11 July 2013

The lead up to the end of term has been eventful as ever, including the whole of Bolton School Boys’ and Girls’ Divisions walking the 12 miles up to Rivington Pike and back to raise money for a range of charities. They were joined on the walk by their teachers, and also by a group of Chinese primary school pupils who are in Bolton as part of the City Link project with Bolton Council. A number of charities will benefit including Help for Heroes, Wish Upon a Star, Lilac Centre, Macmillan Cancer Support, Derian House, The British Heart Foundation, Beanstalk, Seeability, Fort Alice, Children’s Wish and Leukemia Research. The money is now in from the Junior Boys' Fun Run earlier in the year - they raised an amazing £4264 for the RNLI! And pupils in the Junior Girls’ School set up stalls selling cakes, sweets and cuddly toys, raising over £700 for a range of charities.
The Junior Boys shone in their annual drama production, this year entitled ‘Will Shakespeare Save Us! Will Shakespeare Save The King!’ The boys gave three performances of the production to packed audiences of family and friends. The show included fun adaptations of scenes from several of Shakespeare’s plays including Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, Hamlet, and Much Ado About Nothing.
Junior Girls at Hesketh House celebrated becoming National U11 Girls’ Chess Champions! Four girls took part in the national finals of the EFC Schools’ Tournament held at Uppingham School. They received a trophy and an engraved wooden chess board. Year 6 pupil Sally Cowling has been selected for the Junior Royal Northern Collegeof Music, to passing an audition on the oboe to be accepted. And more music success in the Senior School as Sixth Form pupil Natasha Lomas has been offered a place in the Halle Youth Orchestra for her clarinet playing. The Bolton School music ensembles often go out to perform at local schools as part of Community Music – recently the Joint Junior Concert Band performed at St James CE Primary School, Farnworth and the Joint Training Orchestra went out to Ladywood Special Needs School in Little Lever. In Sport, The Boys’ Golf team has won the annual Bolton Schools’ Golf Championships, while the U12 Cricket team won the Lancashire County Cricket Cup, beating Manchester Grammar School (MGS) by seven wickets in the final. The team will now go on to represent the county in the national competition.
Eight boys from Years 9 to 11 participated in the Withington Girls School Model UNConference and were rewarded with the greatest success yet for a team from the Boys' Division. The boys represented Israel, a challenging delegation, and debated a wide ranging list of issues, from disarmament to health. They competed against over 20 of top independent and grammar school in the North and Midlands and the team won the Highly Commended Committee award - essentially second place out of over 40 delegations – along with a number of individual achievements. The Girls’ Division also took a group to Withington to compete and Year 11 pupil Jess Melling won ‘Commended Delegate’.