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.

August 2020

 Despite the challenges of the past several months, students at Bolton School nonetheless celebrated their A Level results. Girls' Division students were congratulated over the phone by their teachers, while the Boys' Division opened its doors for careful, socially distant celebrations in the afternoon of results day. In both Divisions, students achieved a strong set of results and were encouraged to enjoy their moment as much as possible.

Read full details of the results in each school here: Boys' Division and Girls' Division.

The celebrations for GCSE students may well have been virtual, but they were very real as Boys' and Girls' Division students achieved excellence in a tumultuous week of uncertainty. Year 11 pupils in both Divisions achieved a good crop of results via email.

Read full details of the results in each school here: Boys' Division and Girls' Division.

During the summer, two Bolton School pupils have been chosen as part of a national shortlist of 20 students in this year's Political Studies Association (PSA) Blog Competition, held in partnership with the FT and supported by UK Parliament. Congratulations to Zoe Grainger, who collected her A level results this summer, and Lucas Appleby, who is about to start Year 13.

The Bolton branch of the Historical Association has been holding its monthly meetings in the Girls' Division for a number of years. This will be the case once again during the 2020-21 academic year. However, in order to adapt to the ever-changing circumstances surrounding Covid-19, this year the start of the season will be postponed until January 2021. Full details are available here.

July 2020

 Bolton School has been involved in the fight against Covid-19 by helping to provide hospital, NHS and care home staff with vital PPE equipment during the summer term. The Senior Girls' School provided over 550 visors while the Junior Boys have also 3D printed 150 visors and more than 250 visor headbands. Individual pupils have also got involved: a Year 6 boy created and 3D printed 'ear relievers' for use with masks and a Year 8 girl provided inspiration to people around the world when her poem about lockdown went viral. These are just some of the projects that Bolton School has been involved with during lockdown.

The Joint Senior Concert Band put together a socially distanced virtual final performance of the year, which also celebrated the 2020 leavers and thanked them for their contributions to the band. Watch it here or via the play button below: 

In the Girls' Division, the traditional exhibition of A Level and GCSE Artwork was transformed into a digital gallery on the website, to allow students' work to be showcased. The exhibition galleries can be viewed via the following links:

• Year 11 GCSE Work
• Year 12 A Level Work
• Year 13 A Level Work

More end of term events went virtual at the beginning of July as the summer term came to a close. Watch them via the following links:

• Girls' Division Year 7 and 8 Celebration Event
• Junior Girls' Virtual Concerts: Years 5 and 6; Years 3 and 4
• Boys' Division Live Virtual Assembly for Years 10 and 12
• Celebration of the Junior Girls' Year 6 Leavers

Sixth Form student Lizzie Crowther decided to start her own food blog. She started out wanting to document her favourite family recipes before going away to university at the start of the next academic year, but then decided to use her free time during lockdown to learn how to create her own website. Lizzie Likes officially launched at the end of June.

June 2020

Global events in June 2020 brought to the forefront of everyone's mind the issue of systemic racism with Black Lives Matter protests taking place around the world. Bolton School's current pupils, members of staff and alumni were vocal in condemning racism in all its forms and the Foundation committed to undertaking a thorough review of current practices in order to evaluate where changes are necessary. Read the School's statement on Black Lives Matter here.

The Heads also responded to an open letter from a group of Alumni asking that the School consider its educational provision in the light of the Black Lives Matter protests. Read both the response and the Alumni letter here.

As school closures continued, end of term events across the Foundation went virtual.

The Boys' Division Prizegiving became an online assembly, streamed to an audience of pupils, parents and staff members who were encouraged to join in with singing at the appropriate point in the programme. Further musical accompaniments were also part of the ceremony as usual and the Headmaster gave his Review of the Year as well as 'presenting' the awards and prizes. Links to watch all parts of the Prizegiving are available here.

The Senior Boys also held their Arts Award Celebration online. This included a round up of Year 7's work towards their Bronze Awards, followed by the presentation of the usual prizes in a virtual format. There was creative industry input from Old Boys Jonny Ashton, a TV documentary maker, Robin Partington, an architect, famously of the Gherkin, and Mark Radcliffe, TV and radio broadcaster, author and musician. A celebration summary video was also shown as part of the programme.

More Boys' Division virtual assemblies, concerts and celebrations can be viewed via the following links:

• Celebration Assembly: March 31st 2020
• Cups and Colours Assembly: Trailer, Part 1, Part 2
• Monitors List
• Arts Colours Assembly
• Celebration Assembly 20 May 2020: Review of this half term; looking forward to next term 
• Virtual Lunchtime Concert 16 June 2020
• Virtual Summer Concert 23 June 2020
• House Assembly 29 June 2020
• Prizegiving: links here
• Lower School Prizegiving: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
• Community Action Assembly: Part 1, Part 2

The smooth transition to online learning has helped to boost interest in the Infant, Junior Girls' and Junior Boys' Schools towards the end of the academic year. The seamless learning was made all the more effective by the provision of iPads to all pupils aged 7 and above.

Pupils undertaking Gold, Silver and Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Awards were congratulated for giving over 8,800 hours of voluntary service to their local communities between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020. They received certificates and the school's hearty congratulations.

Year 5 pupil Isabelle McCarren has won the national Wombles Eco-Schools Primary Competition with her comic! Pupils across the UK were asked to complete a cartoon strip depicting how litter endangers the countryside and wildlife. Isabelle's drawing was the overall winner and she was even congratulated by Great Uncle Bulgaria himself! She will also have the chance to meet her favourite Womble, Orinoco, next term when he visits the Junior Girls' School with an Eco-Schools team.

Before the summer holidays, the Boys' Division published its 2020-21 Creative Learning Programme. Designed to drive school-wide arts and culture participation as well as broad creative engagement in the local community and region, the programme provides information on enrichment activities within and beyond the curriculum.

Ms Lord, Director of Creative Learning and Partnerships in the Boys’ Division, has been named one of eighteen committed professionals on the Royal Opera House Bridge's national Leaders for Impact programme. She is delighted to be part of this year-long project, which seeks to progress professionals' impact upon cultural learning and practice. Ms Lord is also a Specialist Leader in Cultural Education in the School via Curious Minds.

After twenty seven very successful years, Bolton School's 'in-house' coach service, BSS Coaches, is ceasing to trade. From September, the School will enter into a partnership with Tyrers Coaches to deliver the twenty school coach routes and transportation for many of the school’s other activities will also be provided by third parties.

May 2020

The Junior Boys' Fun Run was a very different affair this year. With schools still closed and the UK in lockdown, the Fun Run went virtual and the boys enthusiastically embraced a new challenge: to walk, cycle, run and hike enough miles to collectively circumnavigate the globe! They followed in the footsteps of Phileas Fogg but attempted to accomplish the feat in just 8 school days, rather than 80. Donations rolled in to JustGiving and by the end of the challenge, the boys had raised over £2,500 for Bolton Hospice.

Throughout the 2019-20 academic year, a small group of Junior Boys in Year 6 have been working on a project to commemorate the 75th anniversary of VE Day. At the start of the year, they interviewed Old Boy and veteran Kenneth Lee and used his experiences of the Second World War as their inspiration. 'Holding the Line' started out as a play but adapted to the restrictions of Lockdown to become an illustrated e-book and audiobook read by the boys themselves.

Listen to the audiobook and see the illustrations here or by pressing the play button below:

April 2020

At the end of March, learning at Bolton School went remote in response to the Covid-19 crisis alongside schools across the nation. Pupils and staff rose to the new challenges and adapted to the 'new normal' across the whole Foundation, from the Infant School, through the Junior and Senior Schools and right through to the Sixth Form. Though not everything went according to plan, there was much success with both teaching and learning.

As the UK lockdown continued over the Easter period, staff in the Girls' Division helped to ease the shortage of PPE in the NHS by laser cutting parts for visors, which were then sent on to local hospitals.

Meanwhile, in the Boys' Division, the to local charity Urban Outreach, which was working to produce food packages for families in need during the crisis. The bees were moved from their usual home in the Boys' Division to DTE teacher Mr Butchart's garden for the duration of lockdown.

Finally, two pieces of news from just before lockdown.

A group of Junior Boys enthusiastically took part in the Bolton Schools’ Dance Festival at Thornleigh College. The theme was the Olympics and the boys thoroughly enjoyed taking part.

Miranda Kestovnikoff's recent visit to Bolton School was one of the last before lockdown. Her talk 'The Sea Around Me' was filled with anecdotes about her time diving in the waters surrounding the UK and her encounters with the amazing creatures found around our coastline.