Bolton School

The Bolton School family came together for a spectacular musical extravaganza at the Victoria Hall in Bolton. Over 600 pupils from both the Girls' and Boys' Divisions, members and former members of the teaching staff, current and former governors, joined with parents and friends of the School, who, as a participative audience, played an integral role in the festival atmosphere of this large scale gala event. The dramatic finale saw Union Jack flag waving pupils keeping time to some roof-raising patriotic sing-alongs, including Jerusalem, Rule Britannia, Land of Hope and Glory and Auld Lang Syne.

Bolton School has won the North-West regional round of the first ISFA Under 11s' Seven-a-Side National Tournament. They overcame Altrincham Preparatory School 2-0 in the final, having beaten local team Bury Grammar School on penalties in the semi-final after a 1-1 draw and Oldham Hulme 3-0 in the quarter final. The Bolton School U11s' team will now take part in the national final which will be held at the FA's new football centre, St George's Park, on Monday 29 April. In Rugby, the U15 squad won the 10th AKS Sevens tournament at Arnold King Edwards School, while the Senior rugby players were runners up in their first trip out on the sevens circuit when they travelled to the picturesque Kirby Lonsdale rugby club.

Year 9 scientists from across the borough enjoyed a day of fun and learning as Bolton School hosted its third annual Physics Olympics. The day saw teams of four gifted and talented students from local secondary schools compete in a series of day-long challenges while utilising the expertise and facilities at the School. And Blackrod Primary School’s wonderful igloo installation made of plastic milk bottles and other recycled material ensured they were the inaugural winners of Bolton School’s new Celebration of Art event. A large gathering of parents, pupils and teachers enjoyed perusing a selection of imaginative pieces by children from Reception to Year 6 at local primary schools at the exhibition held in the Arts Centre.

Also this week, as part of their careers programme, girls from years 10 to 13 had the opportunity to listen to a number of speakers with successful careers in business, several of whom were old girls of the school. The Keynote speaker on the day was Louis Barnett from Chokolit, a 20 year old entrepreneur, chocolatier and conservationist, who became the UK’s youngest entrepreneur, when his company Chokolit was set up aged just 12. And fourteen Sixth Form boys joined over 4000 students from almost 500 schools to take part in the first round of the British Biology Olympiad. The boys put in some very good performances - Siddharth Umapathy came away with a Bronze award, Drew Winstanley and Christian Warner with a Silver award, and Daniel Hurt and Joseph Ayathamattam’s performance resulted in a Gold award and an invitation to take part in round two.

And a team of Junior Girls’ chess players has made it through to the Final of the ECF National Schools' Girls' Team Championship. The girls took part in the Northern Semi Final at Cheadle Hulme School, and came second in the match to book their place in the final in Uppington in July.

Bolton School Jazz Band were the overall winners of the School Band Category of the Great North Big Band Festival, and the Saxophone Section were also awarded the best section! The band performed alongside many of the UK’s best youth and university bands at the 10th Annual Great North Big Band Jazz Festival and Competition, which this year took place at the North Shore entertainment venue at Sunderland University on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of March.

Lots of sport news to report this week! Eight teams took part in the Finals day of the Bolton Schools’ Primary Football Championship, held at Bolton School this week. The quarter final, semi final and the final matches were all played on the day and after a tense penalty shoot out, the winners were Sacred Heart with Eagley taking second spot. And year 7 and 8 pupils in the Girls’ Division have been given the opportunity to be a part of the Girls’ Football Development Programme, providing them with the opportunity to be coached by fully qualified football coaches from Bolton Wanderers FC. As one of the County’s top U19 female cricketers, year 10 Girls’ Division pupil Nalisha Patel, had the exciting opportunity of being part of a tour to Dubai in February - 14 players were selected for the trip which consisted of eight days in Dubai, playing against a variety of Counties from England as well as UAE. While the Boys’ Division U18 water polo team cruised through to the English Schools' Water Polo Finals, to be played at Walsall on Saturday, with a penalty shootout with Manchester Grammar School deciding who won the group and progressed to the final. And the Junior Girls’ Year 4/5 Swim Team will represent Bolton at the 2013 Greater Manchester School Games on the 19th March, following their performance in the qualifying.

Bolton School Old Boy and international pop star, Max George from the Wanted, wished current pupils Alex Deakin and Caroline Blair good luck when they performed in a sold out production of Les Miserables at the Z-Arts Centre in Manchester. And Alex was also in the spotlight at School when he and Matthew Kay created history in the Boys’ Division Young Musician of the Year Competition as the first time that vocalists have won first prize in both the Junior Young Musician and the Senior Young Musician Finals.

Also this week, Hesketh House was transformed into a scene from 1920’s Paris as the girls dressed up to celebrate ‘The Invention of Hugo Cabret’ for World Book Day. And we are proud to be a sponsor of the prestigious Bolton and Bury Business Awards for the fourth year running and will once again sponsor the Young Person/Apprentice of the Year category.

Pupils and staff at Bolton School have been doing their bit for Comic Relief with many fundraising efforts going on. At Beech House the pupils took part in a bake off competition, dressed in fancy dress or something red, held a cake sale and told jokes in assembly.

We have many more sporting achievements to report - Year 10 pupil Dominic Walker has set a new British and English 50m backstroke record in his age group. While sixth form pupil Teddy Pender has qualified for the British Championships in June and Year 11 pupil, Lewis Daly, has been selected for the GB Youth Water Polo Team. The Boys’ U16 Badminton team are the North West Champions, putting them through to the Center Parcs National Schools Badminton Championships final for the second year running. In the Girls’ Division the Senior Lacrosse team are National Schools' Lacrosse Championship Winners and The Bolton School U14 Netball Team are Town Champions. At Junior level, Boys and Girls are both celebrating a double success after winning both the Bolton Primary Schools' Cross Country League and Championship too.

Award winning children’s author, Alan Gibbons, visited the Boys’ Division this week to talk to Year 8 and 9 pupils about life as an author. In his talk, ‘How I do it’, Alan spoke to the boys about how he became a writer and the inspiration for his books and the process he goes through to write them. Year 6 pupils at Park Road, Krishnan Ajit and Mark Kattakayam, have been awarded Bronze certificates in the National Primary Maths Challenge - putting them in the top 522 young mathematicians in the country! And the team from Clarendon Cottage Primary School were the winners of the Bolton School Big Quiz for local primary schools, with Altrincham Prep School taking second place. Nine teams pitted their wits against one another over the course of ten testing rounds, which covered everything from Current affairs, Observation, Geography, Literature, Science, History, Maths Puzzle, Famous Faces, Sequence and Sport!

Having enjoyed success in qualifying rounds a large number of girls and boys from Years 5 to 13 at Bolton School have been representing the Bolton borough by taking part, and winning, in this year’s Greater Manchester Winter Youth Games. The competition saw teams from the ten boroughs of Greater Manchester competing in a wide range of sports. An U10 swim team comprising Year 4 and 5 pupils from the Junior Girls’ School, ran out joint winners with the borough of Trafford in their age group and Junior Boys’ pupils took third place in the same competition. Senior School boys also enjoyed success by winning the U13 Junior Water Polo Competition and the School’s Senior Rugby team were runners up in the first U18 Rugby Union Sevens Tournament and the U15s’ Volleyball Team went one better than last year by claiming the Silver medal.Also in sport, after a superb season of winning all but three games, the U12s began the final week of football by winning the annual MGS 8s championships, beating Cheadle Hulme in the final. While the senior relay swim team competed in the Manchester Grammar School invitational swimming gala and smashed the course 4x50 yards medley relay record. And Year 12 pupil Natasha Lomas captained the winning team of the Lancashire County U18 Girls Doubles Winter League competition.

Successful Old Girls and Old Boys returned to school this week to share their experiences with current Sixth Form pupils on World of Work Day. On the day the pupils had the chance to attend Career talks on a wide range of areas including Acting, Archaeology, Architecture, Clothing, Construction, Dentistry, Design, Engineering, Finance, IT, Law, Marketing, Medicine, Music, Teaching, and Psychiatry.

Out of 8,500 pupils that took part in the North West heats of the French Spelling Bee, from 73 different schools spanning Lancashire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire, Year 7 pupils Nathan Ashley and Matthew Elmes achieved second and third places respectively today, gaining places in the National Final at Cambridge University in July! And Sixth Form students enjoyed an outstanding year at the British Chemistry Olympiad with three students receiving Gold certificates – awarded to just 7% of the 4574 candidates from all over the UK.

Year 10 and 11 girls were thrilled to receive a visit from one of the country’s hottest poets, Luke Wright. Luke performed his thought provoking and humorous work in the Girls’ Division Theatre and then the floor was opened up to questions and answers. Later in the afternoon, he met with Sixth Formers in the School’s Joint Creative Writing Group, and in the evening he performed at the School’s Arts and Conference Centre. The latest joint Drama production proved a hit with audiences - the modern interpretation of Moliere’s ‘The Hypochondriac’ was enjoyed by both cast and audience alike. And following their recent success at the Great North Big Band Festival, the Bolton School Jazz Band gave a nearly note perfect performance at the Music For Youth Regional Festival, described as 'outstanding' and 'amazing'.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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'.

The lead up to the end of term has been eventful as ever, including the whole of Bolton School Boys’ and Girls’ Divisions walking the 12 miles up to Rivington Pike and back to raise money for a range of charities. They were joined on the walk by their teachers, and also by a group of Chinese primary school pupils who are in Bolton as part of the City Link project with Bolton Council. A number of charities will benefit including Help for Heroes, Wish Upon a Star, Lilac Centre, Macmillan Cancer Support, Derian House, The British Heart Foundation, Beanstalk, Seeability, Fort Alice, Children’s Wish and Leukemia Research. The money is now in from the Junior Boys' Fun Run earlier in the year - they raised an amazing £4264 for the RNLI! And pupils in the Junior Girls’ School set up stalls selling cakes, sweets and cuddly toys, raising over £700 for a range of charities.
The Junior Boys shone in their annual drama production, this year entitled ‘Will Shakespeare Save Us! Will Shakespeare Save The King!’ The boys gave three performances of the production to packed audiences of family and friends. The show included fun adaptations of scenes from several of Shakespeare’s plays including Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, Hamlet, and Much Ado About Nothing.
Junior Girls at Hesketh House celebrated becoming National U11 Girls’ Chess Champions! Four girls took part in the national finals of the EFC Schools’ Tournament held at Uppingham School. They received a trophy and an engraved wooden chess board. Year 6 pupil Sally Cowling has been selected for the Junior Royal Northern Collegeof Music, to passing an audition on the oboe to be accepted. And more music success in the Senior School as Sixth Form pupil Natasha Lomas has been offered a place in the Halle Youth Orchestra for her clarinet playing. The Bolton School music ensembles often go out to perform at local schools as part of Community Music– recently the Joint Junior Concert Band performed at St James CE Primary School, Farnworth and the Joint Training Orchestra went out to Ladywood Special Needs School in Little Lever. In Sport, The Boys’ Golf team has won the annual Bolton Schools’ Golf Championships, while the U12 Cricket team won the Lancashire County Cricket Cup, beating Manchester Grammar School (MGS) by seven wickets in the final. The team will now go on to represent the county in the national competition.
Eight boys from Years 9 to 11 participated in the Withington Girls School Model UNConference and were rewarded with the greatest success yet for a team from the Boys' Division. The boys represented Israel, a challenging delegation, and debated a wide ranging list of issues, from disarmament to health. They competed against over 20 of top independent and grammar school in the North and Midlands and the team won the Highly Commended Committee award - essentially second place out of over 40 delegations – along with a number of individual achievements. The Girls’ Division also took a group to Withington to compete and Year 11 pupil Jess Melling won ‘Commended Delegate’.

The summer holidays by no means signifies a quiet time for Bolton School! Pupils have been celebrating outstanding GCSE and A level results – at A Level in the Boys’ Division, 76.1% of results were A*, A or B and overall, students achieved a 99.4% pass rate with just under half of the grades awarded being A* or A and 89.1% of grades being at C or above. Four boys achieved 3 or more A* grades. Students in the Girls’ Division at Bolton School achieved a 100% pass rate at A Level with over half of the grades awarded being A* or A and 93% of grades being at C or above. The pass rate at A* to B was 82.3%. Six girls achieved 3 or more A* grades. 70.7% of the grades awarded at Bolton School Girls’ Division were A* or A with 33% of grades at A*. Seven girls achieved 11 A* grades and three girls achieved 10 A* grades In the Boys’ Division two out of every three grades obtained were at either A* or A; 33.6% of all grades were at A* and one in every three boys has achieved a set of A* or A grades in each of their ten subjects. Twelve Year 10 girls experienced the trip of a lifetime when they headed out to East Africa to spend two weeks learning about life in Tanzania, particularly the Maasai culture, and helping out at the KCEM Education Centre. This is the second time Bolton School girls have been to visit Tanzania, thanks to the School’s connection with LivLife, a charity which has been set up by two old boys of the School to provide free education centres in villages of Tanzania. The trip allowed the girls to fully immerse themselves in African life and provided a real cultural exchange. While nineteen Bolton School boys enjoyed three days of hockey lessons from the first team coach of German side, ETB Essen, who is also a top player in the German national league. The privilege was afforded to them during their Hockey Exchange Tour with the Essen club. During their one week stay in Germany, the boys were welcomed by the Mayor in the Town Hall and their visit even made Essen Council's newsletter. Hesketh House officially has the best U10 and U11 girls’ chess players in Britain! Chess prodigies Sharon Daniel and Mahima Raghavendra took part in the British Chess Championships in Torquay in August. Sharon became British Under 11 Girls Champion and Mahima became British Under 10 Girls Champion in the same event. It is an amazing achievement for two girls from the same School to be British Champions! Well done girls! And Year 10 pupil, Arron Davies, travelled to Nemours in France to compete in the 2013 IWWF Water Ski and Wakeboard Europe and Africa Youth Championships, and came away with a team bronze medal! Arron was one of a four strong GB Youth U14 team to compete in the competition which was held on the 21st to 25th August. Arron and his team competed in preliminary rounds in Slalom, Tricks and Jumps events to qualify for the finals, and finished in third place. Not only did Bolton School Boys’ Division pupil Haseeb Hameed achieve 3A*s, 4As, 2Bs and a C in his GCSE’s, he also had a busy and successful summer playing cricket for Lancashire and in the Under 19 England development squad. Most recently Haseeb was drafted into the England Under 19 squad for a series of games. And talented writer, Luke Cavanaugh, has penned an award-winning story! Luke’s imaginative tale about an orphan impressed judges so much he was chosen as the winner of the Words for Life Pen a Story Competition, run by the National Literacy Trust. Hundreds of young people entered the competition and Luke’s story was chosen from a shortlist of 40.

On the first day of the Autumn Term, Sixth Form students at Bolton School were thrilled to move into their new £7m Riley Sixth Form Centre. The stunning glass-fronted three storey building gives independence to more than 400 Sixth Form students and includes an ICT suite, seminar rooms with touch-screen tvs, quiet study areas, a common room, a refectory cafe area, exhibition space and the main school reception. Quoting Shakespeare’s Polonius in Hamlet, “To thine own self be true”, Professor Jennifer Clack, ScD FRS (Professor and Curator of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge), returned to Bolton School as Guest Speaker to offer wisdom and advice at the Girls’ Division Sixth Form Presentation Evening. Professor Clack, who was the subject of a recent BBC documentary, “Beautiful Minds”, impressed upon the girls the importance of not bowing to pressure from others and to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves. All Sixth Formers at Bolton School are actively encouraged to get involved in supporting their local communities and as part of this, a Volunteering Fair was held for Year 12 pupils, giving students the opportunity to meet with local organisations and make decisions about the kinds of voluntary activities they might pursue. Former Bolton School Girls’ Division pupil, Katherine Monks, was part of the winning University of Liverpool team on University Challenge last night. Katherine, who is reading Classics at Liverpool, performed outstandingly well for her team who easily beat Keele with an amazing score of 295-40 in their first round match.

Year 12 pupils at Bolton School Girls’ Division received expert business tips and motivation from Old Girl Caroline Plumb, as part of a Business Enterprise and Skills Training Day. Successful businesswoman Caroline, Co-founder and CEO of FreshMinds Group, spoke to the girls about her own career and passed on tips and advice to help them succeed in the future. The day was part of the careers programme for the girls, and also included workshops and seminars with local Business leaders. Also this week GCSE and A level students, their parents, staff and friends of the School enjoyed a fascinating insight into the work of a Medical Physicist. Dr Heather Williams, a Senior Medical Physicist for Nuclear Medicine at Central Manchester University Hospitals and Honorary Lecturer in the Centre for Imaging Sciences at Manchester University, outlined the contribution of clinical scientists to healthcare and the work of medical physicists, like herself. Pupils from seven schools across Bolton have been making a stand for farmers across the world. The event, organised by Bolton School Girls’ Division and Oxfam, and supported by The Co-operative is part of a campaign for a better deal to be struck for the world's smallholder farmers. 30 pupils from six Bolton primary schools along with 30 current Year 7s from Bolton School Girls’ Division learnt about where their food comes from, the problems that small scale food producers face and the important role they play in providing food globally. 12 Year 8 water polo players have all made the regional squad for water polo after performing well at the recent trials at Manchester Aquatics Centre. While Year 11 pupil Matthew Potts has been selected to represent the North of England at Hockey as the U17 goalkeeper. Three Bolton School Girls’ Division pupils have been selected for the Halle Youth Orchestra. Following successful auditions, the girls have been awarded full membership for the 2013-2014 season. Year 12 pupil Katie Hurt will play the cello, Year 13 pupil Holly Holt will play the flute and fellow Year 13 pupil Natasha Lomas will play the clarinet. Despite the rain, Old Boltonians and their friends have once again made a significant contribution to the School's Bursary Fund through the annual Bolton School Bursary Golf Day, held at Bolton Golf Club. Teams from across the School Community joined teams of pupils from the Boys’ Division and the Girls' Division at the event. A fantastic grand total of £5, 600 was raised through the event. Fourteen students, who left Bolton School in the Summer, have raised £57,531 to help provide bursaries for future Bolton School pupils. Over a two week period, the students called former Bolton School pupils who had indicated that they would be happy to talk to current students about fundraising activities. And Junior Boys presented the Bolton Branch of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) with a cheque for £4356.58, raised through their annual fancy dress fun run!

This week, Bolton School, in partnership with the Ogden Trust, played host to the Frontiers of Physics lectures, which brought together over 250 pupils, parents and staff from eight schools in the Bolton, Preston and Leyland areas. Pupils were treated to a series of lectures and given the opportunity to ask real scientists questions. For the finale of the event the great hall was linked, via video conference, to CERN in Geneva. The School also welcomed author and Brit Writers’ Award Winner, Sufiya Ahmed, to officially launch a new initiative supported by the Bolton Schools' Library Service - the “Bolton Children’s Fiction Book Award”. Over 100 pupils in Years 7 and 8 from across the region joined Bolton School pupils at the launch, where Sufiya announced the six shortlisted books and encouraged the pupils to read the shortlisted books and vote for their favourite. Bolton Public Libraries are stocking the shortlisted titles in their branch libraries. In sport, Year 7 and 8 girls at Bolton School, who completed a level 2 football training skills course earlier in the year, were treated to an access all areas tour of the Reebok stadium where they were awarded their course certificate and medal pitch side by the BWFC coaches. Year 10 pupil Georgina Owen in has been selected for the Under 17 Regional EXCEL netball squad - a high performance squad which follows an intensive training schedule with some of the country's top coaches. Further netball success to report in the Sixth Form as Georgina’s sister, Ellena Owen, and Sarah Richards have been selected to represent Cheshire County U18 Netball squad for the forthcoming season. While pupils Nalisha Patel and Haseeb Hameed were honoured at the BoSPAA Sports Awards – Nalisha was awarded ‘Sports Achiever of the Year’ and Hasseb, was runner up in the same category, both for cricket. Bolton School also sponsored the category of ‘Coach of the Year’ at the awards, which went to Lynda Grady of Bolton Trampoline Club. The U18 Boys’ Division Water polo team won all the games in their group to make it through the first round of English Schools’ competition. An impressive performance, especially given that several players were missing from the squad and a number U16/15 boys were included. Beech House pupils joined over 60 Year 1 and 2 pupils from eight other local primary schools from across the region to take part in a Ball Skills Festival where teams of eight children took part different activities ranging from sports such as football, hockey, and tennis to throwing events. And Bolton School also hosted a Maths Challenge for local Primary Schools to help get young people involved in Maths in a fun way. Bolton School Junior Boys celebrated Harvest by joining with parents for the annual Harvest festival in aid of the Drop-in Centre at St Luke's Church on Chorley Old Road. Year 7 Sailor, Matthew Kyle, took to the waves to help pay for expensive repairs to his gran’s church - and raised more than £1,100 by sailing 16km, the length of Coniston Water in the Lake District, And members of the Bolton School Concert Band performed at the Burnden Park Asda on Saturday to help raise money for Tickled Pink.

Old Boy Bryan Appleyard, successful journalist and author, returned to his former school to speak at the prestigious Marcus Tillotson Lecture. His lecture, ‘The Rise of the Machines’ provided an opportunity for an audience of almost 300 pupils, parents, former parents and friends of the School to listen to and engage with a leading literary figure and one of the School’s most gifted alumni. Pupils in the Senior Girls' School have raised over £350 towards sponsoring their third guide dog! The girls already sponsor two guide dogs from earlier fundraising efforts, Rolo and Dickens. Now, they are well on their way to sponsoring a third. The fundraising day was part of the week long campaign Stand Out for Guide Dogs 2013, and, for a minimum donation of 50 pence, girls were allowed to wear an item of luminous clothing. A choir of 30 girls from year 7 to 13 performed to a packed audience at the Star Ball Hilton Hotel on Saturday evening. This exciting black tie event was held in aid of the charity NSPCC. And Year 8 and 9 pupils from Bolton School Girls’ and Boys’ Divisions took part in a whole day STEM (science technology engineering and maths) event, working in teams of 5 to complete a series of challenges leading up to the main task of the day – to design and make a model of a glider. Almost 200 Old Boys and Old Girls joined with former staff and their guests this week for a Bolton School Reunion held at the School. After a drinks reception in the impressive new Riley Centre, everyone gathered in the Arts Centre to catch up with old classmates and to meet with some of their former teachers. Two pairs of multi-generations of Old Boys and Old Girls were there as well as two married Old Boy and Old Girl couples! And the U12 Water Polo team are the Bolton and District U12 Cup winners! The team came from 4-2 down against Warrington to eventually win 6-4! The team are also one game away from winning the league!

The final week before the half term has been a busy one for events and this year's Open Morning was one of the busiest ever with a record number of enquirers creating a great buzz around the campus. Also this week hundreds of GCSE and A level students from across the borough attended the Bolton School Careers and Higher Education Convention, with delegates from over 70 different companies, training boards and universities throughout England on hand to advise upper school students about their future. On the same evening was a food and drink festival organised by Junior Boys’ Parents Association and parents, pupils and visitors enjoyed tucking into the many delicacies on offer. The event was organised as a social get-together and money raised from the raffle and hire of stalls will go towards buying playground equipment for the Junior Boys. And Year 7 pupils in the Girls’ Division put on a dazzling concert, showcasing the wide range of musical talents in the year, including a number of soloist instrumental and vocal performers and songs from Les Miserables. Year 7 and 8 pupils from both divisions joined around 20,000 children in over 50 countries across the world to compete in the World Marathon Challenge - a simultaneous relay race in support of Save the Children. Each child ran a 200m stretch of the track at Leverhulme Park Athletics Club several times each, passing a baton to their team-mates, covering a total of 26.2 miles – a full Olympic marathon! The weather was much improved from last year and the Bolton School pupils completed their marathon in 2h 15 mins and 40 seconds. In sport, a number of girls across a range of age groups have been selected to play Lacrosse for Lancashire. The girls attended the U18 Lancashire Trials and after a long and tiring day, 16 girls were selected to play for the County squads. The U15 netball team were convincing winners of the Bolton Schools' Tournament scoring an impressive 80 goals whilst conceding only 8! And congratulations go to Rhiannon Fox-Rothwell in the Lower Sixth who has been selected once again to represent Lancashire Under 18 Women’s rugby team. Bolton School has continued its strong links with ISFA this year with four boys being selected for the ISFA north representative sides. Once again pupils at Hesketh House enjoyed an afternoon of healthy eating with the H Factor. The girls took part in the annual healthy eating initiative 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. A team of four boys have defeated local rivals to progress to the Regional Finals of the prestigious Debating Matters competition. The finals will be held at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry against winning schools from around the North West and North of Wales.

The first week in November was all about visitors and awards.

Former Girls’ Division pupil Lizzie Foster returned to Bolton School to speak to Year 12 students about her career at the BBC, as part of their PSHE programme.

Lizzie attended the Girls’ Division Sixth Form from 1987-1989. She currently works at the new Media City Centre, producing documentaries and quizzes for Radio 4, having previously worked on TV programmes such as Mastermind and A Question of Sport.

Another visitor, Gisle Krogseth, gave a free lunchtime Classical Guitar Recital/Lecture at Bolton School Arts Centre. Gisle is a leading Norwegian guitarist and composer. He spoke about his life as a musician and played some of his own compositions including “Runes” and “Sonatina dell’ Adriatico” for the audience.

The Russian and German Departments at Bolton School Boys’ Division have each received a prestigious Good Schools' Guide Award for their performance at A Level. The honours were received in the A Level Awards 2012 for the best results achieved by boys at an English School at AS Level.

Bolton School played host to the regional final of the National Chess Team Challengefor Secondary Schools. Seven schools took part including teams from Bolton School Boys’ and Girls’ Divisions, making up 14 teams of 4. The afternoon tournament lasted around two hours and consisted of four rounds each lasting 25 minutes.

The week has been a very active one throughout the whole school.

Over 40 Old Girls returned to the Girls’ Division and joined pupils and staff for their Armistice Service, held in the School’s Great Hall. The Old Girls processed into the service, each accompanied by a Sixth Form Prefect, before joining the School in hymns, listening to readings and observing the customary two-minute silence.

After the Commemoration, the Old Girls who had attended went on to the Arts Centre for a lunch at which they enjoyed Year 7 girls’ singing of the School Song and songs from Les Misérables.

Boys’ Division Senior School pupils attended a Remembrance Day Assembly to commemorate soldiers who fought in conflicts from World War I to the present day.

The assembly encouraged the boys to remember those who gave their lives, and to be inspired by stories of bravery. Donations were made by the boys to the Poppy Appeal. The assembly ended with a procession through the Great Hall and the laying of poppy wreaths by Sixth Form pupils.

Bolton School Girls' Division took part in ’Operation Christmas Child’. The girls donated individually and collectively a shoebox which they decoratively wrapped and filled with essentials including calculators, pens, toothpaste, hairbrushes, combs, soaps, hats, scarfs and one or two luxuries including teddy bears and sweets.

Sixth Form students from Bolton School have been undergoing intensive training in order to be able to assist in delivering three taster sessions for disabled skiers in the coming weeks. Over 30 skiers, all aged between 11 and 15 from Bolton, have signed up for the sessions. The students were joined at Chill Factore near the Trafford Centre by Mrs Sara Cooper, who, along with husband Dr Steven Cooper (a teacher at Bolton School) and Disability SnowSport UK has organised a disability ski programme, which offers residents of Bolton with a disability the opportunity to experience the thrill of skiing.

An exhibition of artwork produced by last year’s Year 6 pupils was put on show in the Market Place, Bolton. The work shows the detailed rotational designs for wallpaper paintings and was created in the style of the Victorian artist, William Morris. Year 6 pupils created these fine, colourful and intricate patterns as part of their Learning Challenges work in Art and History.

This year’s Bolton School Modern ForeignLanguages’ (MFL) Day for local primary school children was bigger than ever in the range of taster languages that could be sampled, and 14 schools took part.

The week ended with riot of colour, excitement and costumes as Nursery staff, parents and children from Tweenies to Butterflies at Bolton School Nursery, took part in a full day fundraiser to raise money for BBC Children in Need.

Also Year 11 pupil singer songwriter ImanOrths sang live for Children in Need outside the BBC studios in London.

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