25 November 2016

The highlight of the week was the final talk of the Tillotson Lecture Series, which was given by Old Boy and six-time 24 hour solo mountain bike racing World Champion Chris Eatough. Titling his address 'Long Distance Learning', he spoke about his life since leaving Bolton School and the lessons he has learned throughout his mountain biking career, offering an exciting insight into his sport.

Chris's full address and the question and answer session can be viewed in three parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Chris also found time during his visit to Bolton School to talk to the elite athletes in the Girls' and Boys' Divisions, and to address the Junior Boys and Girls. The pupils had lots of pertinent questions for Chris and were delighted to have the opportunity to talk to such a successful sportsman.

The Junior Girls got involved with the 'Big Spotacular' for Children in Need last week. They added spots and spotty accessories to their uniforms and made a donation when they came into school on the day. They made over £360 to give to charity.

Girls in Year 9 raised over £1,000 for Children in Need by putting on a series of cake and sweet sales over the course of a week. Girls' Division pupils gave generously to the cause in exchange for the delicious treats and raised lots of money for charity.

The Senior Concert Band has won a Platinum Award at the North's Regional Festival of the National Concert Band Festival, held in Oldham. The group of Boys' and Girls' Division pupils performed a challenging and mixed programme of pieces which impressed the judges on the day. They have now qualified to play at the national finals in April!

A group of Year 13 linguists enjoyed debating a wide range of challenging topics at this year's MFL North West Debating Competition. Three pairs of girls debated in Spanish, German and French, with the Spanish team making it all the way to the semi-final to go head-to-head with their rivals on the topical subject of Brexit!

The Year 10 girls recently enjoyed taking part in their Film Day, which was spent learning how to make films for themselves. They took part in a series of workshops with the Young Film Academy before putting together their own short films. Following a screening of all the films, one winning group received an Oscar for their efforts.

Year 10 pupil Cate Lord has been selected for the Manchester Thunder Netball Development Squad after playing well in two sets of trials.

Young Thai Kickboxing champion Marcus Williams in Year 7 has become the Double English Open Champion. This follows him becoming the World Junior Champion just last month.

This week's Inspiring Mind is Old Boy Irving Wardle, who attended the Boys' Division from 1940 to 1947. He fondly remembers his time at the School, including his teachers Bill Brown and Frank Greene.