Friday 6 March 2015

6 March 2015

At the end of February, staff in the Boys' Division shared their e-learning expertise with teaching colleagues from across the North at an E-Learning Conference for the North East and North West Standing Committee for Science. The conference was organised and hosted by the Boys' Division and gave an overview of how e-learning can be used in science teaching.

The joint Saxophone Choir recently received an invitation to perform at the World Saxophone Congress in Strasbourg over the summer! This is a fantastic achievement, as the calibre of players was very high and there was fierce competition for places.


On Monday evening, the Girls' Division Theatre hosted another lecture organised by the Bolton Branch of the Historical Association. Professor Richard Hoyle spoke about Robin Hood and how the tale has been changed and recreated by each generation.

Wednesday saw the Boys' Division welcome seventeen schools from the north of England for the annual Ogden Trust Physics Olympics! This fantastic event challenged teams of four Year 9 pupils to complete five fun physics tasks and a quiz to compete for the trophy. This year, the results were extremely close, but the overall winners were Kirkham Grammar School.


Pupils in the Girls' Division have raised enough money to name their third Guide Dog puppy! The girls have chosen the name Peanut, and the puppy they have named was introduced to the whole school with a photograph during morning assembly. Over the past seven years of supporting the charity, girls have raised an incredible £9,000 to sponsor the dogs!


Recently our Junior Girls took part in Bolton's Town Swimming Gala. The Year 4/5 competition was held at the School's pool, and our Junior Girls took first place. The Year 5/6 competition was held at Total Fitness in Bolton, and was attended by none other than Rebecca Adlington!

Four Year 12 students in the Boys' Division were recently commended in the UK Linguistics Olympiad. To compete, the boys had to solve a variety of linguistic data problems, including some based on the Finnish, Georgian and Japanese language systems. Their efforts won them a commendable set of bronze certificates!

It was World Book Day on Thursday, and the School certainly got into the spirit! In the Junior Girls' School, pupils brought their favourite characters to life with vivid and creative costumes. They also participated in a number of themed activities, including creating 'literary bricks' about their favourite books and drawing in the style of famous illustrator Quentin Blake.


In the Boys' Division, writers from Manchester Writing School came in to give a series of writing workshops to each year group. The day began with an inspirational address from Dr Livi Michael, who was accompanied by the school's writer in residence, Iris Feindt. Pupils also took part in literary-themed sessions over lunchtime in the Junior and Senior Literary and Debating Societies, as well as enjoying workshops during lesson time. This was a fantastic opportunity for the boys, and the whole day was a huge success.


The final of the Young Musician of the Year competition also took place on Thursday. It was an evening of outstanding performances from all of the boys involved, which made it very difficult to choose overall winners! All of the boys who took part in the final received trophies for winning their instrumental category, and additional awards were given for the Junior and Senior Young Musician of the Year, Junior and Senior Composer of the Year, and Most Promising Performer.


The Bolt - the magazine by boys, for boys - is now available to read online. The latest edition offers a variety of articles, from a phone comparison to an insight into the life of Mr Tillotson, and much more!

Finally, good luck to the Boys' Division U16 and U18 Water Polo teams, who will be playing in the English Schools' competition on Saturday at Walsall! This is a particularly exciting prospect for the U18 team, who are defending their title.

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