25th November 2011

Bolton School pupils now have access to Apple iPads which encourage learning through interactive books and apps! The arrival of the iPads this term has excited both pupils and teachers in equal measures as subject teachers from across the academic spectrum of both the Girls' and Boys' Divisions from Art to Psychology to PE to Science are increasingly taking advantage of the devices. Classics students have been taking virtual tours of ancient cities, scanning their way around courtyards, in Psychology pupils can learn about stress and anxiety and in Science they have been dissecting frogs - it seems there is an app for virtually everything! On Thursday this week, our Junior Girls planted a time capsule at the front of their school for future Hesketh House girls and teachers to dig up in 25 years time! The Head Girl and Form Captains helped to bury the lead capsule in the earth at the front of the school, and the capsule also leads those who dig it up to a further box inside the school containing more items, photos and memories of life at the school in 2011.
Several of our Year 8 girls have been making magic by creating their own Harry Potter spells this week! The girls took part in a Classics Harry Potter workshop taken by Post Graduate Student of Classics from the University of Manchester, Aimee Schofield. Aimee explained to the girls how JK Rowling uses Latin within the Harry Potter books before the girls split into small groups to make up their own spells from Latin nouns, verbs and adjectives. Our Year 8 boys took part in the prestigious President's Trophy water polo tournament last weekend and made a great start to the cup by winning the group stages of this national knockout, beating every team along the way! In the semi-final the boys also won convincingly, but unfortunately finished 4-2 to King Edward's in the final.
And Bolton School Boys' Division serves as the backdrop for a new video teaser from Robin Hill. The track, Chill 22, has been released this week by Old Boy Robin to promote his forthcoming new album Standing On Air, due for release in December. Robin Hill is a classical guitarist who has been performing worldwide for over 30 years. He has performed with a wide variety of musicians including Luciano Pavarotti, Lesley Garrett, Russell Watson, Jethro Tull and Deep Purple.

Chill 22 - Robin Hill

Old Boy Robin Hill using the Boys' Division as backdrop to his taster video, Chill 22, promoting his new album, Standing on Air. This video was released on 22 November and the new album is out in December.

18th November 2011

Local schoolchildren from nearby primary schools, Eagley Junior School and St Brendan's RC Primary, joined the pupils of Bolton School to produce a sensational Boys' Division Autumn Concert this week. They were the 25th and 26th local primary schools to take part in the annual concert. They joined Bolton School Year 8 boys and a number of soloists from Years 8-13 in producing an upbeat grand finale to the evening - a Beatles Medley, which included Hard Day's Night, All You Need is Love, Yellow Submarine, When I'm Sixty Four, and Hey Jude - complete with dimmed lights and waving light sticks.
We also welcomed the "world's greatest living Paleoanthropologist", Professor Lee Berger, to the School to deliver his lecture "Out of Africa…in Search of the Missing Link" on Monday. A privileged audience of members from the Bolton Lads and Girls' Club, Warrington Youth Club and the Bolton School community were mesmerised by the story of how, in 2008, he and his curious 9 year old son, Matthew, discovered two remarkably well preserved, two-million-year-old fossils of an adult female and young male, known as Australopithecus sediba.
Nursery Manager Claire Thompson certainly did her bit for Children in Need on Friday by undertaking a particularly difficult Bushtucker Challenge where she had to eat dried caterpillars and crickets washed down with a Salmon Risotto drink! The event was part of Challenge Claire Day where the different age groups set her tasks throughout the day. She undertook everything that was put in front of her, including dressing up as a baby! The children and staff were also all wearing spotted items and there was a cake sale which raised further funds. In the Junior Girls' School further money was raised through a cake sale and painted nails, while the Senior Girls' School held a dress down day to mark the day.
Our Under 14 Rugby League team created history for the town as they beat Haydock High School, St Helens number one seed, in the Carnegie Champion Schools Competition. It is the first time a school from Bolton has competed in Champion Schools RL and to beat a team from a town that is known for Rugby League is a huge achievement for the school. The 22-20 victory means Bolton progress to the Quarter final stage of the County competition - only a few games from Wembley! And good news from the 1st XV rugby team too – they have reached the U18 Lancashire Cup semi-finals for the first time with a fine quarter final win away at St Edwards, Liverpool. The semi final will see Bolton travel away again to the winners of two of our closest rivals Manchester Grammar or Hutton Grammar. Our Junior boys have won the annual North West AJIS Quiz Tournament! There were 10 rounds, all with varying amounts of points to be won, and the boys won with a tie-break question.

11 November 2011

Pupils and teachers at Bolton School have been officially welcomed in to London 2012's Get Set network, in recognition of their commitment to the Olympic and Paralympic Values. The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) awarded the School a plaque and certificate to acknowledge their involvement in the London 2012 education programme, through the emphasis on sport within the school and the work the school does to encourage sport in the local community.
Year 5 girls and boys from seven local primary schools are benefitting from the resources and experience of teaching staff at Bolton School by taking part in the SHINE Project, which kicked off on Saturday. The aim is for children to be challenged and inspired whilst having fun and learning. They study a mix of traditional subjects such as English, Maths and the Sciences but are also introduced to more unusual offerings such as Japanese, Psychology, Ceramics and Drama. This year will also see them enjoying new sessions in Business Studies and Food Technology.
Also this week, the Girls' Division handed over a cheque for £2500 to the Guide Dog for the Blind Association, enabling them to sponsor and name their second guide dog puppy! Girls and staff took part in many fundraising activities to raise the money, and having reached the target to sponsor a second dog, girls will now put forward suggested names for the puppy.
The Girls' Division's Autumn Concert provided a wonderful celebration of music this week, and showcased the depth and breadth of talent within the school. Hundreds of girls took part in the evening and they were ably assisted by Bolton School boys who performed with them in a variety of joint bands and choirs. The evening offered a wide spectrum of styles and genres of music and Headmistress Miss Hincks commended the music staff in bowing to the tastes of the girls by allowing them to perform covers and tributes to the likes of Lady Gaga, Coldplay and Westlife.
And on Friday, special assemblies were held in all our schools to commemorate the Armistice - the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918 ending the First World War. At Hesketh House Year 6 pupils led a special Remembrance Day assembly, based on work they have covered this term in English, learning challenges, music and ICT and was based primarily around the study of the novel, War Game by Michael Foreman. The special assembly used video footage of Paul McCartney's famous song, Pipes of Peace, and John McCrae's evocative poem, In Flanders' Fields, along with pupils' research and music making about the Great War and how Remembrance Day first came into existence.

4th November 2011

Back to school after the half term and over the holiday twenty one Bolton School boys headed off to Malta for a full week of intense swim training! The boys, from Year 8 up to Year 11, were accompanied on the swim tour by PE staff Mr Howard, Mr Windsor and Mr Hughes, who put them through their paces with two 2 hour swim sessions a day. It wasn't all hard work though as the boys still found time to explore the local area and shops, visit the Malta Experience, take a boat tour around Valletta, and watch the premier league football in the movie room! The trip was a great success and will definitely go ahead again in the future. All the boys gained a great amount of fitness and vastly improved on their swimming skills.
Sixteen Bolton School students proudly "graduated" at a ceremony held at Bolton Victoria Hall and hosted by the Lads and Girls' Club on 19 October to mark their completion of the National Citizen Service (NCS) scheme. This new initiative supports the Government's vision for building a Big Society and was open to Year 11 pupils over the summer holidays. It offered pupils the chance to learn some new skills and to make a real difference to their community or an issue which they care about whilst meeting new people. Over a period of three one- week blocks, including two weeks away from home, and 30 hours of service on a part-time basis the students undertook exciting outdoor activities and designed and delivered their own project in the local community.
In Girls’ Division sport, Ellena Owen in Year 11, Emma Donald in Year 12 and Helen Potts in Year 13 have all been selected for the Cheshire County Under 18 netball squad. The girls played their first match for the squad against North West Wales at the weekend and will form part of the team up until the end of the season at Easter. For the Boys, Year 9 cricketer Chris Brownlow has been named as Young Player of the Year by The Cricketer magazine! Chris impressed the magazine with the breadth of cricket he has played across so many age groups, including senior cricket, for school, club, district and county and that he has been able to perform well at all levels. The magazine described Chris as the junior whose all round performances for school, club and county have been most impressive and appearances on the under 16 honours board unstoppable.
And our Junior Girls are already looking forward to the Spring, when they will get to see the fruits of their labour after taking part in the national Big Bulb Plant! Following an afternoon of digging, planting and sowing, the girls will be able to enjoy a colourful display of daffodils and crocus covering the banking in the Spring, whilst the vegetable patches will provide crops to be used by the catering department. The Big Bulb Plant encourages communities around the UK to get together during October or November to plant spring flowering bulbs to brighten up their surroundings, whether it's a school playground or a front garden.

28 October 2011

Half term at Bolton School and what a busy couple of weeks it has been in the run up! Our Open Morning was once again a huge success with many potential pupils and parents visiting the School to find out what we are all about. There was fantastic news for our Catering Department who are officially the best independent school catering team in the country! Catering Manager, Mrs Karen Riley and her colleague Mr Andrew Scialipi-Sullivan, Catering Coordinator, represented the team at a glittering black-tie awards dinner at the 5 star Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, London for the final of the 2011 Educatering Excellence Awards, which saw 350 of school catering's elite gather to decide the final winners of 13 categories. Bolton School overcame stiff competition in the shape of Eton College and Cheadle Hulme School to take the title. Our Grounds team are also in the running for a National Groundsmanship Award! After being short-listed by the Institute of Groundsmanship for the Independent School Award, the team will now be judged on site by the Institute, and if successful will go on to the national awards at the Reebok Stadium in December. An exciting new option for Nursery parents is opening in January 2012 at the School. A new Nursery class for 3 and 4 year olds will be teacher led and open during term-times and will offer a caring, safe and stimulating environment where children are valued, happy and secure. This new educational service will run alongside our highly successful and established preschool unit and together they will offer the highest quality choice for children preparing for their first year at Infant School.

In sport, our U16 Netball team has won the Bolton Schools' Netball Tournament. In a Round Robin competition, the girls were undefeated throughout the tournament, scoring a total of 54 goals whilst conceding only 14. Several of our girls have been chosen for the Lancashire County Under 18 Lacrosse squad, and will represent their County in the Northern Counties Tournament competing against Cheshire and Yorkshire. Year 2 pupils at Beech House presented a cheque for £193.56 to Bolton Wanderers Captain Kevin Davies, for his charity Kids of Bolton, raised through a cake sale at the School. And our Junior Girls and Boys joined in with the Skip2Bfit national campaign to find out how many skips they could do in two minutes. The top skippers were awarded with certificates presented by professional boxing trainer John McCormack who is leading the initiative.

7 October 2011

It was a big week at Bolton School as Lord Sebastian Coe and Sir Philip Craven, President of the International Paralympic Committee, convinced a large North-West audience at the School that the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will bring a much needed lift to the whole country. The pair were on stage at an evening co-hosted by Bolton School and Bolton Council, which was attended by hundreds of people from across the region. Sir Philip had returned to his old school to deliver the annual Tillotson Lecture and he had brought his close friend Lord Coe with him. Both were keen to spread the message about the once in a lifetime opportunity that the Games represent for the UK. The two were joined on stage by two 2012 hopefuls, Sophie Hancock, a local paralympian and Daniel Sliwinski, an Old Boy of the School and Commonwealth Games swimming bronze medallist.
The following evening, Bolton School pupils were joined by students from other local schools for an inspiring lecture by one of the country's leading cancer research scientists - Professor Ross Sibson from the Department of Molecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine at Liverpool University. Around 300 pupils and parents from Bolton School Girls' Division, Boys' Division, Canon Slade and Smithills School, gathered in the Girls' Division Great Hall to listen to Professor Sibson's talk entitled 'Astronomical Problems with our Genes?' The lecture aimed to give them a better understanding of genetics and was attended by pupils ranging from Year 10 up to Year 13. It was organised by the Girls' Division Learning Support Able and Talented enrichment programme, an ongoing programme which aims to enrich students' learning experience and develop their thinking skills.
In sport, Year 9 pupil Nalisha Patel, who plays for the Under 13 Lancashire County Girls Cricket team, has been voted player of the season! It was a double celebration for Nalisha as the Lancashire Girls U13s also triumphed as National Champions for 2011, after beating Sussex in the final. And a successful season for Bolton School's U13 Cricket team saw them crowned runners up in the county final. Our Senior Boys were fortunate to witness a gymnastics extravaganza first thing on Monday morning as Paul Hockwart (Director of Coaching at Bury Gymnastics Club) came into to a Year 7 Assembly to promote the sport of gymnastics. Accompanying him was a Great Britain gymnast called Mason Whealing who demonstrated a variety of floor work and trampette exercises, including round-offs, handsprings, flic-flacs, somersault with a twist, and a spectacular double somersault to finish. This was excellent inspiration for the boys in time for the start of the Year 7 Gymnastics Club and their annual Gymnastics Competition.
And a visit from the Kinetic Theatre helped inspire, educate and entertain our Junior girls with a musical play geared to the National Curriculum for Science. The interactive story of Robin and the Withering Wood went down exceptionally well with the girls, who joined in enthusiastically.