24 October 2014

At the end of last week, pupils from Years 10 to 13 took part in an inspirational Engineering Careers Day. The day's keynote speaker was engineer and TV personality Kate Bellingham, who reassured her audience that there was no need to "fit a box" to be an engineer - a theme repeated by several of the speakers throughout the day! This was a great opportunity for those interested in a career in engineering to learn more about the wide variety of options available from industry professionals and higher education providers, including four Bolton School alumni.

Thursday of last week was busy across the Foundation. All of the pupils from Hesketh House Junior Girls' School, enjoyed a day off their normal timetable to take a trip to Port Sunlight! There they learned more about Edwardian and Victorian life, as well as finding out about the village's founder, none other than Bolton School's benefactor William Hesketh Lever.

On Thursday evening, the Junior Girls' Chess Team took part in their first matches of this year's Bolton Primary Schools' Chess League. The girls did well, each winning at least one game each!

Pupils and parents from the Boys' Division were delighted to attend a talk on twenty-first century dinosaur hunting from palaeobiologist Professor Phil Manning on Thursday evening. Professor Manning spoke about his work at the University of Manchester as well as regaling the audience with tales of digging up fossils in America.

In the Girls' Division, the Under 16s Netball team were recently successful in the Bolton Town Championships. They played to an extremely high standard and came away from the final victorious!

Year 13 pupil Haseeb Hameed has also had some sporting success in recent weeks: following a season of spectacular scores, he has signed a deal with Lancashire County Cricket Club! He will join the professionals next season, after taking part in the England Development Programme this winter.

On Friday evening, guests flocked to the Arts Centre for a Cooking Masterclass arranged by the Old Girls' Association. Local chef Mike Harrison demonstrated three delicious courses; and with wine provided by T. Wright Wines and a chocolate tasting session courtesy of Choc Amor, a wonderful time was had by all who attended. The evening was organised in support of the UK branch of the Phelan-McDermid Syndrome Foundation, and by the end of the evening a spectacular total of £1772.00 had been raised for the charity!