14 December 2018

Bolton School was delighted to receive the inaugural Independent School of the Year Award from Independent School Parent magazine. The Award was given to both the Boys' and Girls' Divisions. The Boys' Division also received the Independent Boys' School of the Year. The Girls' Division was highly commended in the Independent Girls’ School of the Year category, and the School as a whole was highly commended in the Independent School of the Year for Community Outreach category.

The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Christmas Lecture took place at Bolton School, wowing audiences with exciting scientific experiments and explanations. Dr Frank Mair of the University of Manchester gave two presentations in the Boys' Division Great Hall for almost 1,000 pupils from 20 schools across the North West.

The annual Tillotson Lecture was this year given by Old Boy John Derbyshire OBE. He gave a fascinating talk about his long career with the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) and his involvement with the British Sailing Team, and provided insider insight into the world of Olympic sailing.

The Junior Girls told 'The Shepherd's Story' as their Christmas performance, combining narration and acting with beautiful music and song. This version of the Nativity was based on Michael Morpugo's book 'On Angel Wings' and featured a number of compelling solo performances and lovely dances from Year 3 pupils.

Click here to watch the evening performance of The Shepherd's Story in full.

The Junior Boys also put on their annual Carol Service in the Boys' Division Great Hall this week. The evening began with the traditional performance of 'Once in Royal David's City' and continued with more rousing carols, including performances from the school choirs.

Old Boy Ashish Choudry returned to Bolton School to speak to members of MedSoc about life as a GP. He was able to give an overview of the job and talked about the attributes and skills that are particularly useful in this career.

Dr Nick Gent, another Old Boy, also came back to give an enthralling talk about his work at Public Health England and his involvement with the nerve agent incidents in Salisbury and Amesbury earlier this year. The talk was followed by several pertinent questions. He also spoke to Sixth Form physicists about Polonium-210 in the afternoon.

Four teams of Year 12 students went head to head in the final of the Business Challenge competition. They once again pitched their polished creative business ideas, which had already been chosen as the best in the year group following the Business Challenge Day earlier this term. The judges decided this year to give the trophy and prizes to Napee, an innovative idea to create a biodegradable nappy.

Two Girls' Division pupils have been invited to join the 'Dragon Academy' - the Junior Wales Lacrosse programme. This development pathway is designed to identify and support players who have the potential to play at elite level.

Year 9 pupil Jamie has won a bronze medal at the British Judo Championships in Sheffield. This follows a silver medal at the Welsh Open earlier this year, and he has also won a gold medal at the North West Championships.

Year 11 pupil Anna has been called up to the England Women's U16 football squad, and this month will travel with the national team to the Netherlands for two competitive matches.

Bolton School was delighted to welcome Australian and Romanian water polo players ahead of an English Schools' Swimming Association (ESSA) international triangular tournament featuring these players and their English U17 counterparts. The matches took place in Manchester and Bolton, and pupils from the Junior Girls' and Junior Boys' Schools were excited to watch the action.