Primary Division

Animal Farm Some of the Year 6 girls and boys enjoyed a trip to the Lowry Theatre in March to watch a production of ‘Animal Farm’. They all very much enjoyed this excellent show. Hamper Challenge The whole of the Bolton School Foundation joined forces to support local charity Urban Outreach at Christmas time. The school exceeded its targets in collecting food items to help make up the charity’s festive hampers, which provide ‘Christmas dinner and all the trimmings’ to those in need across the town. The Primary Division collected 1,500 tubes of Pringles for the hampers, while older pupils provided Christmas puddings and mince pies.

Careers Carousel Boys and girls in Year 6 had the opportunity to learn about careers from three Bolton School alumni and a parent, who gave their time to share their work with pupils. Old Boy Rob de Maine is a Lt Commander in the Navy, and flies helicopters as part of the fleet’s air arm: he told pupils more about the work he does, including humanitarian relief and counterpiracy operations. Old Girl Alisha Patel is manager at the Brain Research Centre at Salford Royal Hospital and through her interactive session she explained more about the brain and about how research is conducted. Old Girl Emma Roden and her colleague Jemma Woods spoke about what an architect does, how to become one, and the traits and skills needed to succeed in this field. Parent Hussein Khambalia shared the many different things a doctor can do, and talked about his own speciality as a transplant surgeon. National Poetry Day Young poets in Year 5 and 6 got creative at a writing workshop with University of Bolton poetry lecturer and award-winning poet Ben Wilkinson on National Poetry Day. Through inspiration and prompts from Ben, the Junior Boys and Junior Girls explored how they might tell their personal stories, express their identities and share their world through poems. From describing where they come from to imagining their poem as a favourite food, there were lots of opportunities to write and share work with the group throughout the afternoon.

Jubilee Celebrations The whole of Bolton School celebrated the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee by planting 33 trees across the campus as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy. The saplings include Wild Cherry, Lemon Balm, Rowan, Oak, Horn Beam and Beech trees. Infants also commemorated the Queen’s 70 years on the throne by dressing in red, white and blue on the last day of term. They sang songs, played games and organised themselves into a Union Jack during a special assembly! Later in the day, they were joined by Junior Girls and Boys, also enjoying dress down days, for a special Jubilee Jamboree picnic.

School Scouting Scouting is flourishing at Bolton School with lots happening in the Primary Division. During the last year, both the youngest section (Beaver) and the Cubs have been involved in a wide variety of activities both inside and out. As ever, thank you to our eclectic band of volunteers who make all the activities not only possible but exciting, memory making experiences. At the end of the Beavers’ Summer Term, they said a big ‘thank you’ to Tracker (Miss Dean from Boys’ Division) for all the exciting activities she led the Beavers through, as well as to Chil (Mrs Faulkner) and Limmerskin (Mrs Sykes) for stepping in as the new Beaver Leaders. There are whispers of sleep-outs and, at some point in the future, there may be the patter of tiny Squirrel feet as the School looks to open the newest section in Scouting …

World Book Day This was a wonderful opportunity for girls and boys across the Primary Division to share their favourite stories with one another. They dressed up as their favourite characters and took part in lots of activities themed around books and reading. For the infants, this meant making Enormous Crocodile hand puppets and Willy Wonka style chocolate bars and working together to make timelines based on fairy tales. The Junior Boys crafted their own stories after an illustration workshop with Corinna Campbell and teamed up at lunchtime for a World Book Day Scavenger Hunt, followed by a live, virtual talk from Michael Rosen in the afternoon. Junior Girls read story books in French and Spanish in their Modern Foreign Language lessons, wrote Roald Dahl-style revolting recipes, shared book extracts and even came up with ‘Wonka’ weather forecasts. The Lost Words In the Summer Term, Bolton School hosted a magical new outdoor theatre production called ‘The Lost Words: Told in Gold’, an adaptation of the book by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris. Primary Division pupils were among those who enjoyed this fantastical theatre-trail, which took its audience through a giant goldfinch nest to a woodland featuring stunning 3D installations of Morris’ golden illustrations and Macfarlane’s enchanting words.