August 2012

Pupils, staff and parents celebrated an excellent set of GCSE results at Bolton School. In the Girls’ Division, there were many individual success stories with 13 girls obtaining a full set of 11 A* grades; a further 3 girls obtained 10 A*s, 4 girls obtained 9A*s and 2 girls obtained 8A*s. All in all, 44 girls out of 110 got only A* and A grades. In the Boys' Division 26.1% of all papers were graded A*, 60.1% were graded A*-A and 85.4% were graded A*-B. Two boys achieved 10 A*s. A further eight boys attained at least 9 A*s. 100% of boys reached the government's benchmark of 5 A*-C passes, including English and Maths.

This follows the success of our Sixth Form students who performed outstandingly well in this year’s A levels with the overall results being almost identical! The percentage of passes at A* or A was 52.4% in both the Girls’ Division and the Boys’ Division. The Girls’ Division saw 79.4% of grades at A*-B whilst the Boys’ Division recorded a pass rate of 74.8% at A*-B. The percentage of passes at A* was very high across both divisions - 17.4% in the Boys’ Division and 16.2% in the Girls’ Division. Overall, the Girls’ Division achieved a pass rate of 99.1% and the Boys’ Division a pass rate of 99%. Well done to all!

Staff from Bolton School Nursery finished in 6th place in the Salford Quays Dragon Boat Challenge! The challenge was between charities ‘Child Flight’ and ‘When You Wish Upon a Star’ and Claire Thompson, Amanda Twigley, Sandra Woodbridge, Tracey Cairns and Catherine Manville were part of a team racing for ‘When You Wish Upon a Star’. Out of 29 teams they made the final and not only came away with 6th place raising lots of money for the charity, they also became the Mixed Champions of 2012, receiving medals and a trophy.

And young cricketers got the chance to meet their hero when Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff paid a visit to Bolton School. Freddie's visit was part of a one-week Cricket Academy for local boys and girls, aged 5-16 and of all levels of ability. The week was one of several academies run in conjunction with Activate Sport and the Co-operative, which are taking place across the UK with the aim of inspiring an early interest in cricket. Participants experienced professional coaching and skills sessions, mini-tournaments and, of course, the question and answer session with Freddie.