works before their first full week of lessons next week.
Our excellent exam results over the summer mean that the Girls' Division has been ranked the 65th best Independent School in the country, according to the Daily Telegraph GCSE result rankings. The table is based on the percentage of subject entries graded A* and A, and puts the school easily within the top 100. In the Telegraph A Level results table, published the previous week, the Girls' Division again fared well and placed at 123rd in the rankings, and in the Manchester Evening News A Level league table for Independent Schools, the School was ranked fourth in the region. The Boys' Division also did well, ranking at 160 in the Telegraph GCSE table and 202 in the A Level table. They were placed 6th in the Greater Manchester league table.

Just before returning to school, Girls' Division pupils Natasha Lomas and Penny Roberts enjoyed success at the Lancashire County Tennis Championships at the Bolton Arena, which took place from 26th August to 4th September. Year 11 pupil Natasha Lomas won the U18 singles final and Year 8 pupil Penny Roberts also had a successful tournament as runner-up in both U12 and U14 girls' singles events.
And not only is Bolton School pupil Hannah Pike preparing to start her A Levels in the Sixth Form, she is also is looking to establish herself as an international Hockey star, having captained the England Under 16 girls' national side. Hannah was made captain for the Four Nations tournament against hosts Spain, Holland and Germany at Easter. She then helped her country to a 2-0 series victory against Scotland in Glasgow before taking on Belgium in Canterbury and Germany at the National Sports Centre at Lilleshall. Hannah was voted best overall player on and off the pitch in the 2011 squad.

Summer Break 2011

Students and staff at Bolton School Girls' Division celebrated another year of outstanding Exam results. At A level, ninety five per cent of girls achieved A*-C grades with the overall pass rate being at 99.4% and three girls recorded a full set of A* grades. The Boys' Division fared equally well with an overall pass rate of 99.4% and four boys recording a full set of A* grades. It was a record breaking year for Girls’ Division GCSE results as 43.5% of all grades were at A* with an overall pass rate at the A*-C level of 99.8%. Seven girls achieved the remarkable feat of securing 11 A* grades, with 34 of the 120 girls gaining A* and A grades only. The Boys also recorded an excellent set of GCSE results with three boys achieving 11 A*s and an overall pass rate of 5 A*-C grades of 99.2%.
The Girls' Division has also been named one of the top 100 schools in the country for successfully placing students in the top 30 universities in the country, in a report by the Sutton Trust. The School is one of only eight in the North West to be named in the list. The Sutton Trust research examines the success of schools during the last three years in gaining places for their pupils in the leading 30 UK universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, Imperial, LSE, Warwick, Durham, Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, York, and Edinburgh. Bolton School Girls' Division, with a 79.1% success rate over three years, is placed 67th in the rankings.
During the summer break some of our Year 10 girls experienced the trip of a lifetime when they headed out to East Africa to spend two weeks learning about life in Tanzania, particularly the Maasai culture and helping out at the LivLife Meserani Education Centre. Before heading off on their trip, the girls forged strong friendships with the Maasai via a Skype link up in their Geography lesson and through sending learning materials to help the tribespeople improve their English. Whilst out in Tanzania, the girls helped out at the centre teaching the children and playing games with them, and assisting in the organisation of a Sports Day. They got to know members of the Maasai tribe and their elders and helped to build a traditional Maasai hut. And our Senior Lacrosse and Netball teams enjoyed a tour to Canada and America, travelling to Vancouver, Vancouver Island and Seattle during the two week trip, playing matches against different schools and clubs along the way, as well as fitting in some sightseeing!
Also during the summer Sixth Form pupil James Roberts was selected to be part of the first ever Independent Schools FA Student Management Team for the 2011-12 season. As such, James will be partly responsible for coordinating the annual ISFA Leadership Camp which he has previously attended himself. He will be one of ten student faces for the camp, which this year will take place at Bradfield College on Saturday March 31st to Sunday April 1st 2012. The camp is aimed at developing core leadership skills of young leaders from around the country with National FA tutors guiding them through a range of footballing disciplines.