Bolton School Primary Division Junior Boys’ School
Spring Term, 2023 WEEK A
Thursday 9th February Jujitsu, 4-5.30pm LAMDA, 4-5pm Cubs, 6.30pm
Friday 10th February
Water Polo, 4-5pm
Monday 13th February
Music Festival, all day
Judo, 4-5pm
Mad Science, 4-5pm Ski Lessons, Chill Factore, collection
6.30pm CF, 7pm PR
Y5/Y6 Hockey Festival, LP, 4-5.30pm
Tuesday 14th February
Music Festival, all day
Chess, 4-5pm
Thursday 9th February
Practice makes perfect or practice makes automaticity, reduced cognitive load and a state of flow? OK, so the latter phrase won’t stick quite as well as practice makes perfect. However, last week, we had our Times Table Rockstars Day.
In a recent assembly, we had a number of boys competing against each other on their times tables. The speed at which they were reading, computing and responding to the questions was quite breath-taking.
Mrs Hough and I both commented that boys were able to answer questions in the same amount of time we were able to read the questions. Of course, this speed does not come from talent alone. It is the result of continuous and deliberate practice, and this practice leads to automaticity.
Automaticity is the ability to do things without occupying the mind, allowing automatic responses to patterns or habits. By reducing the amount of thought to answer these questions it frees up the mind to carry out more challenging tasks, such as problem solving. It is why all top athletes and competitors continually practise drills and techniques.
Lastly, when the boys have the right level of pitch for their ability, they can enter a state of flow. Flow, or ‘being in the zone’ is the mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energised focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. Despite distractions on the day, the boys were in the state of flow and clearly enjoyed themselves. We hope that the boys learned and continue to learn a great deal from such practice and see how it can be applied to other aspects of their development. Well done, boys, and thanks to Mrs Hough for facilitating the day!
Many thanks once again to all of our parent volunteers and PA members who so kindly helped us to run the phenomenally successful Book Fair last week. The boys all bought so many books, and, as a result, we will be purchasing many new library books very soon Miss Cox is delighted with the amount of new stock we will be receiving.
Last night, we held our Year 5 concert in the Great Hall and the boys graced this magnificent venue with some fantastic performances and lots of determination.
It was an excellent turnout from our parents and families, who were treated to singing, drums, piano, violin, cello, guitar and recorders. Well done to Miss Ormerod and her team for producing such a fabulous event.
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 15th
February
Swim Development Club (by invitation), 4-5pm Cubs, 6.30pm
Thursday 16th
February
Jujitsu, 4-5.30pm LAMDA, 4-5pm Cubs, 6.30pm
Friday 17th February PA Breakfast Club, 8-9am
Water Polo, 4-5pm
Saturday 18th
February
Sports Round Up
U11 Football vs Birkenhead
We took four Year 5 football teams to Stockport Grammar School last Thursday, giving 38 boys the opportunity to represent school.
The A and B teams were able to overcome difficult opposition and came away with two wins. The C and D teams battled well but couldn’t quite capitalise on their opportunities. There were a few stand out moments, including: a spectacular halfway line volley from Teddy Morrow, cat-like saves from Harry Kay in goal and a halfway line strike from Yusuf Shepherd which glanced past the post. Most importantly, all of the boys played with respect, determination and sportsmanship, coming away from the fixtures with a smile on their face. RL
Hockey
Teams from both the Junior Girls’ and Junior Boys’ Schools came together on Monday to represent school in the Bolton Schools’ Year 5/6 Hockey Competition.
The boys played very well, quickly adapting to the four-a-side format, passing the ball well and scoring many goals. The team won each of the three games in the group round and proceeded to the semi-final. They were then forced to up their game and did so with great determination, reaching the final where they enjoyed a tight game against Masefield in which they were victorious. The boys showed some great skill and all enjoyed the opportunity to play competitively.
Well done boys (and girls!). SAF
U10 Football vs Stockport Tennis
On Friday our Year 6 football teams hosted four teams from Birkenhead. All four games were very competitive with a number of standout performance across all the pitches.
Well done to Benji H, who scored some superb individual goals on the Top Level, to George J who got himself on the score sheet down on Pitch 8 and Danny D and Diyan C who made a number of crucial saves for their teams. Friday also saw a number of boys playing their first fixture for school and they did themselves incredibly proud. Well done to every boy who participated. TG
U11 AJIS Football
Congratulations to our Year 6 football team for reaching the final of the AJIS football tournament yesterday. The boys performed brilliantly in the group stage, eventually finishing top and unbeaten, with wins over Birkenhead, The Grange, Merchant Taylors’ and a draw against St Ambrose.
In the semi final, we came up against a good Bury team, but the team managed to overcome the challenge and progress to the final with a 2-0 win. Unfortunately, despite the lads’ best efforts, we lost to a strong MGS team in the final. All the boys should be very proud of their performances and attitude throughout the tournament. JRS
GM Cross Country
A huge well done to Ashton in 6B, who represented Bolton this weekend at the Greater Manchester Cross Country Championships at Heaton Park . Ashton finished in 14th place overall out of 99 runners competing and was the second finisher for the Bolton team, a fantastic result!
Taekwondo
Louis, in 3B, kicked up a storm last weekend, winning not one, but two silver medals in taekwondo for pattern and sparring in the under 8 age group at T-UK English Championships in Manchester.
We are incredibly proud of Louis and his achievements!
The Bolton team finished in 5th position overall. Well done to Ashton for representing Bolton and running a brilliant race: we are all very proud of you! MLB
Congratulations to Gwilym in Year 5, who has been invited to train with Lancashire Tennis's 12 and Under County Performance Squad. Well done, Gwilym What a fantastic achievement !
DT Recycled Art Project
If you have an old, wooden skateboard at home (broken or otherwise!), please do bring it to the School Office, to be passed on to Mr Winstanley, who will be undertaking an up-cycling project this half term. AW
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
Visits to Patterdale Hall
Important Dates for your diary
Please note the date of your son’s visit to Patterdale Hall this year :
Year 3: Thursday 4th to Friday 5th May
Year 4: Monday 24th to Wednesday 26th April
Year 5: Wednesday 26th April to Friday 28th April
Year 6: Tuesday 9th to Friday 12th May
All visits are compulsory as they form part of your son’s curriculum. An information evening for Year 3 and Year 4 parents and parents of boys new to school this academic year will take place at 7pm on Thursday 23rd March more details will follow nearer the time, as well as a list of kit your son will need for his trip.
Share a Story Film Competition
Calling all roving reporters!
Mrs Brisk is asking for boys to produce a 30 second video as part of preparations for World Book Day, which takes place on Thursday 2nd March. There is the very exciting opportunity for boys to win a trip to the CBBC Studios, at Media City, to see real- life reporters at Newsround!
If you would like to enter, you need to upload a 30 second video filmed creatively, to share a book that you like, or perhaps that is special to you or brings you joy you can choose your reasons!
Share a story and inspire another pupil or teacher at Park Road to read it too. Entries must be uploaded to Showbie Whole School Folder / CBBC Newsround Trip by 4pm on Friday 17th February, when we break up for half term. MLB
February Geography Mission
Return of … read and review a book with a geographical theme!
Choose a book, which has a geographical theme. There are some examples on this poster alongside lots of books in the library e.g. books by Matt Dickinson!
During February, read the book and then write roughly an A4 page review
Your review should include: a description of the book and the author; discuss what you liked about the book; what would you like to know more about after reading the book?; consider whether it links to your current geography lessons.
How to submit your creative book review: email LJG@boltonschool.org.uk with your submission by 9am on Tuesday 28th February or upload it to the Whole School Showbie class/Geography Competitions/February Mission
PRIZES FOR THE WINNERS! WHO CAN CREATE THE MOST GEOGRAPHICAL AND CREATIVE BOOK REVIEW ?
Year 6 Trip to York—October Half Term
If your Year 5 son has expressed an interest in the Year 6 trip to York in October half term and you have not yet completed the Google Form below to confirm his place, please complete it before the deadline of 9am on Friday 3rd March :
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc8yZxMmPSWBYb_Lb-0BgXO6wA1wgUx6NHxs25RX_8NniduQ/ viewform?usp=pp_url
Forgotten Kit
Just a reminder that if your son forgets any books, homework, sport, PE or swimming kit, etc., please do not make the journey to school to drop it off for him.
Having to explain to his teachers will help him to problem solve for himself and, we hope, not make the same mistake again! Rest assured, we shall always lend equipment to him to enable him to participate in his lessons.
Jump Xtreme Event
All Primary Division pupils are invited to attend a special session at Jump Xtreme in Bolton on Wednesday 15th February from 4 to 7pm. More information can be found LINKED HERE. Places are limited and will be filled on a first come, first served, basis. If your son has an extracurricular activity or normally attends Cubs on this day, this should take precedence over this event
PD Sailing Club
All the details of the PD Sailing Club in Summer Term can be found linked HERE. Register your son’s interest before 14th February and Mr Winstanley will be in touch to confirm a place on this activity at the Anderton Centre if his name is drawn out of the hat, in the event we are oversubscribed.
Non Uniform Day
On Friday 17th February, we will be holding a non-uniform day to raise funds for the Turkey-Syria Earthquake appeal.
This is a joint effort by the Primary Division to fundraise for relief efforts in Turkey and Syria. All proceeds will go to the ‘Save the Children’ charity that is providing vital aid to those in need. A suggested £2 donation would be very gratefully received. Please ask your son to hand this to his form teacher at morning registration.
Bridgewater Hall Gala Concert
The Bolton School Foundation Gala Concert is taking place on Thursday 16th March at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. It promises to be an exciting evening of musical entertainment, with the chance for pupils to showcase their talents at one of the most prestigious concert halls in the country. Tickets for this important event are free of charge and will be available online from the Bridgewater Hall, further information on how to book these will be available in the coming weeks.
Letters for the parents/guardians of pupils involved will be sent directly in the next week.
Thank you to everyone who supported and helped run the Travelling Book Fair last week. The boys loved the range of books on offer and we raised ⭐£1,267.24⭐ in book vouchers for the library at Park Road. There’s still time to create a bookmark or write a book review for any book bought from the Fair and to be in with a chance of winning a family cinema ticket. Boys can enter the competition by submitting their entries via Showbie (Whole School Folder) or to Miss Cox in the Library.
Park Road PA - AGM Meeting : please note the Park Road PA AGM meeting will take place on Wednesday 15th February at 7:00pm at Park Road.
❤ Breakfast Club – Friday 17th February ❤: the PA will be holding a Valentine’s Day themed breakfast club on Friday 17th February from 8am. Everyone is welcome and allergies catered for. £1.50 for three items. Please let Kelly - parkroadpa@gmail.com - know if you are available to help.
Spring Bingo – Friday 17th March : Save the Date : this new and exciting BYOB event will take place straight after school – more details to follow soon.
Social Events: if you have any suggestions of social events you would like to see organised by the Parents Association please get in touch – parkroadpa@gmail.com
Easy Funding : online shopping can also generate funds for the school PA by simply using the easyfundraising app and linking your account: to 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 following link:
https://chat.whatsapp.com/BRtBl8QwJpS9OxpBm3MHDj
Twitter – don’t forget to follow us on Twitter: @BSPDJnrBoysPA
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 17th April: 9.15-10.25 – boys visiting the Girls’ Division theatre
Friday 5th May: 9- 12.00
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.
Spring Parents’ Evening Dates
Further to our email last week, the dates for the Spring Term Parents’ Evenings are as opposite.
Please do keep an eye on the newsletter and your emails for booking information.
If you require a specific time slot, you will need to book as soon as the system goes live, as the most popular time slots book up quickly
Y3 Monday 6th March
Y4 Monday 6th March
Y6 Tuesday 9th March
Y5 Wednesday 8th March
Y4 Thursday 9th March
News from the Art Room
AJIS Art Competition
All boys are invited to create a piece of artwork for the prestigious AJIS Art Competition . The challenge is to draw a view you would see from a window: this could be real or an imagined view. Be as creative as possible.
It must be in black and white so you could use pen, pencil, chalks or pastels. Hand completed works of art into Mr Minta by Tuesday 14th February
Good luck ! JM
Inspirational Art
The boys had a fantastic, fun session creating land art sculptures using natural materials, inspired by artist, Andy Goldsworthy, last week. It was wonderful to see the boys play so freely and experiment with shape, form and materials in their art lessons. JM
Year 5 English
Stop press! This week, 5C’s classroom was transformed into the busy office of one of Paris’ premier newspapers, reporting on a terrible historic train crash!
Boys helped edit each others’ work and challenged each other to improve their writing. The boys did a great job collaborating and supporting each other, whilst for some, it was only when checking someone else’s work that their inner grammar pedant really came out! JM
Medusa Masks
There were horrifying, terrifying and petrifying scenes in Year 3 this week as we took a break from our clay work and made some Medusa masks!
The boys worked really hard to research, design and then create their own scary mask. While we were doing this, our clay masks were over at senior boys being fired in the kiln, ready for painting next week. JM
Young Voices Feedback
Please could all those who attended the recent Young Voices concert at the AO Arena complete this survey? It should take approximately 5-10 minutes to complete. In return for your time and input, you are offered the opportunity to enter a prize draw to WIN CASH! The first winner pulled out of the hat will take home £300, 2nd £200 and 3rd £100.
All you need to do is complete this survey and a subsequent one which will follow in about six weeks and opt-in to the prize draw to be in with the chance of winning. Good luck !
KidZone Half Term Activities
Please find linked here all the details of activities which will be taking place at KidZone during February half term.
Book early to avoid disappointment !
Mr Porter’s Warhammer Success
Over the past year, Year 6 teacher, Mr Porter has been competing around the world in the Warhammer International Tournament Circuit (ITC), playing a board game where two people battle it out in a game of strategy and tactics.
Following some huge wins in Belgium, London and America, Mr Porter made his way to 3rd in the World Rankings, out of nearly 35,000 players. The finale to the circuit took place in Las Vegas at the end of January and if he did well, he would be crowned the ITC Champion – the first person from outside the USA to do so!
For the first two days, along with over 3000 other players, Mr Porter played seven different three hour matches against opponents from Austria, Spain, USA, Australia and Canada and managed to win them all – meaning he qualified for the finals’ day, where just the top eight players would battle it out. The final day started well with a victory over the Captain of the USA National Team in the quarter-finals, but ended in disappointment as Mr Porter lost a tense semi-final against another USA player – meaning he finished the season in 3rd place overall in the World Rankings.
Since finding his passion for this wonderful hobby, Mr Porter has had a lot of students ask him about it and some have even taken it up themselves, after doing some of their own research which is great to see. Mr Porter will be setting up a Warhammer Club in school in due course, where the children will be able to learn how to build and paint models and also understand how to play the game itself.
At its heart, the hobby is a wonderfully creative experience which encourages social skills, logical thinking and mathematical processes which Mr Porter hopes to pass on to as many boys as possible!
We look forward to many boys taking up this activity watch this space ! MP
News from Former Park Road Boys
Congratulations to Oscar Hatton, current Year 8 pupil at Seniors, on his recent selection for the ISFA U13 NW Football team. Oscar follows a strong line of successful Park Road footballers in doing so - we are sure Oscar will represent Bolton School Football over the coming months with distinction.
Some of our former Park Road athletes competed at the Greater Manchester Indoor event at Eastlands recently, where the team finished fourth overall against some extremely strong competition, particular well done to those that medalled in their events: Mateo Sprott, Silver in 200m and Aryan Nunkoo in the High Jump.
Robert Bentham and Joe Carolan represented the North West Junior water polo team recently.
This team won the inter-regional tournament which was held last weekend at Blackpool. All three boys competed in this event in 2019, 2021 and 2023 and the team was undefeated across all three competitions.
Please do share your news of former Park Road boys with us. We would love to hear about big brothers, cousins, dads and grandads and anyone you know who used to attend our school !
We look forward to sharing all their news here.
Forthcoming Chess Fixtures
There’s another exciting chess event taking place at Bolton School over the next six weeks, as boys will be taking part in the UK’s largest junior chess competition: The Delancey UK Chess Challenge.
The first part of this will consist of two internal chess tournaments – one for Years 3 and 4 and another for Years 5 and 6. Everyone who has entered will play five games in school resulting in a ‘Top 6’ for each age group. These boys will then form our team to represent school at the local, regional and then national finals! For all those who have signed up for the forthcoming ESPCA chess competition on Saturday 18th February, more details will follow soon. MP
Cold Winter Weather
Please ensure that your son brings a warm, waterproof coat to school with him every day. It is now extremely cold, and very often wet, and we do expect the boys to go outside at break times, so a warm coat is very helpful indeed. Please ensure that the coat is clearly named, as they do all begin to look very similar to each other when we have over two hundred coats in the building!
If your son wishes to wear a vest under his shirt, please also ensure this is named and white. Thank you.
Well done to the following boys who represented Bolton Borough in the Greater Manchester X County race at Heaton Park; Abbas Khambalia (Year 7), Matthew Houghton, Oliver Hatton and Liam Pijper (all Year 10).