1st February 2013

Dr Elizabeth Sidwell CBE, the Schools’ Commissioner who is charged with raising standards and leading the expansion of the Government’s academy schools programme, visited Bolton School this week after receiving an invitation from the Headmaster of the Boys’ Division, Mr Philip Britton. Mr Britton, having met Dr Sidwell at a number of conferences, decided to offer her a personal invite in order that she could learn firsthand about the many ways that the School engages with local schools. Some independent schools have chosen to sponsor a local academy but Bolton School has pursued a policy of engaging with as many different schools in the area in as many different ways as possible. Pupils and staff at Bolton School were joined by teachers and children from a number of local schools to give a series of short presentations demonstrating the wide range of local partnerships.

Girls and boys also enjoyed a visit from the High Sheriff of Greater Manchester this week. There was a large lunchtime gathering in the Boys’ Division Great Hall as historians, school academic societies and interested parties of all ages assembled to hear George Almond CBE, the current presiding Sheriff, relate a history of the position and explain his role in today’s world.

Successful children’s author Joe Craig came in to Bolton School to talk to pupils in both the Boys’ and Girls’ Divisions about life as a writer. Joe spoke to the Year 7 girls and boys about how he became a writer and the process he goes through to write his books. Joe is best known for the Jimmy Coates series of books, described in several reviews as 'The Bourne Identity for kids'. He explained to the pupils how to turn an idea for a story into an actual book and gave them some valuable tips on becoming an author including what the vital components for a story are and even how to plan a story in ten minutes. At the end of each talk Joe’s books were available to buy and he even signed them for the pupils.

And Year 10 pupils in the Girls’ Division presented a cheque for over £1,200 to the North West Air Ambulance charity, raised through their annual Christmas Post Charity Event. The money was raised over four days at the end of last term, starting with a special assembly where each form group performed a ten minute themed assembly to generate interest in the fundraising efforts they intend to carry out over the following days. Girls chose topical themes such as 'I'm a Celebrity' and 'X Factor' for their presentations, to encourage other students to support them in their fundraising which includes selling cakes and sweets. A representative of the NWAA came into school to receive the cheque from the girls.

25 January 2013

In the government’s latest league table of schools by English Baccalaureate (EBacc) results, Bolton School Girls’ Division has been ranked as the top performing secondary school in the North of England and the Boys’ Division was ranked as fourth best in the North of England. Nationally, the Girls’ Division is ranked as 27th best school in the country. The EBacc qualification is awarded to pupils who achieve a GCSE in the so-called “traditional” subjects of English, Maths, two Sciences, a language and either History or Geography. In the government league table ranking of secondary schools by the percentage of pupils achieving 5 A*-C grades, including English and Mathematics, Bolton School Boys’ Division has placed top in the borough. Ninety nine per cent of the 137 boys who received their GCSE results in the summer of 2012 achieved this benchmark. The Girls’ Division was ranked 2nd in the borough with 97% of their pupils making the grade. The boys’ results mean the school has also outperformed all other schools in the surrounding regions of Bury, Blackburn, Blackpool, Oldham, Rochdale, Warrington, Wigan and Salford. And yet more academic success as eleven of our Sixth Form students have received offers to study at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge from this Autumn.

Congratulations go to Bolton school 1st XV rugby captain Nathan Stansfield who has been selected for the national Independent Schools side, The Lambs. Nathan won through a tough selection process after he represented the Northern Independent Schools side. The first match for The Lambs is this weekend against Irish Exiles at Maidstone. And our Junior Boys also did the School proud at the AJIS cross country Championships at Rossall School with the year 6s finishing in first place and the year 5s just outside the top three.

Year 9 Girls’ Division pupil Johanna Mercer has had her first book ‘Demon Rose’ published in the Amazon Kindle store. It is now available for readers to buy from the website. While Boys’ Division year 9 pupil, Sam Hassall is starring in new CBBC show Junior Vets, after being chosen from more than 1000 applicants. The 10 episode series gives six ordinary schoolchildren the chance to become the first juniors to enrol at Edinburgh University’s Vet School. Watch Sam in the next episode on CCBC at 5.45pm on Monday.

18th January 2013

Despite the wintery weather this week, hundreds of children made the trip to Bolton School for our entrance exam, standards were high and it was great to welcome so many talented youngsters.

An upcoming exhibition at Bolton Museum is set to feature the life and work of Constance Howarth, a former pupil of our School in the 1940s. Constance was a successful fashion designer in the 1950’s with her designs attracting attention from the fashionistas of London, Paris and New York. The exhibition, dedicated to her memory, will run from Saturday 26 January to Sunday 7 April, showcasing Constance’s sketches, designs and dresses from the 1950s onwards, so go along and take a look if you can.

And Year 10 pupil Sarah Ibberson has been raising money for the LivLife charity by busking in the Lake District. Sarah took it upon herself to give up her time and play her saxophone outside the Booths Store in Windermere over two weekends before Christmas. She played Christmas carols to the shoppers for a total of around 12 hours and managed to raise £667. Sarah chose to LivLife to support her classmates who are going out to Tanzania in the summer to see first hand the work the charity does and to offer a helping hand.

11th January 2013

Just a week into the new term staff and pupils are very quickly getting back into the swing of things at Bolton School.

Not long to go now until our Entrance Exam on Thursday (17th January). We have received very strong numbers of applications this year but there is still time to apply. Contact 01204 840201 and ask to speak to the secretary of the School your child would like to attend.

Good news as Bolton School is one of only a handful of schools in the North of England to be placed in a national league table of independent schools published by The Independent newspaper. In the table of schools ranked by students' A level results in 2011-12, the Girls’ Division was positioned at 47th and the Boys’ Division at 51st in the newspaper's Top 100 Independent Schools' ranking.

Year 13 pupil Erin Taylor is celebrating success in a prestigious northern writing competition. Erin won the poetry category of the Portico Prize for Young Writers, while two other Bolton School pupils, Annie Simon and Georgia Thurston, were Highly Commended. The regional literary competition is for promising writers, mirroring the prestigious adult competition, the Portico Prize for Literature, and celebrating the region through its young writers. The girls had to produce a piece of poetry or prose on the theme ‘The North’. Erin’s winning poem was entitled ‘Stockton Heath’.

And Bolton School Old Boy, Toryn Dalton, has been cited as a co-author on a recently published Science research paper as a result of his work during an Ogden Trust internship. Toryn was an Ogden intern at the University of Durham last summer working with Dr Ifan Hughes and Lee Weller on the ‘Slow Light project’ and the recently published research paper, ‘Measuring the Stokes parameters for light transmitted by a high-density rubidium vapour in large magnetic fields’.

14th December 2012

It was a reunion with a difference as representative Head Girls and School Captains of Bolton School gathered on Wednesday to lay the Foundation Stone for the new £7m Sixth Form Centre. The building, which will be ready for occupation at the start of the Autumn Term of 2013, has received substantial funding from alumni of the School and will be named after the campaign’s lead benefactor, Ian Riley, an Old Boy who was a pupil from 1974-1981.

2008 Apprentice finalist Claire Young also returned to Bolton School this week for Business Challenge Day, to help judge the preliminary round of the annual KPMG Enterprise Trophy. For the first time, the Business Challenge was joint between the Girls’ and Boys’ Divisions. In teams, pupils developed their own business ideas and delivered a ten minute Dragon’s Den style presentation to a panel of judges. The best four teams were chosen to compete for the KPMG Enterprise Trophy in the Spring Term.

And there were yet more visitors to the School this week as our pupils were joined by pupils from other local schools for a Royal Society of Chemistry Christmas Lecture entitled 'How Chemistry Works: colour, explosions and wonder'. Alan Goodwin, former Head of Sciences Teacher Education at Manchester Metropolitan University, demonstrated how chemistry makes sense of the world around us, through a series of fun and explosive chemical experiments.

While Max Griffiths, co-founder of the LivLive charity, returned to his old school to pick up a cheque for a massive £11,463.03 and to thank the pupils and staff of Bolton School for their enormous fundraising efforts earlier in the year. Just prior to the summer holiday, the whole school, which totals over 2,300 pupils, came together to raise funds for the LivLife Foundation which offers free and relevant education and vocational opportunities in Tanzania for children and adults. Further charity efforts saw year 7 pupils in the Girls’ Division donating hundreds of brand new toys and gifts to Cash for Kids and Key 103’s Mission Xmas. The girls raised the money through a sponsored silence last month and then went on a trolley dash around Toys R Us in Bolton to spend the money on toys for less fortunate children.

Girls' Division pupil Vasudha Marthi has been asked to join the National Children's Orchestra. Vasudha has been offered a full membership place for a 12 month period in the Under 13 Orchestra - a full symphony orchestra offering children their first taste of performing in a major UK concert venue. And the Junior Boys held their Christmas Carol Concert this week, filling the Great Hall with a host of festive music and song.

7th December 2012

The Year 9 Masterchef has been crowned, and the winner is Melissa Cordingley who won the judges over with her banana and walnut cake with toffee sauce. The final cook off between finalists Melissa, and fellow pupil Charlotte Winrow was a close fought battle with amazing food being produced by both girls, as each one cooked her 'signature dish'. Charlotte made a portobello mushroom and black pudding stack with cabbage and bacon, while Melissa opted for the banana and walnut cake. Down to just two girls the pressure was on as the girls had to cook their dishes in front of a live audience of pupils and staff.

Well done to several of our sixth form girls and staff who completed a ‘Santa Dash’ 5km run dressed as Santa in order to raise sponsorship money for a variety of charities. Eight and a half thousand people gathered from all over the UK to participate as Liverpool took on Las Vegas once again, for the ‘Largest Santa Gathering’ in a bid to win the World Santa Dash Challenge.

There were more Christmas festivities over at Hesketh House with their Christmas Concert this week. Dressed in winter woollies, the girls performed a number of readings, poems and musical items all about Christmas, in front of an audience of their family and friends.

Year 8 girls took part in a Crime Squad course this week as part of their enrichment at school. Girls worked in teams on a variety of activities, including decoding and defusing an explosive device, investigating a crime scene and examining forensic evidence, and solving a murder mystery using powers of deduction. The Crime Squad course was run by the company ‘Wiser Words’, who specialise in master classes and enrichment days for students.

And in sport, the Under 13 water polo team celebrated winning the prestigious 'President Trophy' tournament, triumphing over three other top class teams from all over the country - King Edward School, Birmingham, Kings School, Grantham, and Warwick School.

5th December 2012

Bolton Wanderers Football Club is to collaborate with Bolton School Boys’ Division to launch a new two-year international sports course. The programme will allow 16 year old students from around the world to move to Bolton to spend 3 days a week experiencing elite football training and 2 days a week studying A-levels in PE and Business Studies at Bolton School. Participants will live with a local host family and experience total immersion within a professional football club, while mixing with Bolton School Sixth Form boys as they join tutor groups and make full use of the school’s new state-of-the-art Sixth Form Centre, which will open in September 2013.

Children at Beech House have shown their generosity by going through their own toy collections to find things less fortunate boys and girls might enjoy this Christmas. Representatives from Bolton Lions Club were delighted at the quality and quantity of toys that had been collected at the Infant School this year. While Girls’ Division pupils have been helping to prepare shoeboxes of Christmas gifts for needy children as part of Operation Christmas Child - the world's largest children's Christmas appeal. And Movember came to an end for teachers in the Boys' Division who joined the global campaign to raise awareness about men's health. The teachers were sponsored by friends, family and pupils to grow their moustaches and hope to raise over £200.

Able and talented pupils from local primary schools enjoyed a day absorbed in the Classics at Bolton School this week. Year 6 girls and boys took part in a series of workshops in both the Girls’ Division and the Boys’ Division in which they learnt about Roman warfare, Roman and Greek theatre and their Gods and myths. Seven pupils from Years 9, 10 and 11 from the Girls’ Division achieved highly at a Model United Nations competition held at Stockport Grammar School, where they represented the countries of Pakistan and South Africa. And Year 9 pupil, Jack Virgin, is the first pupil from the School to be awarded a Silver medal in the national Junior Mathematical Olympiad (JMO) - placing him well within the top 100 pupils out of the quarter of a million participants.

The two finalists for next week’s Bolton School Girls’ Division MasterChef Live Cook Off Grand Final have been announced as Melissa Cordingly and Charlotte Winrow, after a keenly contested semi-final where contestants were charged with preparing a wedding dessert.

And Bolton School is playing a starring role in the BBC's drama Last Tango in Halifax. The Boys' Division Great Hall, several classrooms and offices as well as corridors were used to represent a quality school in the filming of the romantic comedy series which stars Sarah Lancashire as Headmistress of a school. The series can be seen on Tuesdays at 9.00pm on BBC1.