16 December 2011

Thirty two A level students from the Girls' Division jetted out to India this week in what promises to be a life-changing experience as they continue the School's efforts in supporting street children in India. The girls will spend 8 days based in Vijayawada City in Southern India and will help out with the Street Kids' Community Villages (SKCV) project. They will offer help in any way that they can, be it teaching English, playing football or helping run dance classes. Whilst out in India they will be assessing where best to spend money that they have raised back home in a variety of fundraising initiatives which include a sponsored fast, a sponsored swim, cake sales, charity lunches, an Indian night and a car boot sale.
Bolton School pupils were joined by pupils from other local schools this week for a Royal Society of Chemistry Christmas Lecture entitled 'Chops n All'. Dr Steven Rossington from the University of Salford led an investigatory look at the chemical elements that constitute human life through a series of fun and explosive chemical demonstrations. While the Year 10 Percussion Ensemble put on a performance for local primary school pupils at Tonge Moor Primary School, consisting of some excellent solo and ensemble performances that were well received by the whole school.
In sport, the Under 14s water polo team are the winners of the Manchester and District Water Polo league this season, despite having one game left to play. And two Year 11 boys, Luke Eccles and James Beardsworth, have been selected for the national U16s' Independent Schools' Football Association (ISFA) team. The two boys have made it into the England squad which comprises the best players from the country's independent schools. The boys were four points clear at the top of the table after winning six out of their 7 games played. And as we approach the Christmas break, a whole host of festive music filled the Great Halls as the Girls' Division, the Boys’ Division and our Junior Boys all held their annual Christmas Carol Concerts. Offerings from our numerous and varied choirs and ensembles provided wonderful evenings of Christmas music, prayers, reflections and readings. And our Sixth Form Girls’ Prefects have been raising money for charity with their 'Prefects Panto'! Students wrote the pantomime themselves and took on the roles of their teachers in the show, watched by Lower school pupils, Sixth Form girls and staff, who each gave a donation at the door.

9 December 2011

At first there were nine candidates…but now there is just one Bolton School Apprentice! Since the start of term in September, nine boys from Years 11, 12 and 13 have been vying to become the Boys' Division's first ever 'Bolton School Apprentice'. The candidates have been gradually eliminated following a series of tasks based on those undertaken in the hit BBC TV show, leaving three boys in the spectacular Grand Finale in the School's Arts Centre on the evening of Tuesday 6 December, at which the candidates pitched their ideas for a new fruit-based premium soft drink to an audience of pupils, staff and guests. Following much deliberation, Sam Ball was declared the first ever Bolton School Apprentice and was awarded an iPad as his prize.
A team of Bolton School Sixth Form Girls has won the regional heat of the twelfth annual Target Two Point Zero - The Bank of England and The Times Interest Rate Challenge. Teams of four students from each competing school or college had to analyse UK and global economic conditions and decide what level of interest rate they would set to achieve the Government's current inflation target of 2.0 - just as the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee does each month. Once they had made their decision the girls had to prepare and give a short presentation, arguing a convincing case for their conclusion, to a panel of Bank of England judges. Two Junior Boys have also triumphed in a local competition which took part amongst primary school children to provide artwork for Keoghs Solicitors' 2012 calendar by designing Olympic mascots.
Pupils at Beech House Infant School have been busy collecting Christmas toys and gifts for local children that are less fortunate than themselves. The Bolton Lions visited the School this week to collect new and second hand toys brought in by the children, which will now be distributed to families who cannot afford to buy presents for their children this Christmas.
While Bolton School's U13s' football team has won their Independent Schools' Football Association (ISFA) quarter-final tie 2-0 against Cheadle Hulme - a win which puts Bolton School into the last 4 sides in the whole country. In order to book a place in the final at Burton Albion FC's ground, the boys will need to overcome Brentwood School in the semi-final in an away fixture at the Essex school on 24 January.

2 December 2011

Anjali Pathak of the Indian food giants, Pataks, was back at Bolton School this week to deliver a captivating cookery demonstration. Anjali, who is Brand Ambassador for the family business, Pataks, was delighted to return to her former school where she met up with her former classmate, Natalie James who is now part of the Food Technology Department, which organised the lunchtime seminar. The packed audience of students and staff were engrossed and inspired as Anjali explained about her family business before treating the audience to a demonstration of how to cook perfect onion bhajis.
Also in school this week we welcomed Year 5 pupils from across the local borough to a day of foreign language lessons at this year's Modern Foreign Languages Festival. The whole day event gave local youngsters the chance to try out a range of new languages including Japanese and Russian, as well as building their understanding of French, Spanish and German. Sticking with languages, our Junior Girls have launched a new lunchtime German Club, adding to the extensive range of activities available to them! The club is run by Head of German in the Senior Girls' Division, Mrs Sheaff, with the assistance of German speaking language assistants, and serves as an introduction to basic German words and culture.
Girls from Middle School and also some Junior Girls were transported back to the age of the dinosaur this week with a hands-on workshop run by the Bolton Museum and Archive Service. Alex McLeman, the Formal Learning Manager from the museum, visited the school and brought along Prehistoric casts and fossils, artefacts and specimens from around the world. Alex spoke to the girls about the origins of the objects and when they lived on the earth, and encouraged them to pick up the pieces and ask questions.
In Senior boys, the amount raised by one form for Children in Need has all been collected and totalled - Harry Bevan and Sam Hassall of 8d wanted to show their support for the BBC's annual Children in Need appeal, so they galvanised the other members of their form into a sponsored run back in November. Their co-tutor Mr Rich was so impressed by this initiative that he promised to donate £10 for every goal his 2nd XI football team registered that same weekend. The boys raised a superb £611.94 by running around The Levels for a lunch time; and this amount was increased by a further £50 through the 2nd XI's impressive 5-0 away victory at Repton School!
And at the weekend Hesketh House successfully hosted the AJIS Chess Congress. The day was a huge success with Sharon Daniel winning the U10 section and Mahima Raghavendra winning the U9 section. Hesketh House and Bolton School Junior Boys' School shared the 2011 Team Championship Shield. The girls also did an excellent job with the organisation and welcoming of visitors to school.

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.