27th April 2012

Katie Clinton, a former pupil, returned to Bolton School in her capacity as a Director at KPMG to launch to Sixth Form students, the chance of a 4 week paid vacation programme at KPMG in Manchester. Katie told Sixth Formers about the unique scheme, which sees one girl and one boy undertake meaningful employment with the accounting giant, spending two weeks in the Financial Services Audit team and two weeks in the Corporate Finance team. Students were asked to apply for the work placement as if they were applying for a full-time position - the two that are chosen will be involved in client work and will be "at the coal-face" undertaking real research.

It was Claypool Primary School from Horwich who emerged winners of the Bolton School Big Quiz for local primary schools held this week. Twelve teams had pitted their wits against one another over the course of 11 testing rounds, which covered everything from entertainment to maths puzzles and from sequencing skills to fruit and vegetable knowledge! And this week saw the quarter final of the Year 8 girls’ Masterchef competition - girls created vegetarian main meals with things hotting up ahead off the big final on the 11th May.

In sport news, Year 9 pupil Dominic Walker has set a new British U14 50m backstroke record. Dominic broke the previous record with a time of 28.68s at the Lancashire County Championships. He is aiming to set another British record for 100m backstroke when he competes at Manchester Aquatics Centre in May as he is only half a second away from beating the current record. The Year 8 netball team has won this year's Bolton Schools' U13 Netball Tournament, remaining unbeaten throughout the 15 team tournament. The girls came up against Turton in the final, where they secured a 5-1 victory to become tournament winners. And the boys’ U14 water polo team has won through to the English Schools final by finishing first overall in the qualifiers at Manchester Aquatic Centre. The boys beat off competition from Manchester Grammar School, Ripley, KES, St Bedes and Kings to finish top of the table. The final will be held in Walsall on 26 May 2012.

Also this week, Bolton School's Governing Body has given the official go ahead for the construction of the new Sixth Form Centre, which will be built in the heart of the Chorley New Road campus. Architecturally, the glass and sandstone building promises to provide a dramatic contrast to the School's Neo-Gothic façade and turrets. Work on the £7 million three-storey, elliptical building will begin in mid-July after the Summer Term has ended. It is expected to take a year to complete, meaning Sixth Form students will be able to enjoy their new Centre from September 2013.

20th April 2012

The Easter Holidays have flown by at Bolton School and the Summer Term is upon us once again.
In conjunction with local marketing company Silk Group, we are proud to announce the opening of our new online store. The new store boasts an exciting range of quality Bolton School branded items - whether you are a young pupil from Beech House or whether you left the School 50 years ago, the site promises something for everyone! Please visit: http://www.boltonschoolmerchandise.org/. All profits made from the enterprise will go into the School's bursary fund.
We can also announce that tickets for the Beech House Spring Ball are now available, costing £50 each with money raised going to kiDs of Bolton, a charity set up By Kevin Davies to help disadvantaged children in and around Bolton. The event will take place at the Reebok Stadium in the Lion of Vienna Suite on Saturday 12 May at 7pm. Download a ticket order form. Opportunities are also available for sponsoring aspects of the evening and advertising within the programme and we also need donations of raffle prizes. To support the ball in this way complete this form.
Good news for Rachel Flanders, who left Bolton School in 2009, and is set to carry the Olympic flame when it is processed through Bolton on Thursday 31 May and Friday 1 June! During her time at the School, Rachel, aged just 17 at the time, became the youngest person ever to row across the Atlantic Ocean. The torch comes to Bolton on Thursday, May 31, as part of its 70 day journey around the UK and will stay overnight before moving on to the next town. After travelling through the town the flame will arrive at the town hall before continuing on to Queens Park, where Bolton is hosting a free evening ticketed celebration. The torch will leave Bolton on June 1, just after 6am, from Victoria Square and will travel on to Chorley New Road, go down Scholes Bank in Horwich before arriving in Chorley at approximately 7.20am. Fingers crossed that Rachel will get to carry it past her old school!
And you may have seen another Old Girl, Professor Jenny Clack, on BBC4's Beautiful Minds programme on Wednesday 11 April. Jenny is a professor at Cambridge University a pioneering palaeontologist who made evolutionary history by discovering how we on earth went from water to land dwellers. The programme was the first in a series of three programmes where three influential scientists explain how their thoughts and discoveries have revolutionised the way the world is perceived.
And it’s not just the Old Girls in the limelight, Old Boy Chris Fairweather, aged 21, rowed in number 2 position for the ISIS (Oxford) crew that won this year's reserves' boat race. Chris left Bolton School in 2009 and is still an undergraduate at Oxford. The ISIS crew gradually pulled away during the course of the race and won with a comfortable margin of 5 lengths. Their finishing time set a course record for the reserves race and was equal to the third fastest time the course has been completed in the history of the race.
Pupils from Years 7, 8 and 9 in the Girls' Division have shown real imagination and flair in their entries to a Maths Photography Competition run by the Oxford University Press (OUP). The girls were asked to submit a picture that somehow related to something mathematical and were allowed to use up to 20 words in their caption. You can see many of their submissions on the OUP site here.