The first female president?

Yes She Can! Just eight years after Barack Obama became the first African-American to enter the White House, is America now preparing for its first female Commander in Chief?

Hillary Clinton. Yale graduate. Aspiring astronaut. Senator of New York. First Lady. Secretary of State. And now, at the second time of asking, she is the front runner in the Democrat Party nomination for the 45th President of the United States. At the time of writing, Clinton is a mere 453 delegates away from defeating Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary election, after triumphantly winning in New York. Biographer, Gil Troy, aptly summed Clinton up as an individual that has “fascinated, bedevilled, bewitched and appalled Americans” in her political career. Voters have the power this year to elect their first female, Jewish, or Hispanic American as Commander-in-Chief. This could prove to be a landmark election; many in America appear ready to elect a female President, but is America ready for Hillary? Hillary is a fascinating character and formidable politician. Though she rose to national prominence as First Lady for husband and 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, Hillary is a figure of international stature in her own right. At the age of just 13, Hillary Rodham wrote to NASA to apply for a career as an astronaut; she was denied, and told that at that time, this was not a suitable job for a female. She has faced similar difficulties throughout her career: despite graduating from Yale in 1973, being listed in the National Law Journal’s 100 most influential lawyers twice, and elected the first female chair of the Legal Services Corp, the American public only really got to know her through a recipe for oatmeal cookies in a bakeoff against then First Lady Barbara Bush, wife of George Snr, in 1992. Those who thought Clinton’s expertise lay in the area of baking alone, were very much mistaken. Hillary eclipsed the image of the First Lady as a matriarch for the President’s family, and embarked on a crusade for improved health care for millions of Americans, chairing the Task Force on National Health Care reform. Although this campaign ultimately proved unsuccessful, it brought the issue of health insurance onto the national stage. She was certainly not the first First Lady to move into the political arena (Florence Harding was a passionate supporter of the women’s suffrage movement and drafted her husband Warren’s speeches; and Eleanor Roosevelt proved a powerful opponent to segregation in the 1940s); however, Clinton possesses the experience of sitting in Congress; she served as Senator for the state of New York from 2001-2009, and worked as US Secretary of State in the first Obama administration. Hillary is the clear favourite among bookmakers to become the 45th President of the USA. Vice President Biden, speaking on 11th April this year, espoused that “this country’s ready for a woman”. President Obama supported this by expressing a desire for future generations of Americans to be “astonished” at the fact that “there was ever a time when a woman never sat in the Oval Office”. The result of the election is far from a certainty, though. An AP-GfK poll on 8th April this year, found that 55% of Americans hold a negative opinion of Hillary in contrast, First Man-elect and former President Bill Clinton’s approval rating currently stands at 56%). The views of many American voters are expressed well by Devin Sternadre, a young voter from Ohio: “If it (the election) was held today, I guess I would vote for Hillary. I just wish there were more choices”. With 63% of voters saying that they would definitely not cast a vote for Republican Party frontrunner Donald Trump, it appears as though Hillary might win the keys to the White House as the least dislikeable candidate, rather than the most liked. A nationwide poll of 44,000 voters conducted by NBC-Wall Street Journal predicts that, should Clinton face Trump this November, she’d win by a healthy 328 Electoral College votes to 210. Hillary’s campaign has not been dominated by her gender, and nor should it be. In 2016, 22 nations are led by either an appointed or elected female head of state (though developments in Brazil may see Dilma Rousseff removed from that list due to ongoing impeachment proceedings). By the time this year is out, it could well be 23. If that is so, it will be a ringing endorsement of Clinton’s experience and political ability, rather than her sex. However, the treatment of women in American politics has far to go: I somehow doubt the media will be waiting with baited breath for Bill’s flapjack recipe.

Mr. T Winrow

All For Good Causes...

A Tanzanian Teacher!

Mrs Crowther, Dr Fielder and Mr Ball are sponsoring a Tanzanian young woman, Luciana, to become a teacher. They met her on the Tanzania trip in July 2015, when they took 15 girls there to work with the charity, Livlife. Born into abject poverty and from a single parent family, Luciana showed a hunger to learn and a desire to be a teacher - a dream that could never be realised without help, as there is no free route into teaching in Tanzania. The refreshments from the Alice production, a ‘Just Giving’ page which friends and staff supported and the retiring collection from the May Serenade this year, have helped Luciana to achieve this goal. This year she has completed her ‘Certificate’ in teaching, often having achieved the highest mark in her year, and next year she will be completing her ‘Diploma’ in teaching. We wish her every success!

World Challenge: Link Ethiopia Project

Rory Dillon, Projects Manager at Link Ethiopia, on the Girls’ Division visit: I am writing as Projects Manager at Link Ethiopia to thank you for the work your students undertook with World Challenge at Chechela Elementary School in Gondar, Ethiopia, last year. Before Bolton School Girls’ Division’s visit, the school was very crowded with insufficient classrooms for the number of students in the school; each classroom had to accommodate more than 50 students, with classes becoming more difficult to manage and individual support for children with special educational needs becoming impossible. The school’s group was able to add to the funding of another donor and provide two new classrooms for the school. Your students helped to lay the concrete floor in these new rooms, paint the internal walls, and paint an educational mural on the outside. The new rooms have reduced overcrowding increasing the quality of lessons that teachers are able to provide. The new classrooms and murals have improved the learning environment, inspiring teachers inside and outside the classroom. I hope your students returned to Britain enthusiastic, invigorated and inspired by their view of life in a very different country. I hope you will consider working with us at Link Ethiopia again; we have 20 years’ experience of supporting education in Ethiopia, through school links, child sponsorship, volunteer teaching and a range of school projects. Thank you again to your students for sharing their time, their hard work and their positive attitudes!

Chequing in with an enormous total!

Cheques were presented to our nominated charities by prefects Emma Hussain, Abbie Humphreys and Tayyibah Khalid. Our charities of the term have been:

The Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust (Samantha Dickson is a 14 years old from North Manchester who was diagnosed with a brain tumour) - £306.52 raised

Year Group Fundraising

Year group fund raising activities have included Year 7’s Sponsored Silence, Year 8’s Apprentice Challenge. Year 9’s Cake Sales, Year 10’s Christmas Post and the Prefect’s Panto. They have all helped to raise

a staggering £5,800

for a variety of charities (Cash for Kids, Children in Need, Willink Biochemical Genetic Unit and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) Association).

Enrichment Corner

Exploring Shakespeare

In the Autumn term, David Crystal, writer of many studies of the English language, visited school to talk to pupils about the topic, Exploring Shakespeare’s Language.

Junior Quiz

The Junior quiz challenge team who went to compete at Bury.

Quiz Club

Year 7 and 8 Junior Quiz Club members took part in the Junior Quiz Club Challenge that mirrors the format of University Challenge