Bolton School Primary Division

Junior Boys’ School

Hulton Lecture: last week’s inaugural Hulton Lecture and visit from Rob Dobson was a huge success, where the boys had a chance to listen to how a passion can become a successful career. It was an inspiring talk from Rob, who spoke eloquently about his own background in engineering, as well as the general history of computers. During the school day, Rob was shown around school by Max Simpson and Jayden Shah. They did a wonderful job, showing all the fantastic learning that takes place in Park Road.

Well done to Jayden for holding his nerve and delivering his speech at the start of the lecture! I should also like to thank all the Year 6 boys, and invited Year 5 boys who attended this lecture, for engaging so well and asking some probing questions afterwards. We can now begin looking ahead to next year’s event!

Ask the ‘ologist’: before World Book Day, we took part in a competition to pose questions for the experts who write for the DK Eyewitness non fiction books. There were lots of great questions posed and one of our questions was answered by an Egyptologist in a live webinar. Having our question chosen has also meant we will receive a visit from a DK Eyewitness author/researcher AND a box of free books! We are glad that our boys’ natural inquisitiveness has paid off!

Last week, members of our Eco Club went to visit Bolton Hospice to volunteer as part of King Charles’s “Big Help Out” Coronation event. The boys went with children from Hesketh House and Beech House. They had a fabulous time and did a great job.

Well done!

Message from Mrs Faulkner- Head of Primary Foundation

There has been a notable increase in those seeking approval for additional days of holiday, very often immediately before or after the normal school holidays. We monitor all such absence in order to spot patterns and discern trends. It is timely to remind you that I cannot, by law, grant absence for holidays in term time unless in exceptional circumstances.

The clear sense of the guidance is that ‘exceptional’ also means rare and certainly not due to the planning of flights and other logistical arrangements. Permission must be granted in advance, so a letter on the day of the absence or a call as a holiday is extended cannot be authorised. This is why such absence is recorded as ‘unauthorised’.

Contacting the School Office

Park Road, BOLTON, BL1 4RD. t: (01204) 434735 e: parkroad@boltonschool.org.uk www.boltonschool.org

The School Office is open from 8.15 am 4.15 pm during term time. Please note that any texts sent by the Office cannot be replied to.

Please direct all enquiries to parkroad@boltonschool.org and always include your son’s first name and surname, as well as his form. Please note that ParkRoadOffice email is no longer monitored.

If your son is going to be absent from School, whether he be off sick or attending dental, medical or any other appointment, please email parkroad@boltonschool.org so that the registers may be marked accordingly. Please use this email address for all day-to-day enquiries relating to school matters to ensure that your enquiry may be dealt with in a timely manner.

For all coach / transport enquiries: Logistics Co-ordinator: Mr B. Gould, t: (01204) 434711, e: bdmgould@boltonschool.org.uk

Wednesday 17th May

TEAM & CLUB

PHOTOS—morning

Cubs, 6.30pm

Thursday 18th May

Lancashire Science Festival, all day, UCLan Jujitsu, 4-5.30pm

LAMDA, 4-5pm Cubs, 6.30pm

Friday 19th May

AJIS Tennis, King’s Chester (all day)

AJIS U11 Inspire Sports Festival, pm, MGS After School Hockey, 4-5pm, LP

Water Polo training, 4-5pm

Saturday 20th May AJIS Proms, The Grange School

Monday 22nd May EXAM WEEK

Judo, 4-5pm

Tuesday 23rd May Y4 African Drumming, 12 midday

Year 3 Visit to Patterdale Hall

The Year 3 boys (and staff!) all had a fantastic time at Patterdale Hall last week.

Thomas (from 3B) recounts : Year 3’s trip to Patterdale Hall was great fun! The coach ride was about two hours and it was great because we got to play Top Trumps. When we were getting closer, we noticed it was getting hilly, which made the ride like a rollercoaster. We were given a special treat when a jet flew just above our bus. It was really loud.

When we arrived, we were introduced to all of the instructors and we found out which groups we were in and who was in our room. The rooms had double and triple bunks, we had our own bathroom and lots of space. We didn’t spend much time in our rooms as we were busy with a range of activities. There were five activities over the two days!

In orienteering, we had an opportunity to explore the stunning grounds of Patterdale Hall. We had to use a map to find symbols that were all around the area.

In archery, we had three arrows and three goes each at hitting the targets. We had to learn how to be safe and how to put the arrow into our bow correctly. It was moderately difficult. The highest score you could get was 10. I think my highest score was 7!

The low ropes involved many obstacles which we could play and travel on. The objective was to stay safe and try to avoid touching the ground! I managed to complete the course without touching the ground but it was pretty hard!

The walk was over two miles long, with lots of hills. We heard a story about the legend of the Glenridding Griffin. We had to listen and look out for clues that there had been a griffin in the area. We got to learn about plants, like wood sorrel and we got to try someit tasted like sour apple! We also raced sticks in the beautiful river. Canoeing was my favourite activity! We had to race to a secret river (our boat won). Then we had to do lots of challenges! We paddled to a small island and the instructors pretended to leave us stranded there. We got to throw stones and skim them and at the end we played games that allowed us to jump in the water. We played head, shoulders, knees and toes, where we had the challenge of putting certain body parts into the water- which was really tough.

Overall, I had a great time and I can’t wait for the Year 4 trip.

Mrs Iddon, from the School Office, will be donning her hiking boots and stocking up on Kendal Mint Cake once more, to conquer the Three Peaks of Saddleworth, on Saturday 27th May, to support the funding of ABCD Retreats (After Breast Cancer Diagnosis Retreats). Please donate, if you are able to do so, to her JustGiving Crowdfunding Page : https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/kate-hall-5? utm_id=1&utm_term=QxRyDeqQe

Many thanks in advance for your generosity and good luck, Mrs Iddon!

Local Authority Senior School Places

We should like to remind Year 6 parents that, if your son has been offered a senior school place at a Local Authority school, which you do NOT intend to take up, you should advise that LEA yourself.

We are now beginning to receive invitations for some of our Year 6 boys to attend taster days at other schools. If you have no plans for your son to accept the place, it is important that it should be released quickly into the system, so that another child who was not fortunate enough to receive an offer in the first instance, may benefit from it. Many thanks

Big Battery Hunt

The Big Battery Hunt is a nationwide programme to help educate and inspire young people to recycle more used batteries. Please send your unwanted batteries to school, where we will store them and then take them to our local supermarket for recycling. There are great prizes to be won for school, including £3500 towards outdoor and garden equipment. SL

Eco Committee Trip to R4GM

Eco Committee members, accompanied by Mrs Lowe and Mr Minta, spent yesterday morning at R4GM in Manchester, a site dedicated to sorting the materials that go into our household bins.

We learnt what we should and should not put into these bins and then we toured the site and saw for ourselves how materials get organised ready for shipping off to various recycling centres.

Our biggest takeaway was to make sure that the only plastic that should go into our mixed recycling bin are containers that are shaped like a bottle. SL

School Uniform Shop Opening Hours

Opening hours are as below. Monkhouse will continue to offer appointments for school uniform to customers via www.Monkhouse.com on a first come first, served basis. Customers without appointments are very welcome to attend.

Cub Camp Request

Mrs Hough, in her guise as Akela, has put out a request for us to collect odd socks and socks with holes in and empty miniature bottles for Cub Camp, which takes place on 12th, 13th and 14th May!

Please do send these items into school if you have them.

Many thanks !

Headphones/ Earphones in School

Miss Ormerod has asked if boys could remember that they will need to have their headphones/earphones with them at all time whilst in school in the next few weeks.

Please make sure that your son brings them into school every day.

Coronation Breakfast Club and British Bake Off Cake Sale thank you to everyone who supported our Breakfast Club and cake sale last week which raised £278.76. Thank you for all your amazing cake donations and congratulations to the winner, Andrew Critchley in Year 4, for his wonderful Victoria sponge cake. Also, huge thanks you to everyone involved for their time and efforts, without which these events would not be possible.

EasyFunding online shopping can also generate funds for the school PA by simply using the Easyfundraising app and linking your account: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/boltonjbpa

WhatsApp — if you would like to join the PA WhatsApp Group to keep up to date with all things PA, please click on the followinglink:https://chat.whatsapp.com/BRtBl8QwJpS9OxpBm3MHDj

PA Mailing List if you would like to be added tothe PA mailing list, please get in touch: parkroadpa@gmail.com Twitter – don’t forget to follow us on Twitter: @BSPDJnrBoysPA

Sports News Round Up

A busy week of sports fixtures was kicked off with the Bolton Schools’ Primary Football Festival at the Senior School last Tuesday. Teams from Years 3 and 4 competed in a number of close matches, scoring some excellent team and individual goals. Thursday saw the return of two teams from Years 5 and 6, competing in the U11 tournament. The Year 5 team played exceptionally well, narrowly missing out on a place in the semi-final and a match vs the Year 6 team. However, it was an afternoon to remember for our U11 team who managed to come away as winners of the tournament, winning the final 1-0.

A fantastic way to finish off an excellent year of football at Park Road. Congratulations to all boys who were involved!

Friday saw the return of competitive cricket to Park Road and our U11 team started strongly against Lady Barn House School, bowling them out 40. In reply, Park Rd scored 41 in 9.2 overs for the loss of 1 wicket.

An excellent team performance with some brilliant individual bowling and batting. TG

Year 6 Play: Important Dates

Due to a range of events in the school calendar, the Year 6 Play 2023 will now be taking place over the following three evenings: Tuesday 4th at 7pm, Wednesday 5th at 7pm and Thursday 6th 5pm. Please note that the Year 6 play is one of our compulsory events and all Year 6 boys are expected to attend, we therefore want to make you aware of this date, in the final week of term, as far in advance as possible.

Closer to the time of the play, rehearsals are understandably very important for all boys to also attend and it would help us if you could avoid the following rehearsal dates when making medical appointments:

Monday 22nd May: 13.00 – 16.00

Monday 5th June: 13.00 – 14.30

Wednesday 7th June: 13.00 - 14.30

Friday 9th June : 10.30 – 12.00

Monday 19th June: half day rehearsal (afternoon)

Friday 23rd June: 9-12.00 (half day rehearsal)

Monday 26th June: full day rehearsal

Friday 30th June: morning - dress rehearsal

PERFORMANCE DATES: Tuesday 4th, Wednesday 5th & Thursday 6th July.