28th June 2013

There were yet more Primary School visitors to Bolton School this week as over 20 local primary schools took part in a Science Festival aimed at inspiring young minds. The festival provided an opportunity for gifted young pupils from Year 5 to make use of our laboratories and resources and to absorb themselves in Science for the day. Schools entered teams of four who spent the morning in the Biology, Chemistry and Physics laboratories undertaking a number of challenging practical activities.

The Girls’ Division Year 9 Art Club, in conjunction with the Environment Club, presented the dining room staff with paving stones they have decorated for the Herb Garden this week. The paving stones were donated by Bents Garden Centre and the girls transformed them by painting them to show the variety of herbs growing in the garden. The stones have now been placed in the herb garden which grows mint, rosemary, thyme, parsley and oregano for use in the School kitchens. And art work from both Boys' and Girls' Division Year 11 to 13 students is now on show at the Best of Bolton Schools’ Art and Design Showcase, hosted by the University of Bolton. The exhibition, now in its sixth year, is a collaboration between schools in Bolton and the University and features the best work from pupils from Secondary Schools across the Borough. The exhibition is sponsored by The National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies (NADFAS) who provided sponsorship for prizes which were presented at a private view evening, where Bolton School Year 13 pupil Charlotte Leigh won the Best Fine Art prize. The Bolton School's Art and Design Showcase is open to the public 10am to 4pm until 5th July, at the Innovation Factory Fine Art Studio on the Bolton University Campus.

In sport, Bolton School are Northern T20 Cricket Champions taking them through to the National Finals Day at Arundel Castle CC in Sussex on Friday 5th July by defeating St. Peter’s, York in the Northern Final held at Heywood CC. Having won their initial group stage by defeating Merchant Taylor’s ,Crosby and Lancaster RGS, Bolton gained further victories over Sedbergh School and Manchester GS to lift the Fred Kenyon Trophy as HMC North West champions and forced their way through to play the other three regional winners from the Midlands, the South West and South East. And we congratulate Year 9 pupil Anosh Bonshahi who completed the London to Brighton cycle challenge in aid of the British Heart Foundation, raising nearly 400 pounds. Anosh cycled the 54 miles from London to Brighton with his dad and was among the youngest of nearly 30000 cyclists.
Year 10 pupils in the Girls’ Division enjoyed a day of lectures and debate complementing and extending their learning in school. The intensive one day program of short lectures followed by a debate gave students the opportunity to experience very high quality learning with expert lecturers. Girls spent the morning in the Arts Centre listening to a series of lectures including Time (this gets straight to the heart of relativity), The Politics of tolerance and/or Postmodernism and Does a Snail have consciousness?, and took part in a debate entitled 'This house believes in abortion on demand'.

21 June 2013

The Independent Schools’ Inspectorate has found Bolton School’s Early Years’ Foundation Stage for children aged from birth to 5 years to be ‘outstanding’ in all areas of its provision. The Intermediate Report echoes the findings of the last full inspection in 2010. The report, covering Bolton School Nursery, Infant School (Beech House) and Kidzone, the School’s wraparound childcare service, found there to be excellent progress throughout the age groups: ‘the overall quality and standards of the early years’ provision are outstanding.’ It went on to find ‘the contribution of provision to children’s well-being is outstanding,’ and ‘the setting makes outstanding provision in meeting the needs of the range of children who attend. Excellent teaching means that children of all ages and abilities make outstanding progress.’

Having tampered with The Tempest in English lessons, Year 6 girls from Hesketh House took great delight in performing their devised pieces in the Girls' Division Theatre to parents and friends. Their interpretations of the story saw them use some of the original poetic lines from Shakespeare's play as well rewriting his work in their own scripts, including aspects of dancing and singing to modern tunes.

Talented Year 11 pupil Jainee-Khushali Patel performs in not one but two of the eight recognized and accredited National Youth Music Orchestras in the UK. Not only that but she is the first person to play in two totally diverse NYMOs (National Youth Jazz Collective and SAMYO - the National Youth Orchestra for Indian Music) with two equally diverse instruments namely Sitar and Saxophone\ in each. She is also SAMYO’s first ever musician from Bolton, and the North West of England and is one of ten girls invited to form the Creative Leadership Ensemble in the country - a scheme which will see Jainee receiving training on how to take on a leadership role within music including conducting an orchestra.

Year 7 pupils Eddy Backhouse and Dominic Aly are national winners of the Wallace and Gromit Cracking Ideas competition. Having won the regional round for England in the 12-16 age category, the boys were invited to Blackpool Pleasure Beach for the national finals on Tuesday and were crowned national winners, beating off competition from the Irish, Scottish and Welsh winners. The Cracking Ideas challenge for 2012 – 2013 was based around the subject of space and the boys came up with a wide range of creative and fun ideas, ranging from an innovative new rocket design to a space safe suit for both Wallace and Gromit.

Almost 300 pupils from twenty eight primary schools from across the region took part in the Bolton School Sports Festival this week. The annual event, now in its tenth year, saw teams from Bolton and further afield compete in a variety of sporting challenges. The overall Festival Winner was Haslam Park Primary School with second place going to Gilnow Primary and third to St Osmund and Andrew’s Primary. And a team of Junior Girls entered their first ever Schools’ Basketball Competition and won, despite their lack of experience! The girls were entered on the notion that they had previously played mini basketball in PE lessons and that they were all good netball players, with the emphasis on just having fun. Six schools took part and having made it to the final the girls went on to win 5-0 to take the title.

And Old Boy of the School, Peter H. Bennett will be presented with the American Diabetes Association’s Albert Renold Award at the World’s largest Diabetes meeting this weekend. The award is presented to an individual whose career is distinguished by outstanding achievements in the training and mentorship of diabetes research scientists and the facilitation of diabetes research.

7th June 2013

Bolton School, under the direction of Mrs Linda Frew, will be overseeing a new initiative, the “Bolton Children’s Fiction Book Award”. Mrs Frew, along with other librarians at Bolton School and from schools from across the region, is currently busy reading books in order to draw up a shortlist for the Autumn Term. The event will be officially launched by Brit Writers’ Award Winner, Sufiya Ahmed at Bolton School on 4 October. After that, children in Years 7 and 8 from across the borough will be encouraged to read and vote for their favourite shortlisted books.
Hesketh House pupils have been letting their creative skills run wild for World Hunger Week, developing new recipes and designing new sandwiches. After some imaginative entries, Mrs Karen Riley and Mr Andrew Scialpi-Sullivan, who head up the School's Catering Team, settled upon three winners. Year 3 girl, Georgia McGinty, created a Cheeky Chicken Wrap and fellow Year 3 pupil, Summer Lily-Burke designed a sandwich called Meatball Delight. Year 4 girl, Chloe Ferguson, won the best recipe prize with her suggestion for producing Meatloaf. Each girl was awarded a book token and well done card from the Catering Department. The creations will all be trialled during forthcoming Junior Girls' lunchtimes. During the event, donations from the girls raised £70 for World Hunger Week.

Year 9 pupil Johanna Mercer has had a piece of her creative writing selected for publication in an anthology. The piece, entitled ‘Demonic Terror’, will feature in ‘Trick or Treat: A Collection of Ghost Stories’. Budding author Johanna is no stranger to publication, having had her first book ‘Demon Rose’ published in the Amazon Kindle store in January. And Year 12 pupil Luke Brabbin has written and published his own children’s eBook. Luke’s picture book is called ‘Jeffery, Dillon and Hugo go to the Swamp’ and is aimed at children aged 3 to 8. In the book, Luke tells the story of three monsters who go on an adventure to a swamp, and learn about morals and friendship on the way.

Filming will shortly be getting underway on Red Production Company’s second series of the BBC’s BAFTA-winning comedy drama, Last Tango in Halifax and, once again, Bolton School will be used as a backdrop. In the first series, starring Sarah Lancashire, the School featured as the independent school where she was Headmistress. Filming made use of the Headmaster’s Study, the Boys' Division Great Hall, several classrooms and offices as well as corridors, which were used to represent a quality school in the comedy drama series which also stars Sir Derek Jacobi.

And Bolton School pupils handed over a cheque for £800 to Action for Children charity, which was raised at the Battle of the Bands Competition. The winning band, Off Piste, presented the cheque to Action for Children representatives. The charity supports disadvantaged and vulnerable children in the community. Money raised on the day will be split between Action for Children and the Fabrice Muamba Defibrillator Fundraising Appeal.

24th May 2013

Former Status Quo drummer, Jeff Rich, visited Bolton School Girls’ Division this week as part of a Year 8 Careers Day. Jeff spoke to pupils about the music business, the development of the drum and about his own drum kit. He played a solo on the kit before inviting the pupils up on stage to play percussion and drums with him and also invited any drummers in the audience to come up and play his kit. There were a number of other guests running sessions with the girls on the day, including some successful Old Girls - Actress Anna Northam and Project Support Engineer at Bentley Motors, Amy Durrant. On the subject of Old Girls, Jaiminee Patel who left Bolton School in 2011 has made it to the final 20 of the MTV Student of the Year competition. Jaiminee, now in her first year of Business Management at King's College London, has been shortlisted to progress to the interview finals and now needs as many votes as possible to get through! Get voting for Jaiminee!

Other visitors to School this week were 2013 Rugby League World Cup mascots Grubber and Steed who visited pupils at Beech House along with Leigh Centurions first team player Ryan Brierley, as part of the Try Reading project. The Reception children were introduced to Grubber and Steed and Ryan Brierley read them a story about the pair. Boys’ Division Year 7 pupil Luke James also went along - as a winner of the Rugby League World Cup 2013 Mascot Design competition this was the first time Luke had come face to face with his creation Grubber Bear. One of three winners, Luke’s design was chosen from over 1,000 entries from the UK and France. As part of his prize, Luke also won tickets to two World Cup matches of his choice in addition to tickets to the Rugby League World Cup Final at Old Trafford, where he and the other winners will lead the players out. And award winning author for young adults, Bali Rai, was also in School to talk to Year 9 girls about his writing.

Year 9 pupil Beth Hodkinson represented England in the European Taekwon-Do Championships in Sweden and came away with a bronze medal. Beth won the bronze medal in her individual sparring competition despite being the youngest in the England team and competing against 16 and 17 year olds. In her team event she came away with a draw but unfortunately the team lost out overall. And Junior Boys’ Year 5 pupil, Jude Ashcroft, has won the Regional Mega Final of the UK chess challenge. As the winner, he will now go on to represent the Lancashire region in the U10 age group at the Northern Giga Final in Manchester on 13 July.

17th May 2013

Bolton School Girls’ Division was transformed into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry today as the Year 13 pupils dressed up as characters from Harry Potter to celebrate their last day in school! The teachers got involved too and all costumes were very impressive!

Lots of good sporting news to report - Bolton School are the English Schools’ National U14 Water Polo Champions, completing the double for the School who are also U16 National Champions! They met local rivals, Manchester Grammar School in the final and secured victory in an epic penalty shootout final finishing 5-4 to become Champions of England! The Boys’ Division are also U16 Northern Schools’ Tennis Champions, after Year 10 pair Oliver Harford and Tom Wright beat Manchester Grammar School 10-3 in the final! They were presented with the trophy by the organiser, former Bolton School Chemistry teacher Alan Prince. This was a fitting tribute to the ex-Bolton man who is stepping down this year after 43 years of organising the competition! And three Sixth Form boys managed a very convincing golfing victory over Rossall School in the ISGA Area Plate Final. Sam Towers, Chris Warner and Benito O’Loughlin have now been invited to the National Plate Finals in London on the 26th June.

Budding chemists from the Boys’ Division Sixth Form will represent the North West in the final of a national schools’ chemistry competition after beating off competition from across the region. The boys won the North West regional heat of the Royal Society of Chemistry Schools’ Analyst Competition, held at the University of Central Lancashire. The three chemistry students, Adam Murray, Waqqas Patel and Zubayr Adia triumphed over 10 schools from across Lancashire and will represent the North West region at the prestigious UK final which will take place in Sunderland in June.

Pupils from Thornleigh Salesian College and Harper Green School joined Bolton School Boys’ Division pupils for Physics X - a three day residential trip to Patterdale hall in the Lake District. 33 pupils took part in Physics X, which aimed to engage pupils to think about the physics in exciting outdoor pursuit activities. Pupils took part in a various activities, learning about the physics in Sailing, Archery, Gorge Walking, Climbing and Bushcraft. Pupils also competed in various Physics Challenges including rocket building and accurate timing. The event was funded by the Ogden Trust.

And a fun afternoon aimed at Year 2 girls and their parents was held at Hesketh House this week, with girls from Bolton School's Infant Department (Beech House) and from other schools from across the region taking part. The girls enjoyed a range of activities including a treasure hunt and code cracking, while parents had the chance to meet the Head and teachers and see more of the Junior School.

13 May 2013

An open day at Patterdale Hall, the School’s residential and adventure learning centre on the southern shores of Lake Ullswater in the Lake District, drew in large crowds from across the North at the weekend. Hundreds of adults and children enjoyed tours of the Hall and its extensive grounds, considering it as a venue for outdoor adventures, conferences or corporate bonding and team building, or as a possible family party or wedding venue. They sampled a range of exciting activities, including kayaking, canoeing, archery, fire lighting, orienteering and a low ropes challenge. Patterdale lived up to its reputation for great food with a great barbeque lunch and delicious Patterdale Cream Teas.

A mixed three-piece band, Off Piste, was this year’s winner of Bolton School’s Senior Schools’ Battle of the Bands competition. With this year’s judge being Tim Thomas from Blueprint recording studio in Manchester, the bands were certainly performing to the right audience. In what is always a close call, the judge said he chose Off Piste for their originality, stage presence and the fact that they felt like a unit and performed as such. Money raised on the day will be split between donations to the Fabrice Muamba Defibrillator Fundraising Appeal and the ‘Action for Children’ charity which has a Bolton Branch and supports disadvantaged children.
Congratulations go to the Sixth Form Girls' Athletics Team on becoming Town Athletics Champions for the second successive year. The girls were crowned joint Champions following some impressive individual performances. And Sixth Form students at Bolton School will, once again, enjoy paid summer internships at KPMG, one of the “big four” accounting firms. In what is a unique, tailored programme for a Year 12 girl and boy from the School, students will spend a month of their summer holiday working at KPMG’s Manchester office. They will spend two weeks in the Corporate Finance team and two weeks in the Financial Services Audit department.

26th April 2013

Bolton School hosted its first festival of girls’ football this week, in association with the Independent Schools Football Association. The competition was for Year 7 and 8 pupils and the tournament ran as a league with eight teams from the Essa Academy, Liverpool College, Grammar School at Leeds (GSAL), Canon Slade and Bolton School taking part. All teams played with enthusiasm and represented their schools with pride, proving that girls’ football is a growing sport. And there were more visitors to School as year 3 pupils from local primary schools, Tonge Moor Primary and St Peter and St Paul Primary, were invited to enjoy a Samba presentation and workshop.

Congratulations go to two of our pupils who have been offered places at US Universities. Paddy Pender has been offered a place to study at Harvard University, while Beth Coton will take up a Tennis scholarship at the University of Northern Colorado. Both chose to study in America because of the opportunities it offers, not just academically but also in sport, and follow in the footsteps of a number of former Bolton School pupils who chose to take up those opportunities. There will be overseas study of another kind for Year 11 pupil, Lewis Daly, who will sit his GCSE Maths in Turkey while out there for his Team GB water-polo commitments! Lewis is a member of the GB Youth Water Polo Team who will be taking part in the European Qualifiers in Turkey, and as this coincides with his Maths GCSE, it is being arranged for Lewis to sit the exam in a local school.

Two chess prodigies from our junior girls’ school will be flying out to Europe to compete in World and European Chess Tournaments later this year! Sharon Daniel will represent England in the European Youth Chess Championship in Montenegro in September and in the World Youth Chess Championship in the UAE towards the end of the year, while Mahima Raghavendra will play for the England Girls’ Team in the European Schools’ Chess Championships in Novi Sad, Serbia at the end of June.

Girls’ Division pupils have had their artwork published in a new magazine for schools, Eduzine. Eduzine approached the School after seeing the high quality work of the pupils on the Art Department Blog, with the request to feature some in the launch issue of the magazine. The magazine celebrates young achievers and showcases their literary work, artwork, fashion creations, community work, social contributions and more. And the Boys’ Division Year 11 footballers have won the U16 Bolton town football cup for the first time, beating Sharples 3-0 in the final to take the title.