The Cockerel

BOLTON SCHOOL BOYS’ DIVISION NEWSLETTER

ISSUE 48 - OCTOBER 2024

Chapter 1

Pupils congratulated at Community Action Celebration

‘Volunteering improves your mental and physical wellbeing,’ were the wise words issued by former pupil Angela Rowley (Class of 1969) when she returned as guest speaker at the annual Community Action Celebration Evening at Bolton School. The summer awards ceremony celebrates the community service undertaken by Year 12 students during the academic year.

Addressing a large audience of parents, teachers and students in the Arts Centre, Angela said she was thrilled to hear about the wide range of volunteering at Bolton School and oﬀered her congratulations to all. She said she was thrilled to be an Old Girl of the school, having loved her time in the Girls’ Division, where she ﬁrst developed a passion for helping others. She recalled

trips abroad with her German class and taking her duties as a Queen’s Guide very seriously. She also remembered working in Israel for two months, a trip partially funded by the Scott Bolton Trust.

Angela recounted a number of her own volunteering endeavours and in response to one of the student speeches about his work at Barnardo's, espoused the importance of using charity shops. She told how she made use of her local Barnardo’s shop just after Covid when she had to source a crockery set for her daughter’s wedding! She told of creating a community choir in Eccles and helping start a youth centre in Bramhall. The year 2000 was, Angela said, a pivotal year – her husband took a sabbatical as they visited a student in Kenya. Where they were staying, they quickly came to realise that there was no school or healthcare for the local community. She learnt how clean water is essential and realised the nearest thing they had to an ambulance in the village was a wheelbarrow! Through perseverance and hard work, Angela was integral in opening a clinic, raising money and employing a health worker. She provided funds to pay for vaccinations and the rebuilding of the

local primary school. But this was not enough. Angela came to realise that, after primary school, girls tended to get married and boys became farmers. Again, through her fundraising and volunteering endeavours, there is now a high school for children up to the age of 18. The next thing she tackled was the lack of sanitary products for girls and she helped ﬁnd and fund a longlasting reusable solution. Since that day, she said, the top student each year has often been a girl, and more often than not, they go oﬀ to university. Even then her work was not done. Angela told how she used to visit three times a year before Covid and how she still visits twice a year. In recent years, she has been involved with setting up an afternoon meeting for older people.

Angela ﬁnished her talk by saying that volunteering is vital. Its virtues, she reminded the students, were highlighted in the Dr Michael Mosley Just One Thing series. Once you do it, she advised, it becomes part of your mindset. Her parting words were: ‘It improves your mental and physical well-being, it boosts your mood, reduces cholesterol and so much more! Remember, it is more blessed to give than to receive. Good luck with your futures!’

Mrs. Sophie Entwistle, Assistant Head in the Girls’ Division and Head of Community Action, said the School’s volunteering scheme had begun with students being asked to do 20 hours of volunteering. This, she said, had quickly escalated and students now regularly undertake over 100 hours of volunteering. She

described there often being a ‘penny-drop’ moment when students recognise that volunteering builds self-esteem and offers rewards in and of itself. Through it, students usually grow in self-confidence, while developing their team-working skills and their ability to work alone. The commitment, this year, by students in Year 12 across both Divisions was, she said, worth a social value of over £50,000. They had delivered 10,100 hours of volunteering – equivalent to over six years of full-time work. The Head of Division Mrs. Kyle, Mrs. Entwistle and the guest speaker then handed out certificates to the high achievers – dozens of Silver certificates for students volunteering more than 50 hours of their time and 32 Gold certificates to those having volunteered over 100 hours.

Earlier in the evening several Sixth Form students gave insights into their own volunteering experiences over the course of the 2023-24 academic year. Sophie recollected her experiences helping out at Devonshire Road Primary School for seven months; Harry spoke about his time at Bolton Hospice and Barnardo’s Charity Shop in Horwich. Tilly recapped how she helped out at Open Morning and Sixth Form Open Evenings, at Tea at the Riley and with Bolton Lions; William talked about his work at Withins School, working in a paired readers’ scheme and as a librarian, at a local tennis club and at his local Scout troop; Zahara remembered her time as a swim coach, Maths mentor and as a water polo coach; and Ramez spoke about volunteering at Bolton Hospice charity shop.

Chapter 2

Whole School Walk raises funds for Malawi school

Just before Bolton School broke up for the summer holidays, 1200 Senior School pupils undertook a whole-day charity walk to Rivington Pike and back to their Chorley New Road campus to raise funds to help build a school in Malawi. Students at Bolton School undertake the challenge every few years, the Pike being signiﬁcant to them as Lord Leverhulme, who created the modern-day version of Bolton School in 1915, owned a bungalow on the moor. Boys and girls progressed in small groups with teachers and nearly all made it to the Pike in what was, weather-wise, a good day for walking. Sixth Form students helped out with the administration on the day.

Several days earlier, Nursery, Infant and Junior School children also did their fundraising bit, walking around the 32-acre campus and dancing to 'This is Africa'.

Monies collected will be put with over £20,000 of funds already raised by Mrs. Marsden in the Junior Girls’ School, who has been fundraising for some time to build a school in Malawi for orphaned street children. Mrs. Marsden has been inspired by several visits out to the African country. The target is, working alongside local charity Great Minds Bright Futures, to raise £50,000 in order to build a school that older children can attend.

Chapter 3

Prizegiving Address: ‘You are the Network Generation.’

Former pupil Barry Nightingale (Class of 1979) gave the keynote address at this year’s Prizegiving Evening at Bolton School Boys’ Division, telling pupils that they are the network generation. Barry, who has worked with many successful entrepreneurs and businesses including BetFred, EasyGroup, We Buy Any Car, Airtours and The Restaurant Group, reﬂected on how Bolton School had imbued him with conﬁdence and belief. Speaking at the 109th Prizegiving event, he advised pupils in the audience to build their networks. He said it had taken him 43 years to develop his own, but that they are growing up where everyone and everything is accessible. He urged boys to join LinkedIn but not to overshare on other social media platforms. You are the network generation, he told them, and recommended that they take advantage of any mentoring opportunities that come along in life. Over his illustrious career, Barry has personally mentored various founders and CEOs and, since his recent retirement, is advising a number of growth businesses, three of which are run by former Bolton School pupils.

Barry spoke about how his three sisters and brother had all passed through the school and, like him, had all beneﬁted from the experience. Subsequently, he had sent his own 3 daughters and son to his alma mater. He went on to oﬀer further words of wisdom, including how you react to and manage failure is more important than how you manage success and that if you fail, then fail fast and move on and go again. He said it is a case of turning your mistakes into learning and if you have any fears and threats then you need to turn these into opportunities. Telling the young audience that they are the future, Barry said he had

always carried three philosophies with him in life and work and they have served him well: be prepared, be bold and be happy. After his talk, he awarded students with their prizes and he was given a Vote of Thanks by Amrit Mishra, the School Captain.

Earlier in the evening, Head of Boys’ Division Nic Ford had given an overview of a very successful year, which helped give context to the awards. He told how the Independent Schools’ Inspectorate had reported on excellence in all areas of school life and how they had found the Boys’ Division to be particularly strong in developing the overall character of pupils, equipping them with the lifelong skills needed to make a positive impact on their own future lives, but also on that of their communities. This good work, he said, was exempliﬁed by the School’s outdoor learning programme and at Patterdale Hall, alongside the extracurricular opportunities that boys enjoy in School. Mr. Ford said it was an accolade that places Bolton School into a very small handful of schools that receive such recognition. He recalled how last summer’s strong A Level results had bucked the national trend and picked out a number of academic highlights in the sciences, Maths, DTE, languages and English. He told how it had been another highly successful year in School sport, where 60% of boys in Years 7-13 had represented the School and oﬀered

thanks to Mr. Robson, who was retiring from overseeing School Hockey after 28 years.

Referencing the pastoral side of the school, he said much good work had been done in supporting the health and wellbeing of the boys and that this was something that the ISI Inspection team had highlighted. He praised ‘Whisper’, the service which allows pupils to report concerns and incidents in private, the House system and the Lyde Cup. As a Platinum Artsmark School, he commended the outstanding work that takes place in art, drama and music – every week there are over 500 individual music lessons.

Thanks were oﬀered to Old Boys for their generous contribution to school life – for all their career talks and involvement with

entrepreneurship and mentoring schemes. Thanks were also proffered to the Governing Body, who give their time and expertise to support the School, with the Head offering his gratitude to Tim Taylor, the Boys’ Division Governor, who shared the stage and, like the guest speaker, also left in 1979. He finished by thanking parents and teaching staff, reflecting that behind every successful pupil there is a team providing guidance, inspiration and support.

Mr. Ford offered a Valete for those members of staff finishing in the summer, including Chris Walker who has been at the school for 37 years and also to Elisa Fielding who, after 25 years, will join the Girls’ Division and Heather Tunstall who, after 27 years, will take up a part-time Foundation role leading careers and character education.

The awards and talks were punctuated with a number of musical interludes, including the Great Hall singing the School song ‘Forty Years On’, James Bland playing an oboe solo, Legacy by Oscar Navarro, and Harry Adams, a Year 13 student, delivering an accomplished violin solo, Winter by Vivaldi.

Head of Foundation, Philip Britton, closed out the evening with his thoughts and by awarding the final scholarships. He said the school is a centre of community – for pupils, parents and alumni –and also plays an important part in the community of Bolton. It is now, he said, firmly on the national stage and that it plays a significant role in the strength of independent schools and of the nation. He offered his thanks to parents and to teaching colleagues, to governors and to Mr. Ford who, he said, demonstrates a strong vision and sense of purpose as well as empathy and kindness.

The evening ended with a rousing version of Jerusalem.

School releases Diversity, Equity and Inclusion report

Bolton School has released its latest Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Report, which covers the 2023-24 academic year. It is the ﬁnal report in a series of ﬁve that the school committed to compiling after the death of George Floyd and the testimonies published by Everyone’s Invited, events that prompted many schools and institutions to re-examine their approaches to inclusion and diversity.

As a result of its focus during that period, Bolton School has better integrated DEI into learning across the campus and, where appropriate, partnered with external agencies, working constructively with its former pupils in ensuring that its actions have been proactive, sustained and meaningful. The Girls’ Division, Boys’ Division and Junior Schools have all been commended on their inclusivity and approach to DEI in recent inspection reports.

As it focuses on the next ﬁve years, the School - through a DEI committee - will continue to monitor diversity, equity and inclusion across all its settings, ensuring the changes it has made remain embedded in the School’s culture and practices.

You can read

full report here.

Chapter 5 Students earn USA Sports Scholarships

Students earn USA Sports Scholarships

In a testament to the exceptional talent at Bolton School, two remarkable student athletes are poised to embark on their next chapter of success in the United States. Boys’ Division students Joe Emery and Max Goodwin have gained prestigious scholarships to further their athletic and academic endeavours in America.

Joe Emery has spent the last five years dedicating himself to his passion: golf. He has reduced his handicap in this time by nearly 24 shots, allowing him to enter the most prestigious of competitions. Playing around some of the finest courses in Europe has enabled him to fine-tune his skills. He entered the European Open, held this year in Andalusia, Spain, and managed a remarkable placing of fifth overall, winning one of the four days outright. Other notable achievements last season were finishing in the top three in the Lancashire Under 18s, holding the junior course record at Harwood GC and representing Lancashire in the Under 18 squad. His scholarship is with Bluefield State University, West Virginia.

Max Goodwin has represented School football teams throughout his time at Bolton, culminating in his selection as First Team Goalkeeper in his Year 13. Elsewhere, he has played for a number of diﬀerent clubs, most recently Chorley Under 21s. He is looking forward to studying at Indiana Tech University with a football (soccer) scholarship.

As these outstanding elite athletes prepare to embark on their collegiate journeys in America, their dedication, perseverance, and commitment to excellence serves as an inspiration to current and future students alike.

Their ﬁnal words of guidance for those considering applying to study in America are: apply early, and take a trip to experience it all ﬁrst-hand.

Chapter 6 Students celebrate A Level Success

Grey skies could not dampen spirits at Bolton School this A Level Results Day! There were celebrations in both the Boys’ and Girls’ Division Great Halls as Year 13 returned to collect their A Level grades.

One quarter came away with all A* or A grades, and two thirds of students received the grades of A*, A or B needed for the best universities. The pass rate was 99%.

Philip Britton, Bolton School’s Head of Foundation, said:

‘As always, today is a really proud moment for pupils, parents and the School as the next generation of pupils leaves ready to make a diﬀerence to the world. Part of that is the wonderful grades they have today, which represent their hard work and the guidance and nurturing of my colleagues. Whether top A* grades or a well-earned C grade, they are all an achievement today. Students take away much more than that from their time at school and it is this that makes the real diﬀerence. We say farewell to a really decent group of young adults: they are kind and thoughtful, they have shown resilience through the Covid years; there are tremendous actors and activists, great athletes in a whole range of sports, volunteers, musicians and much more. I wish them all well.

‘We measure ourselves by value added in results and that will be the story in January after the Department for Education publishes that analysis. Our results are and should be the best in Bolton, but I am far more focused on us adding value and in past years we have done that extraordinarily well across all grades.

‘We don’t ever stand still. Our Foundation objective next year is around teaching and learning, consolidating the best of what we know works, adding innovation and variety, embracing AI where it is useful and respecting educational research. Our Centre of Educational Research and Innovation, now three years old, will drive that in school and hopefully beyond in partnership with other schools in the borough.’

As noted by Mr. Britton, the cohort includes students with a wide range of interests and achievements alongside and beyond the academic. Here is just a small selection of their stories:

In the summer, Kesh Fonseka debuted for Lancashire, and was in fact playing for the county the day before he received his A Level

results, which include one A grade. Speaking about his plans for the future, he said, ‘I want to continue playing for Lancashire and go as far as I can. My goal is one day to play for England. I want to have as long a career in cricket as possible, though having a backup is important and that’s why I worked hard for my A Levels.’

David Chow, who received one A* and two A grades, is excited to start a fouryear course in Animation at Gobelins, Paris: the world’s leading school for animation. He said, ‘It’s my dream school. The stuﬀ

other students have gone on to do is amazing. I’m really thankful to my teachers: I was quite worried, but I’m very happy with my results today.’

Billy Burrows was delighted with his results: three A* grades and one B grade. He is looking forward to studying English Literature at the University of Manchester, particularly joining societies and getting involved with student drama. Billy spoke about balancing his passion for theatre, including playing Nick Carraway in the Joint Production of ‘The Great Gatsby’, with his A Levels: ‘It was stressful at times, but it was so good to have that opportunity to do something you love. It was really useful as well, because we studied ‘The Great Gatsby’ for A Level and I was learning quotes from the book for the production!’

Ben Rimmer is heading oﬀ to study French and Russian at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge after receiving three A* grades. He said, ‘I’m very excited about everything, really: being in that environment, meeting new people, getting involved in all of

the societies. I really love French and Russian, ever since I started learning these languages in Years 7 and 8, and I wanted to do something I like at university.’

Dylan Lincoln was very pleased with his set of results: three A*s and one B grade. He is going on to study Law at the University of Manchester: something he has wanted to do since he was in Year 9. He said that he is glad he’s not going far from home, and is looking forward to gigs in the city.

Music is one of Dylan’s hobbies, which he described as an outlet that he plans to continue with during his time at university. He was named Most Promising Performer at the Boys’ Division’s Young Musician of the Year Competition 2024.

Chapter 7 Celebration for GCSE students on Results Day

Celebration for GCSE students on Results Day

Bolton School’s Great Halls were buzzing with excitement as Year 11 gathered to collect their GCSE Results.

Philip Britton, Bolton School’s Head of Foundation, said:

‘We are delighted with the GCSE results pupils are receiving today, which are even better than last year. It gives us real conﬁdence that these pupils have shown resilience and determination to put the Covid years behind them and measure up so well to 2019 standards. This will provide an excellent platform for their Sixth Form studies.

‘A results day has to be about the pupils and all they have achieved – it is not about facts and figures and curriculum experts discussing different methods of assessment, as is so often sadly true. This year group went into Lockdown in March of Year 7, had Year 8 in bubbles and began Year 9 in masks. Since then, they have blossomed wonderfully: there are national level athletes, top musicians, award winning debaters, terrific actors and a year group of really decent young people. They have now added some excellent GCSE results to their achievements.

‘Almost all of our pupils stay to the Sixth Form and it will be a real pleasure to watch their progress over the next two years as they enjoy a more adult way of

working, with longstanding friends, in familiar places surrounded by familiar faces. We also look forward to welcoming a good number of pupils joining us for the Sixth Form years.

‘This success is also about teachers, who really care about young people and who care about their subjects. I hope teachers are celebrated across the Bolton Learning Partnership today for their part in this success.’

There were a great many stories to celebrate in both Divisions as pupils collected their results. Among them were eleven Boys’

Division pupils and eight Girls’ Division pupils who achieved ten or more grade 8/9s or A*s.

In the Boys’ Division, Nathan Watts was a high achiever who picked up eleven grade 9s and one A*.

Luke Burns, who beat his own national record for 2x2 speedcubing last

year, was one of those who received a suite of 8s and 9s. He plans to study Maths, Further Maths, Computer Science and German. He said: ‘It’s nice to see that the hard work has paid oﬀ! Now the hope is to continue to get the same sort of grades at A Level.’

Among the cohort were two pupils who won a category in the Boys’ Division Young Musician of the Year competition.

Senior Brass winner Will Earnshaw was ‘very happy’ to pick up a great set of results this morning: he plans to study

Maths, Further Maths, Economics and Classical Greek at A Level.

Senior Vocal winner Nathan Pierson was also pleased with his results, and will take Maths,

Chemistry, History and Politics with a view to studying Law at university. There were smiles on many faces in the Great Halls and Riley Centre Café as the year group celebrated their combined successes together on Results Day. 22

Chapter 8 Head of Foundation receives Honorary Doctorate

Head of Foundation receives Honorary Doctorate

Philip Britton, Head of Foundation at Bolton School, has been made an Honorary Doctor in Education by the University of Bolton for his outstanding contribution to education.

Mr. Britton attended the student graduation ceremony, held at Bolton’s Albert Halls on day one of a full week of awards.

A delighted Mr. Britton said: ‘A proper well-founded education can create social mobility, can create choices in life and can create opportunity and that is what we come to celebrate today. Such education requires great teachers and that is what this university has and you have all beneﬁted from.

‘While I am honoured myself to receive this degree this afternoon, I am equally proud and pleased to be joining all the graduands to celebrate your success in education and to look forward to your futures.’

Mr. Britton has recently been announced as the 2025-26 Chair of the HMC, a professional association of heads of the world’s leading independent schools. He started as a physics teacher in

1991 at Leeds Grammar School and since then has won numerous awards, recognising his exceptional contribution to education, including an MBE for services to physics in the 2010

New Year's Honours list. Mr.

Britton was Headmaster of Bolton School Boys’ Division from 2008 until 2021, when he took on the newly created role of Head of Foundation at Bolton School.

The University of Bolton – in its 200th year as an institution - is ranked among the top 30 British universities according to the Guardian. It was originally one of Britain’s ﬁrst Mechanics’ Institutes.

Chapter 9 Pupils enjoy performing in Community Concert

Pupils enjoy performing in Community Concert

Agroup of young musicians from the Girls’ and Boys’ Divisions visited Bolton Parish Church to perform as part of the church’s Tuesday Lunchtime Concerts series. The ten Year 11 students are all studying Music at GCSE and showcased a range of instruments: violin, piano, classical guitar, electric guitar, clarinet, xylophone, cornet and voice

This is a wonderful example of Bolton School’s involvement in the life of the town, with pupils sharing their talents to provide an entertaining lunchtime performance for the local community in Bolton.

Chapter 10 Pupils Present Films at Bolton Film Festival

Pupils Present Films at Bolton Film Festival

Ten pupils from our school recently collaborated with filmmaker Simone Turinese to produce a series of short documentaries exploring youth culture, arts, and creativity in Bolton. This project was part of the offers from school's community arts initiative, Creatives Now. In October, the students proudly presented their films at a special youth screening sponsored by the School, as part of Bolton's Film Festival.

These ﬁlms will continue to be screened throughout the month as part of Creatives Now's "Digital Alchemy" exhibition, part of Bolton's DigiTober activities. The exhibition also features a residency from artist Zayd Menk, whose work, commissioned by the Tate, featured in the exhibition alongside a new piece he is producing in situ. Menk, an alumni of New Contemporaries (2023), has received wide recognition, with features in CNN's Great Big Story, Aesthetica Magazine, Designboom, Wallpaper Magazine, The Guardian, Hypebeast, My Modern Met, Time Out London, and Google’s social media.

After half term, a school competition inspired by Menk’s work will be launched in partnership with tech recycling enterprise

Recycle-IT and Creatives Now. Stay tuned for more details!

Bolton: A Curious Town?

Will

Maher & Rishi Ghosh

Young ﬁlmmakers creatively reimagine their hometown as a vibrant space ﬁlled with play and curiosity, transforming everyday environments into opportunities for exploration. Through their lens, they seek to inspire a community to rediscover the joy of playful engagement in familiar surroundings.

Collective Creative Futures

Stella Rojek & Ali Asghar

In this ﬁlm, young people explore sustainable circular economies in Bolton, where skills, ideas, and resources are shared to fuel creative social enterprises. Celebrating goodwill, community cohesion, and artistic spirit, they showcase Bolton’s generous grassroots networks of collaboration and innovation.

Agents of Change

J esse Short & Karla Zglimbea

This documentary presents the essential rights and agency that young people should possess in shaping their communities, particularly in driving cultural activities in their town. It highlights the potential of youth as active stakeholders, advocating for their involvement in fostering vibrant, intergenerational cultural communities.

How to Start a Social Movement

Kenzie Mann

This ﬁlm explores the crucial elements required to unite communities in creating social movements for positive change in their local areas. Through interviews and real-life examples, the ﬁlm showcases the power of collaboration, passion, and persistence in transforming neighbourhoods.

What is a Body?

Charlie Simpson & Aidan

Hart

This short documentary, crafted by young ﬁlmmakers, explores the creative potential within each of us, highlighting our inherent abilities for invention and transformation. The ﬁlm emphasises the importance of taking action over words, demonstrating how initiative can drive meaningful connections and both personal and collective change.

Chapter 11 A wonderful evening of musical entertainment

On Wednesday 16th October, 29 Senior boys across all year groups from Years 7-13 provided a superb evening of musical entertainment in the Great Hall.

A very wide range of musical styles from across several centuries including baroque, classical, jazz, pop and ragtime were presented to a highly appreciative audience made up of family, friends and staﬀ.

Excellent solo and duet items were given by Taran Guduru (Year 8) – piano, Suhayb Pal (Year 9) – vocal, Tyler Humphreys (Year 8)

– bassoon, Oscar Bromwell (Year 7) – drum kit, Syed Mehdi (Year

7) – violin, Sabry Ibrahim (Year 9) – trumpet, Zachary Hanif (Year

7) – guitar, Aaron Pierson (Year 7) – violin, Kenzie Naylor (Year 11)

– trumpet, Abbas Khambalia (Year 9) – drum kit, Thomas Sibley (Year 10) – vocal, George Meredith-Alexander (Year 11) – violin, Jamie Chen (Year 10) – guitar, Jacob Little (Year 10) – vocal, Daniel Keene (Year 11) – piano, Peter McCreedy (Year 11) –violin, Nathan Pierson (Year 12) – vocal, Advaith Govindu (Year 11) – marimba, Charlie Simpson (Year 10) – drum kit and Nishan Sharma (Year 11) – xylophone.

Our 12-piece vocal ensemble also entertained with a haunting version of ‘May It Be’ from The Lord of the Rings. The members of the group are Sam Entwistle (Year 13), Tanmay Gokul (Year 10), Jacob Little (Year 10), William Martin (Year 13), Zak McAlister (Year 12), Theo Michaelas (Year 10), Alex Pierson (Year 10), Nathan Pierson (Year 12), Cipri Prasad (Year 10), Jack Rothwell (Year 10) and Thomas Sibley (Year 10).

The accompanists were Mrs. Whitmore and Mr. Forgrieve. Mr. Limb balanced the items from the mixing desk.

At the end of the concert, Head of Foundation, Mr. Britton, complimented the boys on their impressive performances and thanked parents for supporting the event and their children’s musical progress.

September Winners of Geography Monthly Mission

The Geography department have relaunched their monthly missions this year. In September, the mission was to create a news report based on a current geographical issue. The winners produced detailed articles on temperature records, coral bleaching and eruptions in Iceland. Congratulations to Zachary Hanif (7a), Aaryan Patel (8a) and Dawar Hassan (8b). October's monthly mission involves baking a geographical themed cake so happy baking!

Chapter 13 Alumna inspires prospective Oxbridge candidates

Alumna inspires prospective Oxbridge candidates

Year 12 boys, William Simpkins, Liam Pijper, Nathan Pierson recently attended The University of Oxford Open Day. At Trinity College, they met former Bolton School girl Hannah McKee.

Hannah studies Chemistry at Trinity College, University of Oxford. She was the most incredible ambassador for the College, and took pride in showing the boys around. She helpfully answered all their well-considered and constructed questions, gave a real insight into life as a student at Trinity College, and importantly shared great humour with them. It was totally inspirational.

Bolton School would have been proud to see this in action, with generations of Bolton School children supporting and encouraging each other in their learning journeys.

Chapter 14 Oliver and his family raise funds for Cancer Charity

Oliver and his family raise funds for Cancer Charity

Oliver Hill (Year 8), his sister and mother had between 15 and 19 inches of their hair cut for the Little Princess Trust over the school holidays; the charity helps make wigs free of charge for children and young people who are suﬀering with cancer. The Hill family set up a charity donations page and raised hundreds of pounds for the Little Princess Trust.

Before and after pictures

Chapter 15 A snapshot of extra-curricular school life

To celebrate this year’s European Day of Languages, Boys’ Division students took part in our ﬁrst school-wide, week-long LanguageNut competition to earn both points for their houses and individual prizes.

The learning platform, which is similar to DuoLingo, gave students the opportunity to hone their skills in languages of their choosing, with French, Spanish, German, Russian, Italian and Portuguese all on oﬀer.

The points won by our students over the course of the competition saw Boys’ Division break into the top-30 schools internationally on LanguageNut’s global league table – while Derek Leong (7th) and Neeraj Patel (5th) both recorded enough points to register themselves among the top-10 students in the world!

Chorley House won the inter-school competition, with Manchester second and Wigan narrowly pipping Blackburn to third place.

Year 7 winners:

Yahya Seedat, Zachary Hanif, Isaac Jaiyeola, Vincent Liu, Anthony Crane

Year 8 winners:

Aaryan Patel, Joseph Stoddart, Joseph Grundy, Sasha Milne, Yaseen Alsharbaty

Year 9 winners:

Derek Leong, Nish Gowda, Hassan Chaudhry, Tejas Neelam, Ziyad Bagasi

Year 10 winners:

Neeraj Patel, Akshay Kallat, Charlie Butler, Ambrose Zheng, George Stoddart

Year 11 winners:

Archie Davids, Rith Narla, Zain Patel, Savith Soni, Sochi Umeadi

Congratulations to Kenzie Naylor (distinction) and Jack Singh (merit) in Year 11 on their success in achieving their Intermediate Certificate in Classical Greek, a national qualification for those pupils studying their first year in their GCSE course in Ancient Greek.

The winners, from the various year groups, are:

Louis Ball (8a) Bradan Boyd (8c) Jake Clarke (8d) Austin Fox (8a) Will Maher (8b)

At the end of the Summer Term the Classics Department held a competition for Years 7 – 9, inviting them to get creative with the ancient Olympic Games, in celebration of the modern competition held in Paris over the summer. There were many fantastic entries in a variety of media, from iMovies and scale models to poetry and works of art. The Classics Department have had an enjoyable time sifting through the entries and noting the level of creative skills on display. Highly Commended are:

Jan Zarobkiewicz (8a), Rohan O’Riordan (8c), Harry Dunne (9c), Mateo Sprott (9d), Saif Karim (9b)

George Glover (9b) Jensen Heath (9a) Sumedh Joshi (9a) Derek Leong (9f) Egan Moore (9b) Daniel Titiloye (9b) Archie Warren (9b) Harry Wright (9d)

This academic year the school are using Sparx Reader to engage boys with regular, focused reading. Already, boys have completed 1,735 hours of reading and read 372 books over the previous few weeks, which is an amazing achievement. In particular, some boys have achieved “Gold Reader” status, which reﬂects that they have read far beyond the allocated homework requirement. They each receive a Distinction to commend their eﬀorts:

Year 7

Sam Clements, Jason Dong, Zachary Hanif, Oscar Hill, Charles Adamson, Deacon Alexander, Mosope Fasuyi, David Alalade, Yusuf Hamza, Harlan Moore, Yousif Abuelgasim, Reihan Becic, Max Knight, Tommy McMahon, Syed Mehdi, Yahya Seedat, Dawar Hassan

Year 8

Dawar Hassan, Milan Kumar, Ashton Morrisey, Jesse Oloruntoba, Chimdiebube Oraegbunam, Aaryan Patel, Jake Clarke, Zaidan

Master, Arham Mohamed Akram, Daniel Watch, Zain Muhammad, Dawud Seedat, Alistair Ashworth, Joseph Stoddart, Junaid Jusab,Tadi Mambongo,Ehaan Davda,

Year 9

Derek Leong, Justin Li, Aleks Neklesa-Ford, Moses Kopicki, Tejas Neelam, Thomas Davis, Mohammed Hussain, Archie Warren, Uzair Harris, James Peters

Sam Bratby, a Manchester based digital artist has worked with year 10 and 12 in the Art Department. A Year 10 competition was launched to illustrate a piece of architecture which holds personal meaning. The ﬁnalists can be viewed on the A12 staircase and the winners, Noah Meadows, Ilyas Khunda, Leo Simpson receive an Amazon voucher with the overall winner Zaid Ahmed receiving a voucher and art materials. Well done to all.

Congratulations to Zak McAlister (Year 12) on being awarded a place in the Halle Youth Choir.

Congratulations to the following pupils who gained the following music qualiﬁcations during the Summer 2024 Term:

Before the end of the Summer Term, several of our boys achieved LAMDA qualiﬁcations. Boys were prepared for examinations in Acting, Speaking in Public, Speaking Poetry and Prose and Performing Shakespeare. Congratulations to the following boys:

Theodore Marsden Grade 3 Acting – Solo (Distinction)

Syed Ahmed Grade 3 Acting – Duo (Merit)

Zain Atcha Grade 5 Speaking in Public (Distinction)

Shivaansh Dubey Grade 7 Speaking in Public (Distinction)

William Maher Grade 3 Acting – Solo (Distinction)

Top Commendations

Year 7 Yahya Seedat 7f 52

Year 8 Alex Metcalfe 8e 61

Year 9 Adam Ciechowski 9d 37

Year 10 Lucas Bishop 10e 50

Year 11 Neeraj Patel 11b 21

Year 12 Arthur Snape 12a 7

Year 13 Ashton Kay 13e 6

Congratulations to Harry Roach and Daniel Bleakley (Year 9) who played in a tournament for ISFA at Haileybury School, Hertfordshire for three days during August. Football academies

from the UK were Charlton, West Bromwich and Stoke and they competed against teams from the USA and Canada. It was a very successful tournament with the boys winning ﬁve out of their six matches; well done!

The Football 1st Xl are into Round 2 of the ISFA Trophy after beating Stockport GS on penalties. Under 15s are into Round 3 of the ISFA Cup. The Under 14s are into Round 2 of the ISFA Cup after beating Turton on penalties. The Under 12s are into Round 2 of the Town Cup

Wigan have elected year group leaders and enjoyed a superb House Day. They are currently leading Mrs Ebden’s bottle top collection competition and are hoping to win. In coming assemblies, they shall discuss how best to raise as much money as possible this year for their charity, Bolton Green Umbrella.

Last year, Blackburn House collected 191kg of essential food items and toiletries for Blackburn food bank. Highlighting the House commitment to helping those in need. This year Blackburn House aims to surpass this amount, collections will start in the Spring Term after Christmas.

Manchester House will be raising funds this year to purchase deﬁbrillators for local junior sports clubs. We will look forward to completing a range of sporting and non-sporting challenges to raise as much money as possible.

Credits

Editor: Miss K.S. Wrathmell

Contributors: Miss. A. Wilson, Mr. J. Newbould, Miss A. Bradshaw, Mr. N.L. Ford, Mr. P.J. Britton, Ms. H. Bradford-Keegan, Mr. I.K. Forgrieve, Ms. N.R. Lord, Mrs. R. Rees, Dr. Sherrington, Mr. D.V.B. Lamb, Mrs Hill