27th January

We are delighted to announce this week that from September of this year we will be offering a new coach route from Blackpool and Kirkham to Bolton School. As a result of increased demand, the new route will bring pupils into Bolton School from the Fylde by coach for the first time. There will be pick-ups at Blackpool and Kirkham before the coach then fills up at Fulwood, Preston and travels directly into School. For those wishing to make the journey into School by train, there will also be a separate mini-bus service which will pick up and drop off at Lostock Station, making the School accessible by train from Blackpool, Kirkham and Preston and, also, from Salford and Manchester.
In the latest government ranking of schools by performance in the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) qualification, Bolton School is riding high in the top 20 nationally, with the Girls' Division at 18th and the Boys' Division at 10th. Ninety five per cent of Boys' Division pupils and 93% of Girls' Division pupils achieved the EBacc qualification, which was introduced in 2010 and is awarded to pupils attaining A*-C GCSE passes in English, Mathematics, two Science qualifications, a language and History or Geography.
Our Year 6 boys put on their own art exhibition in the Arts and Conference Centre this week, and the same work is set to go on display at the Marketplace shopping centre in Bolton. The exhibition features acrylic landscape paintings which are done as part of the art curriculum and range from beaches, countryside, the sea, mountains and waterfalls. The work will be exhibited in the Upper Hall of the shopping centre for the whole of February.
A team of our boys are the badminton county champions! The Senior boys competed in the Greater Manchester competition, returning home with the County Cup! They now progress to the North West final in March. While the U13 footballers took part in the ISFA national semi-final, putting them in the top four teams in the country and the only remaining team from outside the London area. Unfortunately they narrowly missed out on a place in the final.
Our Junior Boys and Junior Girls, as well as junior pupils from Sunninghill and High Lawns School have been taking part in Skype Chess matches against Polish pupils. A total of 14 pupils played a number of online chess matches against slightly older pupils (aged 9-14) from Rybnik Middle School in Poland, using chess software available on the internet.
And there is still time to apply for Year 7 entry to Bolton School for this September! This year's Supplementary Entrance Examination for those pupils who did not enrol for the examination earlier in the month or who could not make it on the day, will take place on Thursday 2 February. For full details about enrolling for this examination, please contact Mrs Lynden Graham (for application to the Girls' Division) or Mrs Susan Yates (for application to the Boys' Division) on 01204 840201 or at info@boltonschool.org

20th January 2012

Thirty two A level students from Bolton School Girls' Division have returned from India after a life-changing experience continuing the School's efforts in supporting street children in India. The girls spent 8 days based in Vijayawada City in Southern India helping out with the Street Kids' Community Villages (SKCV) project. They offered help by playing games with the children, helping them learn English, playing football and helping run dance classes. The girls said the best thing about the trip was spending time with the children and getting to know them, and were surprised that they didn’t miss home comforts and material luxuries at all but enjoyed living more simply.
Year 10 boys, Lewis Daly and Aaron Winstanley have been selected to represent Great Britain at Water Polo. The boys are among only 14 players nationwide who will be part of the national junior squad in a friendly International youth tournament in the Ukraine in May, competing against four other countries including the Ukraine and Poland. The boys were chosen after attending England Talent Water Polo trials in Cardiff.
The pair are continuing the tradition of Water Polo success at Bolton School - Old Boy Ed Scott is first choice Goalkeeper for the British Men's Water Polo Team and was interviewed by the BBC, as the GB team get set to take part in the London 2012 Olympic Games after an absence of British Water Polo from the Olympics for 56 years. Click the following link to see Ed's interview - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/swimming/16579980.stm
And welcoming Government plans to overhaul the school ICT curriculum, former Bolton School Girls’ Division Computing teacher and new president of the Girls' Schools Association (GSA) has said that any decent ICT teacher is already way ahead of the ICT curriculum in terms of day to day classroom practice. Computer science graduate Louise Robinson, feels that the current curriculum is inappropriate to contemporary life but that many skilled teachers and their pupils are already way ahead of the basic curriculum. This is certainly true of Bolton School ICT lessons where there is a large focus on creativity, allowing pupils to spend a significant amount of time on animation, graphics and web development even at KS3.

13th January 2012

It’s a new year and a new term and our Junior Girls have been getting to grips with the latest technology, in the form of Augmented Reality books! These interactive books are the latest addition to the well stocked library and the girls are having fun meeting dinosaurs, making pirates walk the plank, and holding fairies in the palm of their hands!
Four Bolton School pupils have done exceptionally well to have been identified as potential players of the future by the Lancashire Cricket Board in the 2012 Levels of Excellence. Year 10 pupils Haseeb Hameed and Matthew Parkinson have been named as Academy players, a rare achievement for such young players, putting them in the top 11 in the North West outside having a contract with the Club. Matthew's twin Callum has been chosen for the EPP (Emerging Players Programme), along with Year 9 pupil Nalisha Patel from the Girls' Division. And former Sixth Form student Will Burrow has received an Excellence in Geography at A Level Award from the Royal Geographical Society. The awards are granted to only the very highest achievers in A Level and GCSE examinations and Will received a cash prize and certificate. Our Business Studies students were lucky enough to be given financial advice from Justin Urquhart Stewart this week - Marketing Director and co-founder of Seven Investment Management, and one of the most recognisable and trusted market commentators. Justin spoke to the whole of the Boys' Division Sixth Form and Sixth Form Business students from the Girls' Division for 15 minutes before a more in depth presentation to the Business students only. He shared his wealth of knowledge with the students and offered a calm, clear-sighted view of the current economic climate for Britain and the rest of the world, along with advice on pensions and how to manage finances and university debt.
And there is still time to apply for this year's Entrance Examinations for entry into the Junior and Senior schools which will take place on Thursday 19 January 2011. To enrol for our Entrance Examination for entry in Year 3 or Year 7 in September 2012, or to enquire about availability in other year groups, call 01204 840201 or email info@boltonschool.org