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.

July 2012

The Summer Term finished in style at Bolton School as over 350 pupils and staff took part in a colourful and spectacular world-record breaking African dance in the School's Centre Quad, sealing a day of fundraising activities. Meanwhile in Africa, Maasai warriors also danced at the same time and each event was relayed on a giant outdoor screen via a Skype link-up. The event was part of a whole day of fundraising activities - including a 10 mile walk to Rivington Pike - for the LivLife charity which provides free education and vocational opportunities to children and adults in Tanzania. And retiring Boys' Division Captain Nick Fairclough and new Head Girl, Heather Harrison, "cut the first sod" as work began on the construction of a new £7m Sixth Form Centre in the heart of the Bolton School campus. Staff from across the campus gathered to watch the symbolic cutting of the turf on the last day of term and work is now well underway on the new centre, which will be ready for Sixth Formers in September 2013.

It’s never a dull moment even during the holidays as Strictly Come Dancing star, Brendan Cole, visited the School to teach Bolton children some of his famous moves. Brendan’s visit was part of The Brendan Cole Dance Academy which took place in the Arts Centre. Students experienced professional choreography with head coach Chris Wilson and sessions include a steps workshop, routine building, an end of course performance and, of course, the question and answer session with Brendan.

While at 08:12 on 27th July, a group of Bolton School girls joined thousands of people across the UK to ring in the first day of the London 2012 Olympic Games in the national event ‘All the Bells’. The event was a London 2012 Festival commission by Turner Prize winning artist and musician Martin Creed, entitled ‘Work No. 1197: All the bells in a country rung as quickly and as loudly as possible for three minutes.’ This could be any sort of bell, by anyone, anywhere. The tower at Deane Parish Church took up the challenge and invited girls from Bolton School to take part.

6th July 2012

Year 10 pupils at Bolton School Girls' Division took part in two days of off timetable activities in a 'Getting Ready for Sixth Form Life' event. One highlight for the girls was a 'Commando Joe's' session where they took part in military-type exercises including an assault course, circuits, team relays and games. The girls took part in sessions entitled 'Young Thinkers', 'Young Citizens' and 'Young Consumers', and were given Sixth Form taster lessons. They also held their very own mini version of 'The Young Apprentice' complete with teachers in the roles of Sir Alan Sugar and his associates! The day encouraged transferrable skills such as team working, communication and leadership. Also in Girls’ Division, many pupils have had their work published in an anthology of short stories, after coming second in a 'Young Writers' competition for Greater Manchester and Lancashire. The competition was entitled Mini Sagas - Creative Capers (the title of the book), and girls from Years 7 to 9 each wrote a 'Mini Saga' to enter. The short stories were limited to just 50 words meaning the girls had quite a challenge on their hands.

Pupils from Hesketh House have won the Bolton Primary School Chess League for the first time. The girls finished top, above Edgworth Primary and High Lawn Primary, winners over the last two years. Their team includes a number of younger players, demonstrating a great deal of chess talent. While the Junior Boys have won the AJIS Cricket cup for the second consecutive year. After a hard fought semi-final, the boys beat Birkenhead in the final to take the trophy.

Sixth Form students from the Girls' Division attended a talk by HMPS North West Lead Psychologist, Carol Bond, aimed at giving them a better understanding of the negotiation skills needed to cope in a hostage situation. Carol spoke about the definition of hostage situations, their management and the psychological approach to resolutions, including 'what not to say and why'. Year 8 pupil George Blackwell is one of two Bolton School boys who have had their work published in the latest edition of Local History magazine. He and Alex Walmsley, from Year 13, wrote articles for The Historacle - the Boys' Division History magazine - which were then selected by the editor of Local History. George's article described how a distant relative, Margaret Blackwell, was able to survive the outbreak of bubonic plague in Eyam, Derbyshire, in 1665. Inspired by his Duke of Edinburgh Expedition to the Lake District, Alex chose to investigate the origins of the village of Buttermere.

And local Primary Schools were in School once again, this time for a Science Festival aimed at inspiring young minds. The festival provided an opportunity for gifted young pupils from Year 5 to make use of Bolton School's laboratories and resources and to absorb themselves in Science for the day. Local schools entered teams of four who spent the morning in the Biology, Chemistry and Physics laboratories undertaking a number of challenging practical activities, assisted by their own "Science Buddies" - pupils from the Girls' Division and Boys' Division. The pupils got to take part in forensic science activities including blood testing, fingerprinting, chemical analysis of soil samples, chromatography and microscopic fibre examination. They constructed marble runs taking the laws of Physics into account, and undertook a number of fun experiments involving chemical reactions and hydrogen explosions! In the afternoon, pupils were amazed by Richard Robinson's science show 'Life, the Universe and Everything', followed by an awards ceremony to recognise their efforts throughout the day. Each pupil was presented with a certificate, and each school received a copy of '100 Science Experiments' to take away with them.

29th June 2012

Old Boy and Sports Editor at the Sunday Mirror, David Walker returned to Bolton School to pass on his words of wisdom about the industry, and to inspire the next generation of journalists. David led a discussion with Year 10 pupils about careers in the Media and spoke to smaller groups of Year 11 pupils with an interest in pursuing a career in Journalism. The boys asked David questions about his career choice, and how he got to where he is today. David’s overriding piece of advice for the boys was to just go for whatever they want, believe in themselves and persist – a message David passed on to all the pupils at the Boys’ Prizegiving later that evening where he was the guest speaker.

In sport, our cricketers have been named the U-15 Lancashire County Champions, after finals day of the County Cup 20/20 competition held at Vernon Carus C.C in Preston. The boys overcame Merchant Taylors in the semi final, to face MGS in the final which they won 155 for 3. To make it to finals day, Bolton School overcome Lancaster at the quarter final stage and Parklands, St James, and Little Lever in previous rounds. It was a double success for the School in the annual Northern Schools Tennis event as our boys claimed both U12 and U14 Champion titles. Pupils from Hesketh House competed in the National Swimming Championships, taking on twenty four teams from all areas of the country. The girls had qualified to swim in both the Freestyle Relay and the Medley Relay by recording very good times in the preliminary round earlier in the year, and travelled to Ponds Forge Pool in Sheffield to compete. Both teams made it to the final and the Medley team swimmers were placed 5th .

Year 11 and 13 students from Bolton School Boys' and Girls' Division have been showing their art work at the Best of Bolton Art and Design Showcase, hosted by the University of Bolton. The exhibition featured the best work from pupils from Secondary Schools across the Borough, and Bolton School Year 13 pupil Claire Manley won the Best Fine Art prize.

The Olympic waiting game is over for former Bolton School pupil and Water Polo International Ed Scott, as it is confirmed that he will be a member of Team GB at London 2012. Ed has been selected as the first choice goalkeeper for the thirteen strong GB squad. And further news of former pupils as eight students who left last year are close to completing their Gold Duke of Edinburgh award, after completing a coast to coast canoe trip from Fort William to Inverness!

22nd June 2012

Pupils from 14 primary schools from across the region took part in this year's Bolton School Sports Festival. The annual event, now in its ninth year, saw teams competing in a variety of sporting challenges. Pupils took part in a wide range of events to test their sporting skills, including a rugby challenge and penalty shoot-out as well as having their golf, hockey, tennis, athletics and cricket skills tested. This year the overall winner was St Thomas Chequerbent with the runner up places going to Ladybridge and Claypool. Primary pupils were also in School this week for a ‘Taster Day’ for Year 5’s. Lots of boys and girls enjoyed having a look around and even got the chance to take part in lessons, while their parents were given tours of the School. The Senior Girls' Division will also open its doors to Year 5 girls, their parents and friends after school on Monday for ‘Discovery Day’. There will be a treasure hunt trail around the School with various departments offering short, challenging activities, and staff will be on hand to speak to parents and answer any queries. If you would like to attend this event, please telephone the Headmistress's secretary on 01204 840201 or email seniorgirls@boltonschool.org.

Bolton School U15 cricket team has reached the County Cup Cricket 20/20 Finals Day, after beating Lancaster by 45 runs at the quarter final stage with 131 runs for 5 wickets in their 20 overs. The day will involve 2 semi-finals in the morning and a final and third place match in the afternoon. And Bolton School boys also put in an impressive performance in the Regional Final of the English Schools Athletics Cup, winning the B final by a huge 40 points. The boys qualified for the North-West B final after finishing third in the first round, against schools from Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire and Cumbria.

Year 6 Girls at Hesketh House have been busy working on short interpretations of Shakespeare's tragedy, 'Romeo and Juliet', to showcase in front of their parents in an evening performance. After studying and exploring the play, pupils challenged their own thinking and skills of interpretation to produce short devised pieces. Year 9 girls had the chance to peek inside the 'criminal mind' with a fascinating talk from Psychology teacher John Radcliffe, as part of the school's gifted and talented lecture programme. The lecture gave the girls a taster into the world of Psychology and they got to take on the role of a Criminal Psychologist when they were given a scenario and had to use criminal profiling techniques to guess who the murderer was. While a group of Sixth Form girls visited Manchester University where they discovered how Maths is used in 'real life'. The morning began with a lecture on the subject, before girls split into groups to work on a mini research project for the rest of the day.

15th June 2012

Bolton Wanderers' football captain, Kevin Davies, was the guest of honour at Bolton School's Community Action Celebration Evening and he was fulsome in his praise of the Sixth Form students' work in the local community. He congratulated the girls and boys on their efforts and spoke about his own charity, KiDs of Bolton, and how it has raised over £200,000 through a number of prestigious golf days and a masquerade ball. Over the course of the academic year, the Year 12 students gave almost 12,000 hours of their time to voluntary work. This is the equivalent of one person working full-time for 7 years. Earlier in the evening, they spoke about their individual experiences of helping others. Every student was encouraged to volunteer a minimum of 20 hours' work in the community but most had done much more than this and many were acknowledged with "Gold" certificates for having committed more than 100 hours of their time. Some pupils had completed several hundred hours with Sarah Rashid having given a staggering 543 hours of her time!

Bolton School hosted a Technology Festival for local Year 4 primary school pupils, providing an opportunity for them to make use of the School's technology facilities and to absorb themselves in the subject for the day. Ten local Primary Schools each brought along four Gifted and Talented year 4 pupils, who got the chance to spend a whole day focusing on technology and to experience activities in different technology areas. The day had a carnival theme - in Resistant Materials the pupils produced plastic masks which they each decorated in their own way, in Textiles they made colourful headdresses decorated with printed fabrics, and in Food Technology they made their own scone based pizzas with a variety of toppings. At the end of the day certificates were awarded to all pupils for taking part. This is the second year the Technology festival has been held, part of the series of annual events in different subjects that the School coordinates for primary school boys and girls to attend, including festivals in Science, Maths, Languages and Sport.

And pupils at Hesketh House dedicated a whole day to jubilee celebrations. The day consisted of a House Meeting where pupils researched and designed their own Jubilee plates, designed Royal Stamps and found out interesting facts about the Royal Family. The girls dressed in Royal themed costumes and the Hall was transformed into a medieval Banqueting Hall for a Royal feast, opened by a traditional fanfare by Tiggy Blackwell.

8th June 2012

Over 1,000 flag-waving pupils, parents, staff and friends of Bolton School were on hand to cheer on the Olympic torch as it passed the School at 6.21am on the 1st of June! The joint jazz band ensured everyone was wide awake by the time the procession made its way down Chorley New Road. Nathan Zimmerling completed the leg that passed Bolton School, passing the flame to Anjali Shah who, in turn, passed it to Old Girl of the School, Rachel Flanders. During her time at the School, Rachel, aged just 17 at the time, became the youngest person ever to row across the Atlantic Ocean. After completing her run, Rachel brought the torch into School and showed it to excited pupils and staff at a celebration breakfast. This was Rachel’s second visit to the School in one week as along with other successful Old Girls, she returned to school to share experiences with current Year 8 pupils on Careers Day. The Old Girls ran sessions on the career paths they have chosen, offering tips and advice.

A team of Year 9 boys are the winners of the National IOP Exoplanet Project. The boys impressed judges with their video proposal based on the topic of Astronomy - each received £15 of iTunes vouchers and the Physics department received a Sony Bloggie camcorder. Another team of Bolton School boys also found success this time as runners up in the National Final of the Toyota Technology Challenge with their robot called 'Edge-Hog.

Year 13 student James Roberts captained the England Cerebral Palsy Development Football Squad at the 2012 Cerebral Palsy Home Nations Championships, and led them to Victory! James' England squad won the tournament, finishing undefeated against Northern Ireland and Scotland with two convincing victories. In Girls’ Sport, Year 9 pupil Nalisha Patel has been selected for the Lancashire County Cricket Women's first team, an amazing achievement for her age! Nalisha is the youngest player in the squad which usually ranges from age 17 upwards. She can now be selected for group matches against other county teams which will lead to a semi final and then a final. While Year 10 pupil, Larissa King, has been selected to dance in the National Youth Ballet's Jubilee performance at Sadler's Well in the summer.

The new Bolton School flagpole has officially been launched, celebrating 100 years of flying flags from our Chorley New Road campus. The new flagpole sits proudly atop the iconic turret towers of the Centre Arch 100 after the first flag flew in celebration of the baronetcy of William Hesketh Lever, the benefactor of Bolton School. When the Olympic torch passed the school, the Paralympic flag was flown in celebration of Old Boy and President of the International Paralympic Committee, Sir Phillip Craven. Over the Bank Holiday weekend, the Union Flag flew for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee – which was celebrated in style by Bolton School pupils holding a Park Road picnic on the school field and a Royal Tea Party over at Beech House Infants.