23rd November 2012

Year 13 pupils took over the running of Bolton School for the day as part of the Children's Commissioner’s Children and Young People’s Takeover Day 2012. Students took on staff roles in all areas of the school from the Headmistress and teachers, through to pastoral roles, technical support and administrative roles. Taking part in the day allowed the students to develop time management, flexibility, organisation, initiative, problem solving, motivating others, and interpersonal skills. Outside of School, year 11 pupil Paul Greenhalgh became Mayor of Bolton for the day as part of the Take Over Day. Paul was chosen from scores of applicants in a competition to shadow on his civic engagements on the day.

In sport, the Girls’ Senior U18 relay team won the Medley Relay at the prestigious Northern Schools' John Parry Relays and also came second in the Freestyle Relay. Not to be outdone, the Boys senior team mirrored the result exactly with a win in the Medley relay and second in the Freestyle! Nineteen girls from Years 8 to 13 at Bolton School Girls' Division have been selected for the U15 and U18 Lancashire lacrosse squads. The girls trialled and have been selected to compete in the Northern Counties Tournament against Yorkshire, Cheshire and Shropshire. And year 12 pupil Jenny Heyes has been selected as a Youth Sport Trust Young Ambassador for school sport. Jenny’s role will be to inspire and motivate younger pupils to embrace sport at Bolton School.

As part of National Interfaith Week, the Girls’ Division RS department held a university lecture on the issue of interfaith relations by Dr Mel Prideaux from the University of Leeds. The lecture was open to sixth form students from both the Girls’ and the Boys’ Divisions with an interest in the politics of the role of religion in modern society.

Dickens the guide dog puppy visited the Girls’ Division this week, much to the delight of the pupils who raised £2,500 to sponsor his training. The guide dog’s name had been inspired by Dickens Day, which was held earlier in the year at the School, when 739 pupils set a new Guinness World Record by wearing Dickensian dress in celebration of the bicentenary of Dickens’ birth. This is the second guide dog that the Girls' Division has sponsored and the School is now eagerly raising further funds in order to sponsor a third puppy dog, which no other school in the North-West has thus far done.

And Beech House children (and their parents) offered over 200 boxes of toys and Christmas gifts to the Rotary Club which will go to deprived Romanian children - for many, the first present that they have ever received.