Friday 22 April 2016

22 April 2016

The Choral Evensong held at Bolton Parish Church saw Bolton School return to the site of its earliest incarnation for a celebration of the School's centenary and the quincentenary of education in Bolton. The service gave thanks to the School's many Founders and benefactors, and saw the Joint Chamber Choir, the Junior Boys’ and Junior Girls’ Choirs, the Friends of Bolton School Choir and the congregation raise their voices in song and celebration.


The second annual Duke of Edinburgh Awards Evening celebrated pupils' amazing achievements this week. Pupils were presented with their Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards, and heard inspirational words from an Old Boy and Old Girl who have taken lessons from their Duke of Edinburgh and adventuring experiences into their everyday lives. Pupils also shared their experiences with the audience.


The Girls' Division held its annual Open Mic Night, hosted once again by acclaimed poet Mike Garry. The evening was a celebration of creativity: a selection of twenty-four girls from Years 7 to 13 performed their own poetry pieces with confidence and expression. Mike performed his own work during the second half of the evening.


Five Junior Boys and six Senior Boys have had their stories selected for the second round of judging in Chris Evans and Radio 2's 500 Words story competition! There were over 123,400 initial entries and just 4,500 have been chosen to go through to the next stage, so this is a great achievement for all eleven pupils.


Bolton School's Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provision has been judged "outstanding" in all categories by the Independent Schools' Inspectorate (ISI)! The report on the School's provision in its co-educational Nursery, the Reception year at Beech House Infant School and in Kidzone, the School's wraparound childcare club, found that "the overall effectiveness of the EYFS is outstanding."

The Nursery Class for Three- and Four-Year-Olds took a trip to Martin Mere this week to learn more about Spring and Growth. They found out lots of new information about birds and were excited to see the flamingos!


The Year 2 pianists took centre stage at Beech House this week for the Piano Recital. Twenty-six young performers played in front of an audience, many of them for the first time, with a great deal of confidence and talent. Their parents, grandparents and family members were delighted to be able to hear them perform.


The Senior Concert Band recently performed at the Music for Youth Festival, which was held in March at Wardle Academy. They performed three movements from 'Riverdance', and were praised by the adjudicators for their accurate rendition of this challenging work.

The Junior Girls' String Quartet won gold at the Ramsbottom Music Festival. The girls performed well enough to impress the judges and, as winners, were invited to perform a second time at the celebration concert at Greenmount United Reformed Church.


The Year 8 boys and some of the Junior Boys and Girls enjoyed a special touring production of 'The Macbeth Curse' held in the Arts Centre. This show, which was presented by the Octagon Theatre and Prime Theatre, gave an engaging and very funny introduction to Shakespeare's Scottish Play.

The Year 10 boys enjoyed an afternoon of leadership activities with the Army North West Outreach Team this week. Designed to improve their resilience, teamwork, and other soft skills, the tasks stretched the boys' abilities and challenged them to solve problems. As well as being a lot of fun, the pupils gained great experience from the event, which was organised as part of the School's careers programme.


Jameson Goloba and Luca Williams-Denton in Year 8 have been selected for the national Independent Schools' Football Association (ISFA) elite squad. Both were scouted after playing for the North West England team.

The Bolton School Junior Boys have enjoyed double success by winning both age groups in the Bolton Schools' Cross Country League. The Year 5/6 and Year 3/4 teams both did very well in the competition.

A group of Boys' Division pupils travelled to Elvington Aerodrome this week to take part in the regional competition of UKAYRoC, a national rocketry competition. They built their own model rockets, which had to be capable of reaching an altitude of 850 feet and remaining airborne for 45 seconds while safely carrying two raw eggs. The boys had lots of fun during the competition despite facing disaster when their second rocket exploded on launch!


Before the Easter holidays, the Junior Girls held their annual Spring Fair. A host of activities, stalls and entertainments filled Hesketh House, from Year 3 dancing around the Maypole to a Surf Simulator and even the opportunity to meet some reptiles. There were also some amazing cakes entered into the Junior Bake Off, both in the 'taste' and 'decoration' categories!


The Bolton School Jazz Band received a Gold Award at the regional heats of the National Concert Band Festival in November, and were invited to perform at the national finals! The adjudicators were full of praise for the band and gave some excellent and useful feedback following their performance.

This week's Inspiring Minds are Margaret Dickinson and Veronica Millington, two long-standing members of Girls' Division staff who both left the School in 2006. They share their reflections on their time as teachers at Bolton School, as well as the many projects they have worked on together during their time at School and since their retirement.

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