19 July 2019

Year 7 pupils enjoyed an inspiring afternoon with Britain's first astronaut Helen Sharman CMG OBE. Helen's talk about STEM subjects and her experiences travelling to and onboard the Mir Space Station in 1991 was preceded by a morning of exciting experiments and hands-on science with Dr Peter Hoare.

An exciting summer project is now underway at the School's Leverhulme Pavilion site on Chorley New Road! A new all-weather sports surface will be created during the School holidays to be ready for pupils upon their return and for community usage in September.

As the school year drew to a close, Girls' Division pupils in Year 10 enjoyed a session with Commando Joe's to work on their problem-solving, teamworking, leadership and communication skills. The military-style challenges helped them to build transferable skills.

Niall Gaffney, who undertook his teacher training at Bolton School under the School Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) programme has won this year's Manchester Evening News Student Teacher of the Year Award. The School is delighted with his achievement.

The Junior Girls' Year 6 Production of 'Olivia' is now available to view in full on the School website here.

12 June 2019

The 'mane' event at the end of the school year for Junior Boys was the Year 6 production of Disney's The Lion King. The stunning costumes and pupils' brilliant performances made this a very special occasion to bring the boys' time at Park Road to a close.

The Junior Girls also arranged a production for Year 6 pupils, which year year was Olivia. This feel-good musical is loosely based on Oliver by Charles Dickens and features cameos from a host of famous figures, both historical and fictional. The girls put on a fantastic show in both performances.

The guest speaker at this year's Prizegiving was Mr Michael Griffiths, who will retire from his post as Bolton School's Chairman of Governors at the end of December. In his address, he recalled his schooldays as a pupil in the Boys' Division, spoke of his career and offered sage advice to current students. Headmaster Philip Britton gave the traditional review of the academic year, which can be viewed in two parts here: Part 1 and Part 2.

Prizegiving also included a number of musical performances, some of which are available to watch again via the following links:

• 'Ave Maris Stella' written by Senior Young Composer of the Year Adam Whitmore, Year 12
• Introduction from Stravinsky's Suite Italienne (Victor Chow, Year 13)
• Gavotta from Stravinsky's Suite Italienne (Victor Chow, Year 13)

Unfortunately poor weather meant that Sports Day at Beech House Infant School was cancelled. However, Year 1 and Year 2 still held their races during lessons and had fun taking part in this friendly competition.

Girls' Division pupils in Years 7 and 8 whisked their teachers and parents on a journey across African at their Celebration Evening at the end of the year. Musical performances were scattered throughout the evening and girls were presented with various prizes and awards.

A number of performances from the year 7 and 8 Celebration Evening are available to watch via the following links:

• 'When You Believe' (The Prince of Egypt)
• 'Any Dream Will Do' (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat)
• 'Banaha' (Congolese traditional folk song)
• 'Jambo Bwana' (Kenyan traditional welcome song)
• The Lion King medley: 'Hakuna Matata', 'Can You Feel The Love Tonight', 'I Just Can't Wait To Be King, 'Circle of Life'

The Junior Girls ended the academic year with 'Tales of Hesketh House', a spectacular summer concert which focused on the variety and humour of school life. Combining songs, poetry recitals and snippets of narration about the history of education and life at Hesketh House, the performance remembered all members of the school community and celebrated the girls' potential.

Three Girls' Division pupils in Years 7 and 8 have been selected to join the U16 North West regional water polo academy! They will now play in a series of inter-regional matches.

Children in the Butterfly Room graduated from the Nursery ahead of going to 'big school' in September. A ceremony attended by parents and family members recapped an exciting year at the Nursery, followed by a balloon release which can be viewed here.

Like and follow the new Bolton School Nursery Facebook page to keep in touch with the Nursery through photos and news.

5 July 2019

Penny Joelson's novel 'I Have No Secrets' has now been announced as the Bolton Children's Fiction Award winner for 2019! The Award Ceremony was attended by hundreds of pupils representing 19 local schools, who also enjoyed sessions with five of the six shortlisted authors throughout the morning.

When Old Boy Sir Ian McKellen celebrated his 80th birthday at Bolton School, it turned out to be an unforgettable night for Bolton School pupils past and present who were delighted to perform as part of the evening's entertainment. A small group of pupils and recent leavers joined Old Boy Ralf Little to reprise some of Sir Ian's schoolboy roles as part of a once-in-a-lifetime performance in front of the UK's acting elite.

The School acknowledged the 10,637 hours of voluntary work completed by Year 12 students from both Divisions at a Celebration Evening held in the penultimate week of term. The whole year group received certificates for their efforts and a group of students shared their experiences as part of the ceremony.

Congratulations to the Girls' Division Athletics Teams in Years 7 to 9, who have won the Bolton Town Athletics Championships in all three age groups!

Well done also to the team of Year 6 Junior Girls who have been named Netball Champions following their win at the Greater Manchester School Games!

Year 7 pupils in the Boys' Division celebrated the completion of their Bronze Arts Awards with an  exhibition and peer review session in the Arts Centre. A busy morning of viewing and commenting on each other's work was concluded with readings of creative writing from Year 8 and discovering more about Year 12 student Will Hardy's rotoscope film project.

Recent leavers from both Divisions returned to Bolton School to offer their valuable advice to the current Year 12 cohort. The main focus was on the shift from school to university, but there were also alumni present who could discuss gap year, apprenticeship and employment as options after A Level.

Entrepreneur and Old Boy Rob Dobson also returned as the end of term approached to join the Boys' Division Electronics Club for an afternoon spent helping them on their projects using the equipment he had donated.

A Café Scientifique talk about careers in engineering brought this year's series of lunchtime enrichment sessions to a close. Eddie Walker, a mechanical engineer with over 30 years of experience in fire safety, spoke to Girls' Division pupils about the wealth of options available to them in the world of engineering.

The last week of term saw Boys' Division students put on 'Wastelands', a production created as the culmination of a year-long collaboration with the school's Theatre Company in Residence, RoughHouse Theatre. The piece drew inspiration from T S Eliot's poem 'The Waste Land' and explores the politics of conflict with a particular focus on the First and Second World Wars.

Pupils from both Divisions benefitted from book club sessions focusing on diversity which were run by Chloe from MMU. Pupils in Year 10 had the opportunity to discuss 'The Curious Tale of the Lady Caraboo' by Catherine Johnson and were joined by younger girls and boys to examine 'Liccle Bit' by Alex Wheatle.

Members of the Boys' Division Brass Group visited Brownlow Fold Primary School to share their music with the younger pupils.

In the penultimate week of term, the Boys' Division Prizegiving was held and Mr Britton's review of the academic year is now available to re-watch via the following links: Part 1 and Part 2.