11 July 2014

The last few days were packed full of events as the Summer Term drew to a close.

Over the weekend, Boys' Division pupils from Year 7 to 13 put together a Pop-Up Exhibition in the Market Place, Bolton. All of the artwork displayed was created for the exhibition and illustrated some aspect of the pupils' experience of Bolton School.

Last week, Old Boy Sir Ernest Ryder was formally installed at the new Chancellor of the University of Bolton. For the next three years, he will represent the university.

In the same week, two Bolton School alumni, a former school governor and a former headmistress of the Girls' Division were awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Bolton! They received their degrees alongside this year's graduates, and alongside famous faces such as Ryan Giggs and Martine McCutcheon.

Old Girl Aimee Parkinson returned to Bolton School on Monday to give Sixth Formers a talk on working in commercial property. This was a very informative session that allowed the pupils to ask plenty of questions.

Old Boy and Nobel Prize winner Sir Harry Kroto visited the school on the last day of term to promote chemistry to primary school pupils. Four-hundred Year 5 pupils from local primary schools attended the workshop session in the Sports Hall. They listened attentively to Sir Harry's presentation, and afterwards were able to build their own model 'buckyballs', which re-create the structure of the C60 Buckminsterfullerene molecule.

Gifted and talented pupils at a cluster of Farnworth primary schools have recently enjoyed and prospered from extra Maths lessons from two Bolton School teachers, Phil Howard of the Boys’ Division and Lauren Reynolds of the Girls’ Division. These specialist 'Maths Clubs' have raised the children's grades in their SATs and given them additional confidence in their mathematical abilities.

Girls' Division Year 7 pupil Amy Chicken has recently taken part in the Junior Manchester Run and Great Manchester Cycle to raise money for LivLive, a charity with strong links with the Girls' Division.

Year 6 pupils at the Junior Boys' School have also been hard at work. Five groups of boys became young entrepreneurs to raise money for charity, and their ideas and and business plans were very successful. Together they raised £776.15 for Cancer Research!

In sport, the Girls' Division Year 10 Tennis team achieved second place in Division 1 of the AEGON Teams Tennis tournament.

Meanwhile in the Boys' Division, the Intermediate Tennis Championship Finals were held. After preliminary knockout rounds throughout the Summer Term, the last two pupils in the Year 9 and Year 10 groups battled it out for the trophies.

Finally, Year 7 and Year 8 girls rounded off the Summer Term with a spectacular Celebration Evening. The evening of entertainment was based on the theme of 'A Tale of Two Cities' and traced the musical heritages of Liverpool and Manchester.

You can listen to a selection of music from the Celebration Evening on the school's Soundcloud page: click here.