14th December 2012

It was a reunion with a difference as representative Head Girls and School Captains of Bolton School gathered on Wednesday to lay the Foundation Stone for the new £7m Sixth Form Centre. The building, which will be ready for occupation at the start of the Autumn Term of 2013, has received substantial funding from alumni of the School and will be named after the campaign’s lead benefactor, Ian Riley, an Old Boy who was a pupil from 1974-1981.

2008 Apprentice finalist Claire Young also returned to Bolton School this week for Business Challenge Day, to help judge the preliminary round of the annual KPMG Enterprise Trophy. For the first time, the Business Challenge was joint between the Girls’ and Boys’ Divisions. In teams, pupils developed their own business ideas and delivered a ten minute Dragon’s Den style presentation to a panel of judges. The best four teams were chosen to compete for the KPMG Enterprise Trophy in the Spring Term.

And there were yet more visitors to the School this week as our pupils were joined by pupils from other local schools for a Royal Society of Chemistry Christmas Lecture entitled 'How Chemistry Works: colour, explosions and wonder'. Alan Goodwin, former Head of Sciences Teacher Education at Manchester Metropolitan University, demonstrated how chemistry makes sense of the world around us, through a series of fun and explosive chemical experiments.

While Max Griffiths, co-founder of the LivLive charity, returned to his old school to pick up a cheque for a massive £11,463.03 and to thank the pupils and staff of Bolton School for their enormous fundraising efforts earlier in the year. Just prior to the summer holiday, the whole school, which totals over 2,300 pupils, came together to raise funds for the LivLife Foundation which offers free and relevant education and vocational opportunities in Tanzania for children and adults. Further charity efforts saw year 7 pupils in the Girls’ Division donating hundreds of brand new toys and gifts to Cash for Kids and Key 103’s Mission Xmas. The girls raised the money through a sponsored silence last month and then went on a trolley dash around Toys R Us in Bolton to spend the money on toys for less fortunate children.

Girls' Division pupil Vasudha Marthi has been asked to join the National Children's Orchestra. Vasudha has been offered a full membership place for a 12 month period in the Under 13 Orchestra - a full symphony orchestra offering children their first taste of performing in a major UK concert venue. And the Junior Boys held their Christmas Carol Concert this week, filling the Great Hall with a host of festive music and song.