Junior Boys' Review 2014-15

BOLTON SCHOOL JUNIOR BOYS’ 2014/2015 REVIEW

From the Head...

This year at Park Road has been one of excitement and change. The school continues to focus on developing the whole child, stretching boys to achieve their very best both academically and in the co-curricular opportunities available to them. Once again, a focus on enhancing the work in the classroom through a rich programme of visits and visitors has paid dividends in the enthusiasm all boys and their teachers show when they come to school each day.

Beyond the classroom we have seen a wonderful variety of activity with the boys excelling in sport, music, drama and charitable endeavour. After a successful season last year, the football team had a lot to live up to and they did not disappoint. They reached the National Independent Schools’ Final for the third year running and were also crowned AJIS champions for the sixth time in the recent history of the competition. Music has grown in terms of participation and performance with a wider range of ensembles in action and the quality of music improving all the time. My highlight of the year is very hard to pick, but the spine-tingling performance by the combined choir of Park Road boys and Hesketh House girls at the Bridgewater Hall perhaps just steals that crown. The Year 6 play this year was Peter Pan and proved to be a real hit which had audiences scrabbling for tickets. We may not quite have managed to get the children to fly, but spirits definitely soared as the actors took to the stage. The high quality of the acting and singing was admired by all who saw the play and will certainly be a hard one to follow.

In our charity work this year we have been very busy with money raised for Water Aid and Children in Need. As ever our Charity Fun Run was a colourful affair with much effort put into considering the best costume for the event. After much discussion, it was decided that the money raised would be split equally between Cancer Research UK and Derian House. In total, Junior Boys raised over £5600, which is a fabulous total, much appreciated by the two charities concerned.

Our Year 6 Entrepreneur project, directed once again by Mrs Crowther, also raised money for charity. The winning team, Sweet Tooth, selected which charity the money would go to and this year chose HexN, a charity supporting victims of the recent and devastating Nepalese earthquake. They gave over £500 to this good cause.

At the end of what has been another busy and exciting year, it is a pleasure to reflect on all that we have achieved and doing so provides the perfect platform from which to plan ahead.

Mrs S Faulkner

Head of the Junior Boys’ Division

Landscape Art Exhibition

The Year 6 boys put on their annual exhibition for family and friends in the Arts Centre, with the paintings then moving to go on public display at the Market Place in Bolton. Every boy in the year group contributed to this stunning collection of paintings, which included a range of scenes from mountainous forests to peaceful lakes, stormy seascapes to idyllic country roads, and many more.

Photography Competition

Boys in Year 3 took part in a photography competition which showed off their creativity and imagination. The judge was a professional photographer, who was particularly impressed by the boys’ use of dramatic lighting and contrast, interesting angles and close-up detail.

Alex - 1st prize

Nikhil - 2nd prize

Zach G - 3rd prize

The Year 6 performance of Peter Pan was nothing short of fantastic. The superb acting, singing and technical abilities showcased by the whole cast were impressive throughout this wonderful interpretation of the tale. The spectacular costumes, worn with great aplomb by the enthusiastic and energetic boys, combined with their acting talents to bring the production to life on the stage. The whole performance made for a truly unforgettable evening.

Drama

Peter Pan

Music plays a huge part in the life of the School, and boys are involved with concerts and performances each term. The Christmas Carol Service combines hymns, choral pieces and musical performances for a poignant celebration. Other events offer a more informal programme: this year’s Spring Concert included the Wind Band’s rendition of ‘Barbara Ann’, the Recorder Group playing ‘Uptown Funk’ and a Michael Jackson medley from the massed voices of the whole Junior Boys’ School!

Spring Concert

Carolling on Coronation Street

String Quartet

The group won first place in their category at Ramsbottom Music Festival.

Music

Music Festival

The Park Road Music Festival gives all musicians the chance to shine in front of an audience.

Bridgewater Hall Concert

A spectacular whole school Gala Concert at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall began the 100th and 500th anniversary celebrations at Bolton School. The Junior Boys’ Choir helped to open the evening, joining with Choirs from across the Foundation to sing a rousing version of ‘Let Your Light Shine’. They also teamed up with the Junior Girls’ Choir to sing ‘Look at the World’ later in the programme. The Gala Concert was one of the musical highlights of the year, and is likely to live long in the memories of participants and audience alike.

Fun Run

The Fun Run was once again a highlight of the year. Despite leaden skies, pupils and staff did not allow their enthusiasm to be dampened. There was a brilliant atmosphere with parents cheering on the boys as they completed as many laps of the Senior School track as they could manage in pair relays. The variety of costumes was as wide as ever: superheroes, pirates, members of the armed forces, fruit and vegetables, and even a pair of Bolton School Junior Girls! The event raised a spectacular £5,653.10 which was split between Cancer Research UK and Derian House.

Fundraising events took place throughout the year. A non-uniform day and cake sale raised £621.23 for Children in Need, and the Spring Concert retiring collection raised £371.55 for Water Aid. Year 4 pupils were inspired to raise money with a cake sale to buy water purification kits from Oxfam following their water workshop. The £150 raised is enough to bring safe, clean water to 150 people in Africa for a whole year!

Entrepreneur Week

Year 6 raised £552.60 of profit from their Entrepreneur Project stalls. The winning team decided to donate the funds to HexN UK, to help provide vital assistance in the wake of the recent Nepal earthquake disaster.

Harvest Assembly

The Junior Boys and their families once again supported St Luke’s Drop-In Centre at Harvest. Their gifts of food were displayed on the stage during the annual Harvest Festival assembly. An address by Reverend Stuart Cornes of St Luke’s Church was followed by prayers, hymns and choral performances. This was an opportunity for the boys to be thankful for the things they have, whilst remembering the needs of others and those who are less fortunate. This is the ninth year that the Junior Boys have supported St Luke’s Drop-In Centre, which aims to help the long-term unemployed, the elderly and the homeless, and provides over 10,000 free meals each year.

Red Nose Day

Funny faces filled Park Road this Red Nose Day to raise £276 for Comic Relief!

Sports

Boys are involved in various sporting endeavours, from inter-house matches in School to local, regional and national competitions. This year saw the Junior Boys’ first foray into competitive Hockey. The fledgling team played very well against some established sides in the Manchester Junior Hockey League, and achieved an excellent 7th place in the competition. They also took part in the In2Hockey North West Tournament. The Swimming team performed well in various local galas throughout the year. One of the swimming highlights was the AJIS event in April, where three boys achieved individual bronze medals and the U11 Freestyle Relay team gained silver medals.

Football

The Year 6 Football team has enjoyed great success throughout the year. Following in the footsteps of last year’s team, they won the Bolton Primary Schools’ Championships, and with it the right to represent Bolton Wanderers Football Club in the Kids’ Cup. They went on to play at the Regional Final and made it to the quarter-final stage. In the AJIS North-West Cup tournament, the U11s players put in an impressive performance and worked their way to the final. The game was tense and tightly-fought, but in the end the Bolton boys emerged victorious and brought home the cup. The team also dominated the ISFA North West competition, winning the cup without conceding a single goal in the course of the entire tournament!

AJIS Cup win

ISFA U11s win

Sports Day

In spite of inclement weather, Sports Day went ahead and both boys and parents enjoyed the day.

Cross Country

The Cross Country team won the Bolton Schools’ League this year! The boys took part in a number of competitions in the local area, with boys coming in healthy positions across the board and some achieving medals. Three boys also joined the Bolton Town team for the Greater Manchester Cross Country championships.

Around School

Chess

The school’s chess players have performed well in competitions this year. Boys from all year groups took part in the AJIS Chess Tournament held at Park Road in December. In the individual competition, pupils won gold medals in the U9 and U10 age groups, and narrowly missed out on first place by just one point in the U11 category. Five teams of boys represented the School in playing for the team shield, with the Junior Boys taking both first and second place.

As well as winning the Bolton Primary Schools Chess League, the U11 A and B teams took part in the English Primary Schools Chess Association (EPSCA) National Semi-Finals. The A team’s amazing efforts were rewarded with an overall win and a place in the EPSCA National Final as one of the top eight teams in the country!

AJIS Quiz

The Quiz Team took second place in the AJIS Quiz, their impressive score of 91 putting them just one point behind the winning team.

Paul Burrell – former footman to the Queen and butler to Diana, Princess of Wales –regaled the boys with tales and insights from his time serving in the royal household, as well as stories from I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here!

Whole School Photo

The tradition of Whole School photographs, taken every three years, dates back to the Victorian period.

Paul Burrell

Pop Project

The boys were taken on a musical tour through history from the 1950s to the present day, looking at fashion, transport, technology – and of course music!

Amir Khan

“Chase your dreams,” was Amir Khan’s advice when he visited the school in December.

Solar Eclipse

Boys learned the science behind the partial solar eclipse on 20 March 2015 during assembly before they headed outside to view the real thing using pinhole cameras.

Queen Emma

A royal visit from Queen Emma, the wife of Ethelred the Unready and Cnut the Great, helped Year 4s to understand more about Anglo-Saxon and Norse home life.

Careers

Six Bolton School alumni talked to Year 6 pupils as part of the annual Junior Careers Carousel. Hearing from vets, film makers, an entrepreneur, a police officer, an architect and a doctor really helped to inspire the boys to start thinking about their future and the many options open to them.

Foundation Family Festival

The Foundation Family Festival in June brought together all of the different parts of the School as part of our 100 and 500 year anniversary celebrations. One of the highlights was the judging of the Junior Bolton School Bake Off!