October 2020

As the end of October approached and half term was on the horizon, Bolton School celebrated Harvest with the usual charitable collections. Once again the generous donations from parents and pupils went to support Urban Outreach. The Senior and Junior Girls put together an amazing collection of tinned and packaged food, while the Infants made a financial contribution.

Watch a short news video documenting the collection in the Girls' Division here or via the play button below:

Earlier in the half term, Dave Baggley of Urban Outreach collected 140 cones of chocolates, initially intended for the School's fundraising Summer Ball, which will be used to thank the charity's donors and volunteers.

Two Sixth Form students from the Boys' Division raised £5,000 for Cancer Research UK with a challenge that saw them run 24 miles in 24 hours, completing one mile every hour for a whole day and evening running through the night! They decided to raise money for the charity because of the huge impact that Covid-19 has had on charities and their fundraising efforts.

This year's Tillotson Lecture will go virtual with a discussion between four Old Boys, chaired by the Headmaster, on the subject: How will Covid shape society? Alumni will offer insights from the public policy, medical, arts and hospitality sectors about how the pandemic will affect life going forward. The lecture will be staged via Zoom and will start at 7pm on Monday 23 November 2020. To register to attend, please email BDInfo@boltonschool.org.

Mr Forgrieve, the Head of Instrumental Studies in the Boys' Division, has been appointed to the Music Advisory Group of the National Children's Orchestras of Great Britain (NCOGB). This means that he will be consulted, alongside a small group of other instrumental specialists, on repertoire choices and other activities.

Three Junior Boys earned black belts in reading during lockdown. Milan, Ayron and Egan each read 50 varied books during the 2019-20 academic year and their efforts were rewarded as part of the school's Blazer Book Belt reading challenge. Milan went the extra mile with additional fundraising challenges to support the National Literacy Trust, and Ayron was inspired to start a blog documenting his reading adventures.

Two Girls' Division students won age group prizes in the Eco Innovators competition. Lucy, who came fourth in the 11-14 age group, and Sofia, who was sixth in the 14-19 age group, took on the challenge of designing electric vehicle charging points of the future. The entries were judged by a panel from organisations including the RAC Foundation, the National Grid, the National Transport Design Centre, Design Council, Living Streets, Thank You and the Office for Low Emission Vehicles as well as the Minister for Transport.

A piece of artwork created by Sixth Form student Emilie has been named one of the winners of The Horsfall's 2020 Art Competition. The competition, which opened for submissions during lockdown, was on the theme of portraits to celebrate coming back together with an exhibition of people.

Old Boy Steve Thompson (Class of 1998) was appointed regional editor for Newsquest Lancashire/Greater Manchester this month. This means he has responsibility for the School’s local newspaper The Bolton News, as well as the Lancashire Telegraph, the Bury Times, The Oldham Times and Messenger titles. He said: 'I have great memories from my time at school, especially working on the school newspaper with Mr Joseph in the Sixth Form.'

Sadly the School received news earlier this month that former Girls' Division Maths teacher, Deputy Head and Head of Careers Miss Margaret Dickinson has died. She passed away on 10 October 2020. Girls' Division Headmistress Sue Hincks said: 'She is remembered by many Old Girls as the kindest Maths teacher you could possibly want. ... Colleagues describe her as 'such a special person; so calm, humorous and understanding'.' A full tribute to her can be found here. Her family has set up a Muchloved page in her memory, with donations going to Parkinson's UK. If you would like to donate, please click here.

September 2020

With the traditional Open Morning date on the horizon, at the start of the autumn term Bolton School started to plan how the usual event would take place this year in a virtual format. The Senior Girls' Virtual Live Open Morning and Senior Boys' Virtual Live Open Day were announced towards the end of September. On the day, Year 6 pupils and their parents will still enjoy lots of interaction with dedicated teaching staff and bright, engaged pupils.

Those interested in attending must register and can do so via the following links: Girls' Division and Boys' Division.

On National Poetry Day, poet Andrew McMillan, in conjunction with the Boys' Division, launched a poetry workshop and a subsequent competition based on this year's theme of 'Vision'. The workshop will run on Zoom on Wednesday 14 October and will encourage young people to explore new ways of looking, seeing and imagining the world. Full details, including how to book for this free event, can be found here.

Children in Year 2 at the Infant School had an exciting adventure at the Anderton Centre, where they had lots of fun on and off the water.

Earlier in September, Boys' Division Headmaster Philip Britton led an assembly which has in past years celebrated the life of Lord Leverhulme, the school's founder, but this year addressed some of his mistakes and asked the important question: how do we make a difference for good? The thought for the day at the assembly was taken from the Emancipation Proclamation, quoting the words of US President Abraham Lincoln on the anniversary of the day this executive order was passed: 'All persons held as slaves shall be thenceforward forever free.' Watch the thought for the day in full here.

Shortly after, the School published an update on the meaningful actions taken to improve practices, flag areas for improvement and make a sustained commitment to anti-racism since the Black Lives Matter protests in June 2020. Full details can be found here.