24 April 2015

Last week, Bolton School welcomed back distinguished Old Boy the Rt Hon Lord Justice Ryder. He spoke to the whole of the Boys' Division in morning assembly, and followed this up with a talk to the Law Society at lunch time. His erudite presentation compared two contrasting views on how society should be run, and also gave the boys an insight into the different paths open to those looking to build a career in Law.

Lord Justice Ryder was also one of thirty-two former Captains who attended a special Centenary Dinner along with twenty-four former Head Girls. The event formally marked the 100th anniversary of the Bolton School Foundation. There was a dinner in the Boys' Division Great Hall, where tables were named after iconic School objects, while in the Girls' Division Great Hall there was an exhibition about the School, with each decade of its history represented. Former staff and Heads of both Divisions were also in attendance and there was a fantastic atmosphere throughout.

Last week the School also launched its ambitious '100 Campaign' - celebrating 100 years of the Bolton School Foundation by aiming to raise enough bursary funds to support one in three pupils. The School hopes to meet its target of increasing the fund to £50 million over the next 15 years. Anyone interested in donating to the campaign can do so by clicking here.

Over the Easter holidays, pupils at the Junior Boys' and Junior Girls' Schools represented Bolton Town in the Greater Manchester Primary Cross Country competition. All of the Bolton School pupils gave of their best on the day and helped the Bolton Town team to win first place.

Sixth Form star cricketer Haseeb Hameed was also busy over the Easter break, when he travelled out to tour Australia with the England U19s cricket squad. The month-long visit saw the team play a number of matches, with Haseeb's becoming the team's top scorer and earning himself the nickname 'The Wall' in the four-day Youth Test match at the W.A.C.A. ground.

Year 11 pupil Ellie Broome has recently been re-selected for the Cumbria Girls' U18 Elite Golf Squad for the second year running. She has also been chosen as the first female Junior Captain at Kirby-Lonsdale Golf Club, and came 4th in the girls' gross section at the recent British Schools' Northern Open.

Pupils have been engaging with politics with their own series of Mock Leaders' Debates in the run-up to the General Election. Boys' Division pupils from Years 11 to 13 took on the roles of the different main party leaders in order to debate their policies in front of their fellow students. All of the boys involved threw themselves into their campaign: setting up Twitter feeds, producing posters, and arguing their case with great passion at every opportunity. It will be interesting to see how the final votes fall in Mr Britton's opinion polls.

In the Junior Boys' School, pupils with a passion for history were given the chance to join the University of Salford's 'Big Dig' on Monday. They took part in an archaeological excavation in Radcliffe, looking to find remains of 19th Century farm buildings and the earlier Manor House that once stood on the site. This was a really exciting opportunity for the boys to get hands-on with history.

Two of the Girls' Division's talented actors have been busy treading the boards of Manchester's largest stage in an energetic production of the classic musical 'On The Town'. Caroline Blair and Zoe Pillar were both given roles in the musical, with Zoe even taking one of the leads playing Hildy.

Old Boy Jordan Allen returned to School to continue the Lunchtime Concert series on Tuesday. He performed an electrifying acoustic set in the Arts Centre, interspersed with reminiscence about his time at School. Jordan is now coming to the end of a Marketing degree at Leeds Beckett University, and plans to devote his full-time attention to his music from June this year.

Sixth Form pupils were reassured on Wednesday that the graduate job market is the best it has been in a decade. Martin Birchall, Managing Director of 'High Fliers Research', gave the talk, during which he offered pupils excellent information about the current state of the graduate job market, what areas are most and least competitive, and also advice on how to make their CVs stand out.

On Thursday, the School celebrated pupils' achievements with a special Duke of Edinburgh Award Ceremony. Paul Griffiths, the Regional Direction of the Award, addressed the pupils and was able to announce that Bolton School is the the largest independent school provider for pupils achieving the Award in the North-West of England, and also in the top 10 schools in the whole of the North!

A group of Sixth Form girls studying Chemistry also had reason to celebrate after receiving their certificates for the International Chemistry Olympiad. Two girls achieved Gold certificates, two girls were awarded Silver, and four received Bronze.

The final event of the week was the annual Battle of the Bands. This year, three bands went head-to-head in the final, which was judged by representatives from video production company Sitcom Soldiers, including two Old Boys. There was a fantastic variety of music throughout the three bands' performances, but the eventual winners for 2015 were Young Ruin.

To watch a video of Young Ruin performing at Battle of the Bands, click here.

17 April 2015

The first week of the Summer Term at Bolton School was as busy as ever with pupils returning with news of overseas trips during the holidays and lots of events taking place.

This year marks the 30th Anniversary of the French Exchange. A group of Boys' and Girls' Division pupils travelled to Moulins in central France to stay with their exchange partners from Le Collège Saint-Benoît, and this week the French pupils are visiting them in return. The Bolton School pupils had a fantastic time sampling the culture of the Auvergne region, and during their visit the French pupils will enjoy all the North West has to offer in return. The long-standing links between the schools ensures that pupils on both sides of the English Channel have the fantastic opportunity to form new friendships and practice their foreign language skills with their peers.

The Sixth Form footballers' Madrid Tour was also a huge success. The boys found themselves very evenly matched in all six games against local Spanish club sides, and had a great time training at the Real Madrid CF Academy. Some of the boys even met Spanish National Manager Vicente del Bosque outside their hotel!

In other sporting news, Old Girls Natasha Lomas and Olivia Brown sent word of their successes playing tennis for the Wanderers tennis team. Their performance helped the team to win the Bolton Tennis Federation Winter League’s first division mixed doubles competition!

Once back in School after the break, pupils had the chance to enjoy a fantastic Lunchtime Concert featuring the talents of three young musicians: eight-year-old pianist Harry James Bowden; thirteen-year-old flautist Alexandra Clarke, who is a member of the National Children's Orchestra; and sixteen-year-old Elliott Gaston-Ross, the 2014 winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Percussion Category Final who also performed with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in the televised grand final. The quality of music from all three musicians was exemplary and the audience thoroughly enjoyed the performance.

This was the first in a series of Lunchtime Concerts which will continue for the next three Tuesdays; they are free of charge and open to the public. For more information, including venues, times and performers, please check the Noticeboard.

Over the Easter break, Boys' Division chemistry teacher Dr K Turner found out that she has been selected to give a workshop at Science on Stage, a prestigious European science education showcase. She has come up with a new way for GCSE pupils to visualise the covalent bonding in molecules using pipe cleaners and beads,and will give a workshop and present a stand at the festival.

A group of Sixth Form science students in the Girls' Division recently took part in the Chemistry Olympiad, a competition which requires pupils to complete a highly challenging written test. Several girls achieved Gold and Silver certificates, which is a fantastic achievement.

The end of the week brought about the dramatic close to the Bolton School Bake Off, with the grand final taking place on Friday lunchtime. All four finalists baked complex and delicious products which showed off the best of their talent and skill. Mr Britton, Miss Hincks and Unilever representative Mr Byrne had the difficult task of judging the Bake Off, and decided to crown Year 8 pupil Issy Plant the overall winner!

On Thursday the 23rd of April, the Infants and Junior Schools will open their doors for an Open Afternoon. This will provide an opportunity for children and parents to enjoy guided tours around the Infant (co-educational, 4 to 7 year olds), Junior Girls’ (7 to 11 year olds) and Junior Boys’ (7 to 11 year olds) schools and to meet our teaching staff and pupils. There will be various activities and exhibitions and visitors will be able to learn more about applying to Bolton School. This should be a very enjoyable afternoon for all.

3 April 2015

While several groups of students are away on a variety of school trips, some final news stories from the end of term have arrived.

Old Girl Dame Janet Smith recently gave this year's Ryder Lecture at the University of Bolton's Law School, and spoke on the subject of whether public inquiries are worth the money. This very timely and topical lecture was fascinating to the students and will no doubt have informed their understanding of the subject. Dame Janet is the first woman to give the Ryder Lecture.

A group of Boys' Division Senior School and Girls' Division Junior School pupils took part in the Greater Manchester School Games. The Junior Girls' Year 5 swimmers earned themselves gold medals in the Primary Girls' competition, and the Boys' Division U13 Water Polo team won overall as well!

Boys and girls also took part in the Greater Manchester Climbing Championships last week. After performing extremely well against tough opposition, Isabella and Zoe Grainger both took home medals for achieving podium positions in their age categories, and the School won second place overall!

27 March 2015

Whilst the School closed on Wednesday for the Easter break, it was still a very busy few days!

Last weekend saw a number of events happening across the campus. The 19th Bolton (Bolton School) Scout Group celebrated its 100th birthday on Saturday 21 March with a Family Fun Day at its Brookside Scout HQ and an evening buffet celebration. Earlier in the day, children and adults had enjoyed a range of fun activities including pioneering, crafts, a chance to cook twists and sausages on an outdoor camp fire, face-painting, a climbing wall, a bouncy assault course and slide. On display throughout the day was memorabilia, photos and lists of former scouts from the past 100 years. 

Also on Saturday evening, a celebratory dinner saw the latest crop of 41 SHINE pupils graduate through this year’s Serious Fun on Saturday Mornings programme at Bolton School.

On the sports field, Bolton School U16s' team produced one of the best defensive rugby displays ever seen by a Bolton School side to win the Lancashire U16 Rugby Plate Final.

Three Bolton School boys made it through to the national final of the Independent Schools’ Golf Association (ISGA) Singles Matchplay Tournament, which will be held at Royal St George’s Golf Club in Kent on 26 and 27 April.  A first for Bolton School!

A group of Year 7 boys recently travelled to Manchester University to take part in the regional final of Cambridge University’s French Spelling Bee. Amir Chauhan made it through to the final four contestants, winning himself a place in the National Final! This is the third year in which the Boys’ Division has been represented at the national level of this competition.

During the last twelve months Bolton School Boys’ Division has worked hard to raise £5000 so they can name two puppies for the charity Guide Dogs.

Year 10 students in the Girls’ Division have been trying their hand at traditional metal casting methods using pewter. The girls were given the brief to design and make a pendant to reflect the School’s 100/500 Anniversary celebrations, which are taking place throughout 2015 and 2016.

In the arts, budding thespians from the Girls’ and Boys’ Division Senior Schools collaborated to produce a wonderful Joint Production of The Sound of Music. There were stunning performances throughout the production, which ran from 18-21 March in the Girls’ Division Studio Theatre.

To watch a compilation of clips from the Joint Production of The Sound of Music, click here.

After another two exciting rounds of the Bolton School Bake Off Finalists have now been selected! The final four will create their ‘signature bake’ under timed conditions on Friday 17 April.

Old Girl Dr Julia Sarginson returned to Bolton School to deliver a fascinating lecture entitled ‘From School to Scalpel’ as part of the Girls’ Division’s Enrichment Programme.

Infant and Junior School children benefitted from the wisdom of former pupils who talked to them about a range of possible careers.  Pupils in Year 2 learned about life as a vet from Old Girl Victoria Edmondson. She visited Beech House with her husband and fellow vet Peter Edmondson and three of their dogs to introduce the children to the realities of working with animals in veterinary practice.

In the Junior Schools, six Bolton School alumni returned to give talks at this year’s Junior Careers Carousel. This joint event brings together Year 6 pupils from the Junior Girls’ and Junior Boys’ Schools to learn more about the wide variety of career paths that they might take in the future.

Getting ahead of themselves, the Junior Girls had their Wear a Hat Day for Brain Tumour Research on Wednesday 25 March, two days before the rest of the country.  It made for some flamboyant headwear – from pupils and teachers alike – and girls raised several hundred pounds for the worthy cause.

20 March 2015

Last Friday, pupils in the Boys' and Girls' Divisions commemorated the 100th anniversary of the death of Second Lieutenant Albert Knowles Wilson, who was the first Old Boy to fall during the First World War. He died on the 12th of March 1915. In a moving ceremony at the Headmaster's Lawn, Albert's name was read out by the Headmaster Mr Britton, along with the names of eighty other Old Boys who made the ultimate sacrifice in the First World War, while Sixth Form boys and girls planted ceramic poppies originally from the Tower of London's Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red remembrance installation.

To watch a video documenting the planting of the poppies, click here.

The Boys' Division also held a special remembrance assembly in honour of the fallen on this poignant date. Mr Britton read passages from Remembered with Honour, Dr Eric McPherson's book about the Old Boys who gave their lives during the two World Wars, and made special reference to Albert Knowles Wilson. There were moving readings and, to end the occasion, a rendition of The Last Post.

Later on Friday evening, alumni and staff involved with the armed services attended the Uniformed Services Dinner, which also included a further commemoration of the fallen Old Boys. The speaker for the evening was Major General Stuart R Skeates CBE, Commandant of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. This made a very fitting end to the day.

Also last Friday, pupils at the Junior Girls' School celebrated Ultimate Pi Day: a day that comes just once a century, on which the first ten digits of Pi are represented by the date and time. The girls learned more about the uses of Pi and took part in a number of mathematically related activities.

Bolton School Nursery invited Mums to join in the fun for Mothers' Day. Mothers of the youngest children at the Nursery - aged three and under - were welcomed into the 'First Steps' and 'Tweenies' rooms to enjoy some extra time with their little ones in honour of the occasion.

Café Scientifique recently welcomed Dr Laura Waters to School to give a talk about whether scientists should speak up or stay quiet. In this fascinating lecture, Dr Waters talked about whether the general public should believe everything they read, and also touched on the topic of animal testing and its alternatives.

There was also great news from the U13s Netball Team, who won the Bolton Schools' Netball Tournament last week! They did extremely well throughout the tournament, winning all of their matches with impressive scores, and defeating Westhoughton in the final with 9 goals to 2.

Last weekend, the Junior Boys' String Quartet took part in Ramsbottom Music Festival. The four boys did really well and won their section - a very impressive achievement!

The Junior Boys also recently enjoyed the Confucius Institute New Year Gala Concert at the Royal Northern College of Music. This was an amazing opportunity for the boys to see some amazing Chinese dances and costumes - and even try their hand at activities such as Kung Fu training and rug spinning!

In SPACE this week, the Year 9 boys were inspired by a Careers Carousel featuring three Boys' Division alumni, Girls' Division teacher Mr Challinor, and Lieutenant Amy Orley from the Royal Navy! The event gave the boys a flavour of a wide variety of different careers, and hearing from the Old Boys really helped to show them just how much is possible for their own futures.

Meanwhile the Year 8 boys learned more about the legacy of Lord Leverhulme, the School's benefactor who was instrumental in creating the Bolton School Foundation that this year celebrates its 100th anniversary. This fascinating talk gave them an insight into Lord Leverhulme's life as well as explaining his close links with the School.

A recording of the whole school Gala Concert at the Bridgewater Hall is now available to view online! Click on the following links to view: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four.

The Bolton School P.E. Programme in partnership with Total Gymnastics arranged for Olympic medallist Beth Tweddle to visit Prestolee Primary School this week! The visit was the final event in an eight-week programme of gymnastics at Prestolee, and was part of the School’s work to help schools across the region to provide high quality P.E. activities.

The U12 Football Team have enjoyed double success this week, winning both the Bolton Town Cup and the MGS 9s Plate! The boys played very well in both competitions, beating tough competition and making it through the final to emerge victorious. This is a significant achievement for a team that has come a long way over the course of the year.

The Boys' Division also hosted the annual Rugby Sevens Tournament on Thursday. Despite Bolton School teams making it to the quarter-final stages of both the Cup and the Plate competitions, the opposition proved too strong this year. AKS took home the Cup, while Merchant Taylors won the Plate.

Local Year 5 pupils were buzzing to take part in Bolton School's Spelling Bee on Friday. Twenty children from ten local primary schools took part, and children had just one minute to correctly spell as many words as they could from a list of 150, with the winner taking home a certificate and a book token worth £20!

Pupils really enjoyed the partial solar eclipse! In the Girls' and Boys' Division Senior and Junior schools, pupils took part in viewing the eclipse in a variety of different ways. Many pupils watched a live stream on their iPads or on interactive whiteboards in their classrooms, while some were allowed outside to use their eclipse viewer glasses, pinhole cameras and iPads to view the eclipse themselves. Bolton Astronomical Society were invited to set up their equipment at School and allowed pupils to look through their telescopes, which had been fitted with special solar filters for the occasion. In partnership with the Ogden Trust, the School was able to set up the Ogden Trust's Hydrogen Alpha Solar Telescope on the roof of the Turret Library to get the best possible view to record this special event!

13 March 2015

Bolton School kicked off the 100/500 anniversary celebrations this week with a fantastic evening of music at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall! The whole school Gala Concert was certainly an occasion to remember, with pupils of all ages - from Beech House Infants School to the Sixth Form - taking to the stage to sing, play music and even dance in front of the audience.

In further good news this week, the School has shown its dominance in Water Polo, with both the U16 and U18 teams returning as National Champions after excellent performances last weekend! Coaches Mr McGinty and Dr Yates were both extremely proud of all the boys, and particularly the U18 team who also won the same tournament last year with an identical roster.

The Bolton School Bake Off is now under way! Boys' and Girls' Division pupils have been invited to pit their baking talents against one another in this year's competition, for the change to win a prize donated by Unilever. The standards are already high even at this early stage of the competition, which will make it very difficult to choose the final four and the overall winner.

The Year 10 girls' efforts in the Christmas Post raised over £1000, and representatives from the year group were able to present the cheque for the full total to Contact the Elderly during morning assembly. Gwen Lightfoot, the charity's Development Officer for the area, was delighted with their efforts and thanked the girls for their generosity.

The Girls' Division musicians have recently been busy with preparations for the Gala Concert, but nonetheless made time to take part in the annual Music Festival. This wrapped up with a great Celebration Concert at which the winner from each age group and instrument section played in front of an audience.

The annual careers event for Year 12 pupils was a huge success, with the School welcoming back ten alumni to give presentations on the World of Work. After a great keynote speech given by Charlie Ball from Graduate Prospects, the students divided into smaller groups to attend four of the twenty talks on offer throughout the morning.

There has been a great deal of sporting news in the past week. Two Sixth Form boys have been selected for the Lancashire U17s Rugby squad. Matthew Woodward and Harry Stocks both hope that this will be the first step towards a future career in the sport.

A group of ten girls were recently selected to play for the Lancashire U13s squad - an exciting prospect for the Year 7 and 8 girls! They took part in the Northern Counties tournament and acquitted themselves very well.

Recently Year 8 pupil Zoe Grainger took part in ROCfest, a national climbing competition held in Manchester. She made it all the way to the final for her age group, and came a very respectable sixth place. She took part in the event alongside climbers from across UK, including several who have competed for the UK in international competitions.

In the Boys' Division, the First XI Footballers took second place in the ISFA Northern Eights competition last weekend. They were narrowly defeated on penalties in the hotly contested final.

The girls on the U14 Netball team recently came second in the Bolton Schools' Netball Tournament. The standard of play was very high throughout the competition, and despite losing by a narrow margin it was great to see the girls do so well in the final.

Last week, the Junior Boys' football team took part in the Regional Final of the Football League Trust Kids' Cup, representing Bolton Wanderers. Although they did not make it through to the next stage, the boys should be very proud of their excellent performance on the day. They were very evenly matched throughout the competition and were beaten on penalties by a very narrow margin.

Members of the Senior Football team are now looking forward to their Madrid Tour over the Easter holidays! They will have the opportunity to train at the Real Madrid CF Academy as well as playing matches against local teams.

Finally, younger members of the School's community took part in a variety of Red Nose Day activities to support Comic Relief on Friday. Children at Beech House Infants' School attended the school day dressed in pyjamas and onesies - with a few red noses and head boppers on display as well - in exchange for a small donation.

Meanwhile, at the Junior Boys' School, pupils made their faces funny for money, providing much amusement for teachers and classmates!

The School's Nursery also got involved with the action: children come along in red clothing for the day and had their faces painted. Many members of staff also joined in, wearing funky costumes or Red Nose Day t-shirts, as well as donning red noses! The Nursery Class dressed up in animal-themed onesies and held a charity market to raise even more for the charity.

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.