27th April 2012

Katie Clinton, a former pupil, returned to Bolton School in her capacity as a Director at KPMG to launch to Sixth Form students, the chance of a 4 week paid vacation programme at KPMG in Manchester. Katie told Sixth Formers about the unique scheme, which sees one girl and one boy undertake meaningful employment with the accounting giant, spending two weeks in the Financial Services Audit team and two weeks in the Corporate Finance team. Students were asked to apply for the work placement as if they were applying for a full-time position - the two that are chosen will be involved in client work and will be "at the coal-face" undertaking real research.

It was Claypool Primary School from Horwich who emerged winners of the Bolton School Big Quiz for local primary schools held this week. Twelve teams had pitted their wits against one another over the course of 11 testing rounds, which covered everything from entertainment to maths puzzles and from sequencing skills to fruit and vegetable knowledge! And this week saw the quarter final of the Year 8 girls’ Masterchef competition - girls created vegetarian main meals with things hotting up ahead off the big final on the 11th May.

In sport news, Year 9 pupil Dominic Walker has set a new British U14 50m backstroke record. Dominic broke the previous record with a time of 28.68s at the Lancashire County Championships. He is aiming to set another British record for 100m backstroke when he competes at Manchester Aquatics Centre in May as he is only half a second away from beating the current record. The Year 8 netball team has won this year's Bolton Schools' U13 Netball Tournament, remaining unbeaten throughout the 15 team tournament. The girls came up against Turton in the final, where they secured a 5-1 victory to become tournament winners. And the boys’ U14 water polo team has won through to the English Schools final by finishing first overall in the qualifiers at Manchester Aquatic Centre. The boys beat off competition from Manchester Grammar School, Ripley, KES, St Bedes and Kings to finish top of the table. The final will be held in Walsall on 26 May 2012.

Also this week, Bolton School's Governing Body has given the official go ahead for the construction of the new Sixth Form Centre, which will be built in the heart of the Chorley New Road campus. Architecturally, the glass and sandstone building promises to provide a dramatic contrast to the School's Neo-Gothic façade and turrets. Work on the £7 million three-storey, elliptical building will begin in mid-July after the Summer Term has ended. It is expected to take a year to complete, meaning Sixth Form students will be able to enjoy their new Centre from September 2013.

20th April 2012

The Easter Holidays have flown by at Bolton School and the Summer Term is upon us once again.
In conjunction with local marketing company Silk Group, we are proud to announce the opening of our new online store. The new store boasts an exciting range of quality Bolton School branded items - whether you are a young pupil from Beech House or whether you left the School 50 years ago, the site promises something for everyone! Please visit: http://www.boltonschoolmerchandise.org/. All profits made from the enterprise will go into the School's bursary fund.
We can also announce that tickets for the Beech House Spring Ball are now available, costing £50 each with money raised going to kiDs of Bolton, a charity set up By Kevin Davies to help disadvantaged children in and around Bolton. The event will take place at the Reebok Stadium in the Lion of Vienna Suite on Saturday 12 May at 7pm. Download a ticket order form. Opportunities are also available for sponsoring aspects of the evening and advertising within the programme and we also need donations of raffle prizes. To support the ball in this way complete this form.
Good news for Rachel Flanders, who left Bolton School in 2009, and is set to carry the Olympic flame when it is processed through Bolton on Thursday 31 May and Friday 1 June! During her time at the School, Rachel, aged just 17 at the time, became the youngest person ever to row across the Atlantic Ocean. The torch comes to Bolton on Thursday, May 31, as part of its 70 day journey around the UK and will stay overnight before moving on to the next town. After travelling through the town the flame will arrive at the town hall before continuing on to Queens Park, where Bolton is hosting a free evening ticketed celebration. The torch will leave Bolton on June 1, just after 6am, from Victoria Square and will travel on to Chorley New Road, go down Scholes Bank in Horwich before arriving in Chorley at approximately 7.20am. Fingers crossed that Rachel will get to carry it past her old school!
And you may have seen another Old Girl, Professor Jenny Clack, on BBC4's Beautiful Minds programme on Wednesday 11 April. Jenny is a professor at Cambridge University a pioneering palaeontologist who made evolutionary history by discovering how we on earth went from water to land dwellers. The programme was the first in a series of three programmes where three influential scientists explain how their thoughts and discoveries have revolutionised the way the world is perceived.
And it’s not just the Old Girls in the limelight, Old Boy Chris Fairweather, aged 21, rowed in number 2 position for the ISIS (Oxford) crew that won this year's reserves' boat race. Chris left Bolton School in 2009 and is still an undergraduate at Oxford. The ISIS crew gradually pulled away during the course of the race and won with a comfortable margin of 5 lengths. Their finishing time set a course record for the reserves race and was equal to the third fastest time the course has been completed in the history of the race.
Pupils from Years 7, 8 and 9 in the Girls' Division have shown real imagination and flair in their entries to a Maths Photography Competition run by the Oxford University Press (OUP). The girls were asked to submit a picture that somehow related to something mathematical and were allowed to use up to 20 words in their caption. You can see many of their submissions on the OUP site here.

30th March 2012

Bolton School welcomed author and illustrator Curtis Jobling to talk to boys in years 6, 7 and 8 about his work in animation, publishing and illustration. Curtis is the designer of the characters and sets of the BAFTA winning BBC show Bob the Builder, as well as being the creator of CBeebies' Raa Raa the Noisy Lion and the award winning Frankenstein's Cat, and the author of the Wereworld series of books. Curtis spoke to the boys about his love of film, books and animation and showed them how he creates his characters and brings them to life. Visual artist Kyle Lambert also visited Bolton School this week to show pupils how to create iPad artwork! Kyle showed the students how to create life like portraits on the iPad using just his fingers, the brushes app for the iPad and the iPad as his canvas.
Another good week for sport news - the Senior boys' Junior water polo team has won the Greater Manchester Winter School Games, competing against five other teams to win, and beating Crompton House School 10-0 in the final. And our U13s' rugby team won the Lancashire Plate Final, 24-20, against a very strong Merchant Taylors' side from Liverpool. While the U12 netball team has won this year's Bolton Schools' Netball Tournament, remaining unbeaten throughout the 16 team tournament.
In July 2013, 20 boys and two members of staff will be travelling to Madagascar to take part in conservation work to support the fragile and unique ecosystems that exist in Madagascar. This expedition will be physically demanding and the boys are running the Bolton 10km, which will take place on 22 April, to develop their fitness, raise awareness and money. Fundraising has already begun and this will be an opportunity for the boys to spread their message to a wider audience. If you would like to offer support or make a donation please contact Mr Marc Tillotson at Bolton School at mat@boltonschool.org.
Year 3 boys at Park Road have the H Factor! The boys took part in a healthy eating initiative run by the school catering department, which saw the children making smoothies on a bike, researching healthy food options using netbooks, taking part in quizzes and sampling a range of foods.

23rd March 2012

The curtains went up and the roof was raised on opening night of one of the biggest and most ambitious stage shows ever undertaken at Bolton school - a stunning performance of the musical We Will Rock You. The musical was a complete sell out immediately and over 800 paying guests will watch the production in the Girls' Division Theatre over five performances in four days. Pupils from Year 7 to the final year of Sixth Form, along with many teachers, have been involved, not only in acting but in the creation of costumes, theatrical make up and stage sets, and recreating the sounds of Queen's greatest hits.
Anne Edwards, whose grandfather, William Thomas Settle, was in the same form as Captain Arthur Henry Rostron at Bolton School, visited her former school this week to exhibit her Titanic memorabilia and to promote her charity, Honour the Rescuer. Anne feels not enough recognition is given to the heroism of Captain Rostron, who was the Master of RMS Carpathia - the only rescue ship to the Titanic - which saved 706 survivors that were already in the lifeboats. Anne put her memorabilia alongside that of the School's and the co-exhibition provoked a lot of local media interest - Granada Reports and North-West Tonight both interviewed her for programmes that will run on Wednesday 11th and Thursday 12th April.
Old Girl Anjali Pathak of Indian food giants, Pataks returned to Bolton School to give a masterclass in Indian cooking this week. She teamed up with top local chef, Mike Harrison and The Starlight Supper, held at the School’s Arts Centre, became an instant sell-out. Old Girls from Anjali’s year as well as from other year groups enjoyed a cooking class which revealed the secrets of gourmet Indian cuisine. During the course of the evening, the guests were taught how to deliver a perfect three-course Indian meal and then had the pleasure of devouring it! All funds raised on the night will be donated to MacMillan Cancer Support. Andy McAllister from Water4Ethiopia also visited the Senior Girls' Division this week on World Water Day, to raise awareness, along with money for the charity. Along with help from the girls, Andy and teacher Miss Rose Wilson sold Water4Ethiopia's own bottled water in the Main Hall at break and lunchtime. And at Beech House pupils got into the Sport Relief spirit on Friday with a cake, book and dvd sale to raise money for the cause.
In sport, a team of four Senior boys has achieved the remarkable feat of progressing through to the English Schools' Badminton Championship final, joining eight other regional school winners. Following their triumph at county level, the boys played against four other schools, encompassing the winners of Merseyside, Lancashire, Cumbria and Cheshire, to compete for the right to represent the North West region. The National final is to be held in late April. While our Junior Boys enjoyed a resounding 7-0 win over Arnold School in this year's final of the U11s' AJIS Football Cup.

16th March 2012

Primary school children from sixteen local schools visited Bolton School this week for the annual Primary Schools' Literacy Challenge. Year 5 pupils took part in three different sessions on the day including a reading challenge, a fun introduction to Shakespeare drama session and a third session of games and tasks based on 'The Odyssey'. The day concluded with the presentation of certificates and prizes. Every pupil received a certificate, bookmark and curly wurly for taking part, and all schools were given a book of children's poems as a memento of the day.
Pupils in the Girls' Division were encouraged to explore the option of continuing their education in Canada, with talks from two top universities. Damara Klaassen from the University of British Columbia and Janet Hurd from the University of Toronto visited the School to talk to girls from Years 10 to 13 about the option of studying abroad and the advantages it may present.
Year 11 pupil Holly Holt could be heard hitting some very high notes on Radio 3 on Thursday, live from the Bridgewater Hall! Holly is part of the Halle Youth Choir and was singing in their performance of Holst's Hymn of Jesus at the Halle Concert, which was broadcast live on the show. Holly has been singing since she was six years old and has always been involved in choirs at school. She has been a member of the Halle Youth Choir since September and also plays the flute in the Halle Youth Orchestra.
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) Fun Day at Bolton School on Saturday was a huge success. The maritime-themed event, attended by the general public, included a wide variety of displays detailing the RNLI's work, displays on the Titanic and the rescuing of over 700 passengers by Old Boy Captain Arthur Rostron on the Carpathia, as well as information on Tenacity of Bolton, the School's own sailing yacht. A beach life guard unit was at the School along with members from the lifeboat at Lytham.
Beech House pupils have raised an amazing £1,128.90 for Marie Curie Nurses by taking part in a Mini Pots of Care campaign. All 218 pupils took part in the fun and creative fundraising activity. The School was sent growing packs in the Autumn and each pupil planted their own daffodil bulb, then cared for it over the Winter and watched it bloom in the Spring. There was a celebration of all the blooms on Mini Pots of Care Day and a number of prizes were awarded, including for the tallest and yellowest daffodil.
And Old Boy swimmer Daniel Sliwinski gave a sensational performance to win the British Gas Championships' 100m breaststroke, and book his place in the Great Britain squad for this year's Olympics. Daniel swam a time of 60.09 in the breaststroke final at the Olympic Aquatic Centre, in London. The Championships double up as Team GB's London 2012 trials and by claiming gold, Daniel has guaranteed his place at this year's Games.

9 March 2012

The Boys' Division Amnesty Youth Group at Bolton School were visited this week by Gloria Pollack, who escaped from Chile to the UK in the 1970s when she and her family faced persecution under General Pinochet's dictatorship. The group, which meets weekly and is attended by pupils in Years 7-12, has recently been involved in a number of letter-writing campaigns including organising a petition for the closure of Guantanamo Bay, sent to Hillary Clinton, and sending a letter to the Justice Minister in Japan to ask for the abolition of the death penalty.
Congratulations go to Year 12 student Stephanie Gabbatt who has made the top ten long-list for Amnesty International's Young Human Rights Reporter of the Year, Sixth Form award. Her article, which focuses on child slave labour in Africa, has been chosen from over 3,000 applications from 150 schools. The long-list of ten will be whittled down to just three in the next couple of weeks and if Stephanie makes the top three, she will travel to London to attend a prestigious ceremony at Amnesty International's headquarters in central London on 9 May. And further congratulations in the Girls’ Division go to Year 10 pupil Rhiannon Fox-Rothwell who is now part of the North of England Girls' Rugby squad. Rhiannon has been playing rugby since she was three years old and played for Trafford MV and Eccles before joining current club, Tyldesley Girls. It was from there that she was scouted to play for Lancashire and she has been with the county team for the past two years. More Rugby as Bolton School played host to the first round of this year's Bolton borough rugby league competition with year 7 and 8 teams from Bolton School, Canon Slade, St.Catherine's, St Joseph's and Westhoughton Schools locking horns to get the town's rugby league back up and running. More rugby league followed with the school hosting a primary schools tag rugby festival on the levels on Thursday.
A team of four Year Eight boys has reached the final of the North-West junior 'School Challenge' quiz competition. Two teams participated in the first heat of this year's event, both of whom won their initial group stage comfortably before going on to meet each other in what would prove to be a gripping semi-final contest. The winning Boys’ Division team secured victory over Manchester Grammar School in the final. And this year's Boys' Division Young Musician of the Year evening saw the culmination of a month of superb music making. On the night, the Junior and Senior winners of seven musical categories - brass, guitar, piano, percussion, strings, wind and woodwind - battled it out for the overall award of Young Musician of the Year.

2nd March 2012

Forget London 2012, the only Olympics on the minds of budding Year 9 scientists from across the Bolton borough was a Physics Olympics. The second such "Olympics" held at Bolton School saw teams of four gifted and talented students from 16 local secondary schools compete in a series of day-long challenges while utilising the expertise and facilities at the School. Teams of four pupils moved around the laboratories undertaking five 30 minute Physics-related tasks. Delayed Timing involved pupils having to maximise the time a ball-bearing spends on a ramp over a set distance; Generation X saw them constructing a turbine to turn a generator to produce the highest possible voltage; they attempted to build and launch an air-powered rocket in the Pressure Bullseye challenge; Sink or Swim, using marbles, tested their understanding of buoyancy; and Jelly Baby Towers their construction skills.
A team of Sixth Form Girls had their business minds put to the test in the Northern area heat of Target 2.0, and the girls performed exceptionally well to gain third place. Target 2.0 is The Bank of England and The Times' annual Interest Rate Challenge which gives teams of students aged 16-18 the chance to take on the role of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee and decide what the interest rate should be. The girls won the regional heat of the competition back in December, earning them a place in the Northern area heat.
Year 2 pupils at Beech House enjoyed a 'Traditional Tales' day on Friday, dressing up as their favourite story characters! An array of colourful characters filled the school including Robin hood, Snow White, Princesses, Knights, Pirates and even the Gingerbread man! Pupils took part in a celebration ball complete with a parade, waltzing and party food, and much fun was had by all! While Hesketh House was also transformed into a scene from the pages of a storybook on Thursday as the girls dressed up as princesses, princes and other Royal characters to celebrate World Book Day. The Royal theme was chosen to link in with the Diamond Jubilee celebration, and the colourful costumes ranged from traditional fairytale characters to Egyptian and Indian princesses, and even knights, court jesters and Prince William and Kate Middleton!
The hunt for the Bolton School Girls’ Division Masterchef is officially on! The first heat began with the year 9 girls going head to head making their own versions of stuffed peppers, which were sampled by the hungry judges. Fourteen contestants were whittled down to ten and there will be further heats in the coming weeks leading up to the quarter and semi finals and the live cook off grand final on May 11th.


And a date for the diary - Bolton School will hosting a Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) Fun Day on Saturday 10 March. The event will include a variety of displays detailing the RNLI's work with activities for youngsters, displays by the RNLI beach rescue, an inshore inflatable lifeboat and an opportunity to try out the kit used by lifeboat crews. There will also be a display marking the 100 year anniversary of the sinking of The Titanic with extensive memorabilia relating to Sir Arthur Henry Rostron, born in Astley Bridge and a former pupil of Park Road, Bolton School's Junior Boys' School. Rostron was the Captain of the Carpathia, the ship that went to the aid of the floundering Titanic and helped rescue 706 people. The event will run from 10.30am-4.00pm in Bolton School's Arts and Conference Centre.