1st March 2013

The Bolton School family came together for a spectacular musical extravaganza at the Victoria Hall in Bolton. Over 600 pupils from both the Girls' and Boys' Divisions, members and former members of the teaching staff, current and former governors, joined with parents and friends of the School, who, as a participative audience, played an integral role in the festival atmosphere of this large scale gala event. The dramatic finale saw Union Jack flag waving pupils keeping time to some roof-raising patriotic sing-alongs, including Jerusalem, Rule Britannia, Land of Hope and Glory and Auld Lang Syne.

Bolton School has won the North-West regional round of the first ISFA Under 11s' Seven-a-Side National Tournament. They overcame Altrincham Preparatory School 2-0 in the final, having beaten local team Bury Grammar School on penalties in the semi-final after a 1-1 draw and Oldham Hulme 3-0 in the quarter final. The Bolton School U11s' team will now take part in the national final which will be held at the FA's new football centre, St George's Park, on Monday 29 April. In Rugby, the U15 squad won the 10th AKS Sevens tournament at Arnold King Edwards School, while the Senior rugby players were runners up in their first trip out on the sevens circuit when they travelled to the picturesque Kirby Lonsdale rugby club.

Year 9 scientists from across the borough enjoyed a day of fun and learning as Bolton School hosted its third annual Physics Olympics. The day saw teams of four gifted and talented students from local secondary schools compete in a series of day-long challenges while utilising the expertise and facilities at the School. And Blackrod Primary School’s wonderful igloo installation made of plastic milk bottles and other recycled material ensured they were the inaugural winners of Bolton School’s new Celebration of Art event. A large gathering of parents, pupils and teachers enjoyed perusing a selection of imaginative pieces by children from Reception to Year 6 at local primary schools at the exhibition held in the Arts Centre.

Also this week, as part of their careers programme, girls from years 10 to 13 had the opportunity to listen to a number of speakers with successful careers in business, several of whom were old girls of the school. The Keynote speaker on the day was Louis Barnett from Chokolit, a 20 year old entrepreneur, chocolatier and conservationist, who became the UK’s youngest entrepreneur, when his company Chokolit was set up aged just 12. And fourteen Sixth Form boys joined over 4000 students from almost 500 schools to take part in the first round of the British Biology Olympiad. The boys put in some very good performances - Siddharth Umapathy came away with a Bronze award, Drew Winstanley and Christian Warner with a Silver award, and Daniel Hurt and Joseph Ayathamattam’s performance resulted in a Gold award and an invitation to take part in round two.

And a team of Junior Girls’ chess players has made it through to the Final of the ECF National Schools' Girls' Team Championship. The girls took part in the Northern Semi Final at Cheadle Hulme School, and came second in the match to book their place in the final in Uppington in July.