Bolton School Primary Division Junior Boys’

School

This week has seen a flurry of trips and visits, with Year 4 visiting the Liverpool Philharmonic as part of their music education; Year 5 visiting Ordsall Hall, as part of their study of Tudors in History and Year 6 to Cuerden Valley, as part of their geography studies on rivers.

The trips really do add an extra dimension to the boys’ learning and understanding of our curriculum: they offer a chance to engage with local experts, glean new information and inspire new lines of inquiry. In the coming week, there will be follow up lessons and discussions on these visits.

In each of these visits, we have been supported by parent volunteers, who have been vital in ensuring the trips can go ahead safely. Many thanks to all those parents who have helped out or will be helping out in the coming weeks.

Our trips to Patterdale Hall are rapidly approaching and, on 23rd March, we will be holding our Patterdale Hall Information Evening for Year 3 and Year 4 parents and any other parents new to the school this year. If you have not yet done so, please fill in this Google Form which indicates your attendance at the event (sent 10th March). We can then make suitable arrangements to accommodate all attending parents.

On Tuesday, we took the first of our Year 5 groups to Ordsall Hall in Salford. Ordsall Hall is a Grade 1 listed Tudor manor house. The building has had Tudor nobles, an Earl, artists, priests and even rumoured ghosts amongst its occupants! Thankfully, we did not see any ghosts, but we were ably guided around the manor by ‘Lady Catherine’ and ‘Betsy’, who gave us a glimpse into the lives of rich and poor Tudors.

We learned the roles and conditions of servants and how the ‘nobles’ of the era managed to keep themselves clean by bathing once a month! The boys had a great time and the visit stoked curiosity and gave them a chance to show off some of their knowledge from our studies on the Tudors. The second group of Year 5s are on the trip today.

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 22nd March

Quiz Club heat, 2pm Cubs, 6.30pm

Thursday 23rd March

Y4 Trip to Martin Mere (all day)

IFSA Football, Stockport Grammar School (all day)

Jujitsu, 4-5.30pm LAMDA, 4-5pm

Cubs, 6.30pm

Patterdale Hall

Information Evening, 7pm, GD Great Hall

Friday 24th March

ESSA Swim Gala, Everton Park (1-6pm)

Eco Committee to meet Mrs Riley, After School Hockey, 4-5pm, LP

Water Polo, 4-5pm

Achievements

Congratulations to our hockey players who braved the cold to take part in the U11 Lancashire & Cumbria Hockey Tournament last week in Lytham, accompanied by Mrs Faulkner and Mr Sutcliffe.

The boys all played excellently and drew one game and won three, cementing their place in the forthcoming North West tournament later this month.

Good luck to all the boys taking part in the AJIS Hockey tournament at the Leverhulme Pavilion. Spectators most welcome ! SAF

Last Sunday, George James in 6C played one of the last rugby games of the year with his team, Leigh Raiders RUFC. They have remained undefeated this season and this week George was selected as player of the match. This was for displaying excellent team spirit, try scoring and also for setting up a number of tries with his excellent passing. Well done, George !

Year 6 Trip to Cuerden Valley Park

Yesterday, Year 6 had to cope with every type of weather for their fieldwork at Cuerden Valley Park which linked to the current geography curriculum topic of ‘Rivers’. The boys spent the day down at the River Lostock carrying out various activities including water sampling and observing river processes in action. Unfortunately, due to the recent heavy rainfall and snow, the water in the river was very high and fast and so it wasn't safe for the boys to actually get into the river, but they still had lots of fun.

From the water samples collected, the boys were able to identify all sorts of river life and conclude that the water in the river at Cuerden is very clean and sustains a great variety of plant and animal/insect life. The boys also spotted a heron on the river and were very lucky to see a kingfisher at the ox-bow lake.

In our next geography lesson, the field sketches the boys did will be completed and labels of the processes they observed - erosion, transportation, deposition - will be added along with other physical river features such as meanders, cliffs, beaches and even an ox-bow lake. Hopefully, they are all now river experts, so feel free to give them a test at home!

A huge thank you to the parents who volunteered to come along on the trip and help out. We really appreciate the support and, without this help, trips like this, with a high pupil to adult ratio, would be very difficult to organise. Thank you and I hope you had fun despite the conditions! KEW

Malawi Donations—thank you for your support !

As you will be aware, we asked all boys to help support a group of 100 orphan children in Malawi, who have the opportunity to attend primary school for the first time, by helping to supply them with stationery packs and wash bags.

Each form collected a range of items and the donations were fantastic!

All packs have now been collated and sent over to Hesketh House, ready to be collected and flown over to Africa next week. Thank you to all who so kindly donated for your generosity and support! GF