The Cockerel

BOLTON SCHOOL BOYS’ DIVISION NEWSLETTER

ISSUE 47 - JULY 2024

Chapter 1 Inaugural Lower School Musical Evening

On Monday 24th June, the inaugural Lower School Musical Evening took place. 39 pupils performed as soloists or as part of Lower School ensembles. The solo pieces ranged from Iron Maiden and My Chemical Romance on electric guitar to a beautiful rendition of Claire de Lune by Debussy on piano. For the ensembles, Lower School Choir, Ukulele Ensemble and a string quartet performed a variety of pieces, including a jolly rendition of Under the Sea by the Ukulele Ensemble. It was a wonderful evening with a packed house in the Arts Centre enjoyed by all

Chapter 2 An Ultimately Sunny Final House Day

In my House Reporter role, I went through a range of activities and took photos. There were many activities such as Kwik Cricket, Rubik’s Cube, and Water polo. There was also a paper aeroplane challenge, where teams made paper planes and had a competition to see who could get it the farthest. Blackburn came ﬁrst, then Chorley. Sadly, Wigan came last. The students seemed happy with these activities and had smiles on their faces. There were a range of activities so all students could enjoy the day.

• This House Day, in session 4, there have been several events going on. These include Mölkky, where the Year 9s were having a close game, Kwik Cricket, played by the Year 10s, Softball, played by the Year 7s, Hard ball cricket played by the Year 9s and 10s, and Spikeball, where the Year 8s were having fun. It

seems that this House Day has been a good one as many different year groups and pupils were having fun in their respective houses and the sense of competitiveness was in the air with these different activities. I don't know any of the results myself, but it will be exciting to find out who won when the results are in.

• Whilst being a House Reporter, I saw: Manchester cheating (not really!) in Kwik Cricket; Chorley winning in Hard Ball cricket; Some great cubing from Manchester in Year 10; Great progress by Wigan to win three rounds of the Geography Year 7 quiz and an awesome goal by the Year 7 Blackburn Water polo team

Launch of ‘Bolton Butch’ on Ullswater

Bolton Butch, a brand-new rescue powerboat, which will support Patterdale Hall’s activities in the Lake District, was oﬃcially launched earlier this month.

Patterdale Hall is the outdoor adventure learning centre of Bolton School and supporters of the fundraising appeal to purchase the RIB (rigid inﬂatable boat) named it ‘Butch’ in honour of the late former Boys’ Division teacher, Cliﬀord Ingham.

A small gathering assembled in Jenkins Field on the shores of Lake Ullswater as Barbara Laycock née Ingham (Class of 1960), the daughter of Clifford, performed the official launch alongside Philip Britton, Head of Foundation, and Tim Taylor, Manager of Patterdale Hall. Following the ceremony, the assembled guests, including individual donors to the appeal, and representatives from the Clifford Ingham Fund, the Friends of Bolton School and the Scott Trust, donned lifejackets and enjoyed a short trip on the lake. They were all wished the best of ‘Ingham luck’ by Barbara Laycock as they took their ride. Afterwards guests enjoyed a lunch at Patterdale Hall, near Glenridding, and watched film footage of various Clifford Ingham camps and trips.

The boat will be used by the Hall to escort young people during their activities on the lake.

Chapter 4 Year 7 enjoy exploring Brougham Castle

Year 7 enjoy exploring Brougham Castle

Brougham is, historically, a very significant place, even if relatively few people have heard of it. Near the meeting of two rivers, the Eamont and the Lowther, and at the intersection of three Roman roads, it was the location of an important Flavian border fort during the Roman occupation in the 1st Century AD/CE. A medieval castle was built on the same site in 1208, which was such an important English stronghold against the Scots that it played host to King Edward I himself. 400 years later, with a rather different dynamic at play between the two nations, King James I also paid visits to the castle. Soon after, it was transformed into the opulent residence of one of the most extraordinary women of 17th Century England, Lady Anne Clifford. Queen Victoria’s favourite Prime Minister, Henry Brougham, Lord Melbourne, had his family seat at Brougham Hall, on the original castle estate, but by this time the castle itself had become a picturesque ruin. Even in this state, however, it continued to have an impact, inspiring an important painting by J M W Turner and featuring in Book VI of William Wordsworth’s The Prelude. In 1915, Brougham Castle was officially recognised as a Monument of National Importance by the Ministry of Works and since the 1930s has been preserved for all of us to visit by English Heritage.

This is just as well, because it has become a really signiﬁcant place for Bolton School Boys’ Division over the past quarter of a century. It is where, every year, members of Year 7 are able to see at ﬁrst hand how places and buildings can be

vivid, ‘living’ evidence of what happened in the past. During our day trips, the boys study the landscape at Brougham and understand why it is strategically such an important spot; they can spot the feint lines of the old Roman walls in the next ﬁeld and the recycled Roman stones in the castle walls. They imagine themselves to be Scottish invaders and English defenders and plan the downfall and the salvation of the castle. They explore the remains of Lady Anne’s ﬁne bedchambers, kitchens and chapelsand often speculate whether she still walks these rooms in the dead of night! To borrow some very appropriate Wordsworthian lines, over the years Bolton School boys have become very familiar with “that river and those mouldering towers” and have climbed “…The darksome windings of a broken stair, And crept along a ridge of fractured wall,

Not without trembling.”

The custodian at Brougham Castle always tells us that she knows that its time for Bolton School to visit because the clouds part around Penrith, the sun begins to beat down and the temperature soars. Not so much this year… although, miraculously, not a single drop of rain fell on us during any of our six trips this June. As ever, we left Brougham with a much better understanding of what castles were for, plenty of great photos, some historical souvenirs and the distinct sense that summer is on its way.

Rith Highly Commended in Portico Sadie Massey Awards

Rith Narla, a Year 10 pupil at Bolton School Boys’ Division, is celebrating success after his creative writing talents were recognised at the annual Portico Sadie Massey Awards. Founded in 2015, this prestigious prize aims to promote Northern writing and encourage a life-long love of reading and writing in young people from all backgrounds.

Rith's short story ' A Conversation Home' was highly commended by this year's judges, who read nearly 700 entries. Rith's story follows a character narrator who has migrated to Bolton and overcomes his struggles to settle in the community through the compassion of a colleague.

Rith’s English Teacher Mrs Helen Brandon said: ‘Congratulations to Rith on his fantastic achievement and well done to the other boys in Year 10 who took part in crafting their own stories and received goody bags to celebrate their eﬀorts.’

One of Manchester’s longest-running institutions, the Portico is a subscription library and newsroom whose historic collection of over 25,000 books and archives spans over 450 years. The Portico Library was established by 400 founding subscribers in 1806, during Manchester’s emergence as ‘the ﬁrst modern city’.

Early readers and associates included word-famous authors, future Prime Ministers, leading scientists and educators. The Portico is now a charity that plays a central role in Manchester’s cultural life and literary heritage

Chapter 6

Will selected to join Under 16 Sale Sharks Junior Academy

William James in Year 10 has been selected to join the Under 16 Sale Sharks Junior Academy. He has been training on the Developing Player Programme (DPP) for the past two years, which consisted of seven hubs across the North West.

From approximately 400, around 40 are identiﬁed as players of potential and are invited to take part in the next step of the Sale Sharks pathway. This is testament to his hard work and dedication to a sport that he truly loves.

Oscar Keeps Goal for Wales

Oscar Hatton, a Year 9 pupil, in the Boys’ Division of Bolton School has been selected for the Wales Under 14 national side.

Oscar has been playing with the Independent Schools’ FA’s Under 14s’ team and training with the Welsh Football Association over the course of the last year and has been called up to take part in the Cymru Cup in July.

A delighted Phil Hatton, Oscar’s father, said: ‘Oscar has shown a great attitude and we could not be prouder of his hard work and dedication. It is a phenomenal achievement given the level of football and his late arrival to the Welsh National FA.

‘Earlier this year, Oscar discovered his Welsh heritage through his grandmother. Soon after, I informed Bolton Wanderers’ coaches of this, the Welsh Football Association contacted Oscar, inviting him to trial for the national squad. He has been training with them ever since, attending a number of two-day football camps

in Wrexham. Most recently, he was selected to play in a combined team of North and South Wales players, where he put in a superb performance - his shot-stopping and distribution being his key strengths. Following this performance, he received the exciting news that he had been selected to play in the Cymru Cup.

‘Oscar's love for football started young, inspired by his older brother Oliver, who loved scoring goals. This meant Oscar often ended up in goal, which made him a fearless shot-stopper. But Oscar also enjoyed scoring, so he played in goal on Saturdays and outﬁeld on Sundays, excelling in both positions.’

In 2020, Oscar's talent caught the eye of Manchester United's Emerging Talent programme, where they played other academy teams. Shortly afterwards, he signed with Bolton Wanderers as a goalkeeper.

While playing for Bolton School, he also represented the Independent Schools Football Association (ISFA) in every match, winning last year’s tournament against Cardiff in the final at Oakham School. His most recent game was against Welsh schools and he is very much looking forward to the upcoming ISFA fixtures in August

Chapter 8 Perspectives on Careers in Computer Science

Head of Girls’ Division Mrs Lynne Kyle introduced the latest Perspectives lecture at Bolton School, which focused minds on careers in the ﬁeld of computer science and coding. The four former students, returning virtually for the public evening presentation, were introduced by Sixth Form student Lonique Mayoua, who is a Computer Science Prefect in the Girls’ Division.

Emma Arandjelović née Shepherd (Class of 1999) was first to present, recapping her career to date, which has seen her become a Senior Software Engineer for consultancy firm Observatory Sciences. Emma told how her role involves providing consultancy services to clients and how she is currently involved in the software development effort for the world’s largest radio telescope, SKAO. It is a job which involves travel, she said, and she is looking forward to a forthcoming visit to India to discuss the project.

Emma explained how, after studying A levels in Maths, Computing and English Language, she graduated with a First Class degree in Computer Science from Warwick. Her ﬁrst position was as a software engineer at IBM in Hursley. She said she found it to be a great launching point for her career and that she enjoyed the focus on training and software development in the real world. She recalled how she found her next job through the New Scientist magazine, which saw her joining a team tasked with building the UK's national synchrotron, Diamond Light Source. She felt that her work helped facilitate a great science project and she enjoyed being part of a multi-disciplinary team. This job pivoted her career towards control systems engineering, and she went on to spend four years working in a similar role in Melbourne at the Australian Synchrotron. Emma has also completed a music degree with the Open College of the Arts and works part time as a composer.

Considering why students should choose a career in this ﬁeld, Emma said that Computer Science pervades all walks of life and you can choose to work in an area that suits you, be that science, or sports or the arts or wherever. It’s fast pace and constantly changing nature are also appealing factors for her.

Emma felt, in order to succeed, you need to be adaptable, to be willing to constantly learn, to be good at working in teams and to be good at problem-solving. It is helpful, she said, if you have an analytical, logical mind but, the ability to be creative is also much sought after.

Miss Lisa Jones, Director of Careers and HE in the Girls’ Division, compering the evening, introduced 26-year-old Niall Woodward (Class of 2016) as the next speaker.

Niall explained how he became Co-Founder and CTO of SELECT, a business-to-business software product, which helps customers optimise and monitor their Snowﬂake cloud data warehouse.

is an open-source enthusiast, creating and maintaining several projects over the years. He commended the audience for attending the presentation, telling them that it is a good idea to keep your options open and that one Computer Science career can be completely diﬀerent to another.

Reﬂecting on his school days, Niall recalled how he always had an interest in building things, in electronics and in computing and how he studied Maths, Physics and Electronics at A level. When he went to university, it seemed obvious that he should study Electrical and Electronic Engineering, which he did at Imperial College London. He then went on to become a data engineer at a consultancy and a number of small start-ups. He told how he

Niall spoke about his career path prior to setting up his own business, recalling applying for Computer Science internships as a student and securing a summer placement in his second year at Evolve Dynamics. He remembered too his time at Nested, a digitally enabled estate agents based in London. He told how he is a little impatient and enjoyed the quick feedback time involved when working in Computer Software. He touched upon his time in a broad software engineering role which involved lots of teamwork and a later full stack engineering role. Niall told how, post-Covid, he took a job working for a company called tails.com that sent out dog food tailored to your dog. He had, he said, a role as a Data Engineer for a year and a half and was involved in behind the scenes building of apps that moved data into a place where people could do analysis on it to build insight for the business and products. He also spoke about working for an analytics consultancy, which gave him a chance to gain more experience with domains, working with 4 or 5 clients at once. He used a variety of different tools whilst working remotely with the US firm. Niall recalled finishing with them at the end of 2022 and then, six months later, launching his own business, which now has 50 customers.

Considering why young people should consider a career in the field, Niall said it gives you the flexibility to work on a whole bunch of problems with a wide range of companies, that the sector pays well and that there are lots of flexible benefits. He said there are lots of people currently hiring and that as a job seeker you need a good awareness of business. He advocated needing problem-solving skills in general and that any Engineering background is good but you don’t necessarily need to have been to university to work in the sector.

Rosie Dandy (Class of 2019) introduced herself as a Business Analyst at AstraZeneca. She told how, straight after school, she had pursued a four-year IT Degree Apprenticeship at AstraZeneca, graduating with First Class Honors in Digital and Technology Solutions from Manchester Metropolitan and how she now plans on doing a Masters in IT Consultancy. Despite no IT background, Rosie won Best Overall Mark, Best Performing Student and Outstanding Project awards.

Rosie said that after school she had wanted to kickstart her career and that IT excited her – she had been excited by where it might take her. She explained how she changed job roles and departments every eight months in AstraZeneca. Recapping her career to date,

Rosie told how she started as a Project Support Oﬃcer, which gave her a good oversight of the organisation. She told how she helped create apps for logistics within the company and how, during her time in the Global External Sourcing department she helped decide how the company would distribute the Covid vaccine across the world. She also spoke of time as a Digital Transformation Project Manager, of joining the Pharmaceutical, Technology and Development team and of becoming a UX Research and designer, where she enjoyed the experience of dealing face to face with patients. Rosie said she has realised that she is good at connecting people. She told how her time in Operations saw her helping create drugs and package them and how the project was then scaled up for Sweden and the US. Reﬂecting upon her graduation last summer, she said it was easier because she had experts around her who could guide her in her work. She hoped that her Masters would open even more doors for her. As a passionate advocate for Women in STEM, Rosie encouraged the young pupils to challenge tech career stereotypes.

Addressing the question of why choose a career involving Computer Science, Rosie said there are so many possibilities within the sector and it is needed in almost every industry. It is a career that is constantly evolving and, in order to succeed, she said you need to be connected, be inventive and be able to speak up and challenge. You should also, she said, be willing to learn and to share best practice and to be honest and open and, if you are, people will help you if you need it.

The final speaker on the evening was Freddie Higham who left Bolton School in 2022. Freddie explained how he is currently studying for a degree in Computer Science at the University of York which includes a year in industry. He recalled how he was the only boy in a class of girls studying A level Computing Science at Bolton School and how that situation is reversed now with approximately 70% of his course being male. Freddie told how he enjoyed his A level in the subject and that it helped confirm his choice of course at university. He also reflected on an early love of programming and using Python when he was a Junior School pupil.

Reflecting on his time at York, Freddie said it had been an interesting experience. He told how he enjoys the practical software development side of things but that there is also a lot of theory. He said York was not too bad in terms of how much Maths content there was and that it felt about right with a roughly 50-50 mix with practical applications. Other computing degrees can include more Maths but, he said, he has found that whilst A level Maths is a requirement, not a lot of it is directly included in the degree. He recalled how at York they had learnt Python in the first year and he was definitely helped by having studied it at Bolton. He had found learning Java

less straightforward. Freddie said that universities are good at preparing you for the world of employment and oﬀer lots of opportunities to specialise. He had also found that societies are a great opportunity to develop yourself further and revealed how he is currently the President of the Game Development Society.

Freddie finished off by saying that the job prospects look good. There are a wide variety of possibilities, whatever your aspiration, be that in academia, software design or development, cybersecurity, AI or many other fields. Considering what skills are needed, he felt soft skills such as communications and teamwork are important alongside your technical hard skills. Companies, he said, want to see that you have a passion for the subject and that you have done projects in your free time and, also, that you can work collaboratively.

The session ended with the speakers facing a range of questions which were fielded by Girls’ Division Physics Teacher Miss Chloe Zornemann. They included discussions around the extent that AI has impacted the sector, tips for students on finding a degree apprenticeship, the usefulness of having a Computer Science A level when applying for degrees and jobs and the importance of having a Masters or PhD for progressing in the field

End of Season

End of Season Water Polo Celebrations

Pupils enjoyed an end of season Water polo celebration at Bolton School – and what a season it has been!

A team from the School recently became the best primary school Water polo team in the North of England – retaining the ESSA Cadet Northern Championship. The Under 15 girls became national champions in March and, later that month, the Under 18 girls followed suit when they became the best girls’ school Water polo team in the country. The Under 13 girls were the second-best team in the country in their age group. The boys’ Under 18 team ended up fourth best team in the country in their age group, the Under 15 boys’ team won their competition in Northampton to retain the ESSA plate and the Under 13 boys reached the semiﬁnal stage of the national ESSA competiton.

Players were involved on the international stage, with local talent centres and many represented the City of Manchester, winning national club championships. The younger girls teams enjoyed team-building, matches and training sessions in Malta in the Spring.

Looking towards the summer, we oﬀer the very best of Bolton School luck to Harriet Dickens, Lucy Blenkinship and Amelia Crompton, who are members of the GB Under 19s squad and hope to be selected to represent Great Britain at the European Championships in Croatia

Chapter 10 Pupils Win Prestigious Translation Awards

Pupils Win Prestigious Translation Awards

Pupils at Bolton School recently took part in the Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators, a prestigious language translation competition organised by Queen's College, Oxford.

A number of pupils in both Boys’ Division and Girls’ Division had a go at translating language extracts at varying levels in French, German, Italian, Mandarin and Spanish.

Year 7 pupil Alistair Ashworth was awarded North West Winner in the Italian Beginners’ category.

Year 8 pupil Derek Leong was awarded North West Winner in the Mandarin Beginners category as well as National Runner-up.

Year 10 pupil Lily Coupe was awarded North West Winner in the Mandarin GCSE level category.

Over 16,000 students participated in the prize in the academic year and representatives from the Queen’s College Translation Exchange said: ‘The standard of the translations submitted to the prize was very high and our team of judges was impressed by the creativity and ﬂuency on display.’

2024 announced

Bolton Children’s Fiction Award Winner 2024 announced

Bolton School is delighted to announce that the winner of the Bolton Children’s Fiction Award 2024 is ‘When I See Blue’ by Lily Bailey.

Bolton School’s Library staﬀ thought this description of ‘When I See Blue’, written by Bolton School Girls’ Division student Isla,

was an excellent summary as to why the book was chosen as this year’s winner:

‘Not only did this book really show me what it’s like to have OCD and completely change my understanding of it, it was also a well-written story with fun, twists and excitement. This book was one of the most realistic step-inside-your-mind type books I have ever read. At one point, I think I might have convinced myself I was Ben! It really showed me his life and experiences and made me understand OCD far better. But it wasn’t just about that, it also had some great plot points and a very exciting ending!’

Winner Lily Bailey said in her virtual acceptance speech: ‘This has been such a wonderful Awards to be a part of, and when I came to speak to you, you all just made me feel so welcome and just asked the most brilliant questions and were so open with sharing your experiences.

‘I just want to say a big thank you again for all of the love you’ve shown for ‘Blue’ and for being so engaged and brilliant. Thank you to both your fantastic librarians, Mrs. Caller and Mrs. Howarth, and Ebb & Flo Bookshop, and all the members of staﬀ

who came together to just foster a love of reading and make this event the wonderful event that it has been.

‘Also, I know I said this when I visited, but just being shorlisted with Phil Earle and SF Said is a big deal for me, because they’re authors I really look up to. So congratulations to them again for being on your wonderful list! Big, big thank you from the bottom of my heart, thank you.’

Following consultation with local participating schools, the Bolton Children’s Fiction Award (BCFA) had a diﬀerent format this year with a shortlist of three books and a celebration day held in March, where students met and engaged with the authors both virtually and in person.

The books shortlisted for 2024 were: ‘When I

See Blue’ by Lily Bailey, ‘While the Storm Rages’ by Phil Earle and ‘Tyger’ by SF Said. The shortlist was selected by Bolton School Library staﬀ to stretch pupils’ reading experiences and to introduce them to new authors and genres. While all quite distinct titles, they also have common themes running through

them: developing a sense of identity, of friendship and overcoming adversity. They were picked as being some of the best contemporary Middle Grade novels.

Library staﬀ are currently compiling a longlist of six books for interested staﬀ and students to read over the summer holidays. The longlist will be revealed in due course: should you wish to join in, please keep an eye on the @BSchLibrary account on X or get in touch with Bolton School Library. The shortlist for 2025 will be selected from this longlist. Look out for the launch of next year’s award in October

Chapter 12 A snapshot of extra-curricular school life

In the recent Maths Challenge, congratulations go to Derek Leong (UKMT Junior Kangaroo) and Louis Ferguson (UKMT Intermediate Kangaroo) for gaining Merit Qualiﬁcations, placing them in the top 2% nationally.

Neeraj Patel and Akshay Kallat (both in 9e) competed in the Northern Final of the German Translation Bee at Lancaster University. Both boys did extremely well and Akshay qualiﬁed for the National Final in Cambridge on 28th June.

Congratulations to Hassan Chaudhry in Year 8 who has been Highly Commended in Oxford University’s French Flash Fiction Competition (Years 7-9 category). This annual competition invites secondary pupils to write a short story of no more than 100 words.

2 Million words: Luke Cotton and Adam Atcha

4 Million words: Daniel Watch

Our ﬁnal Millionaire Readers of the year are:

1 Million words: Ziyad Bagasi, Ethan Cao, Arham Mohamed Akram, Joseph Grundy, Tadi Mambongo, Jake Clark, Daniel Titiloye and Ahmed Baree

The following pupils received the top number of Commendations in their Year Group:

Year 7 Dawar Hassan 235

Year 8 Hussain Al Hakim 182

Year 9 Lucas Bishop 164

Year 12 William Martin 68

Congratulations to:

• Charlie Simpson (Year 9) who has just achieved a Distinction in his Grade 7 Trinity Rock and Pop Drum Kit examination

• Ewan McCairn (Year 8) on receiving Merit in his recent Trinity Rock & Pop Grade 2 Drum Kit examination.

• Derek Leong (Year 8) on receiving Merit in his recent ABRSM Grade 5 Theory examination.

Thank you to everyone who donated essential toiletries and tinned foods to Blackburn Foodbank. Through the collective efforts of students and faculty, we have surpassed last year's donation by an impressive 22 kg, contributing over 191 kg. of essential supplies. This remarkable achievement highlights the important role Blackburn Foodbank plays in our community as we work to aid those in need. Blackburn House's unwavering commitment to this cause reflects the compassion and generosity that defines our ethos.

June 14th saw our ﬁnal House Day of the year. Things didn’t start to well with inclement weather forcing the cancellation of cricket and team challenge. However, the sky brightened up after dinner, with all events taking place as planned. A few upsets in some keys activities meant that Lyde Cup standings are the closest they have been since October, but the ﬁnal table will be announced in the Final Assembly on the last day of term. As ever, thanks to everyone for their enthusiasm!

Congratulations to all who took part in the School Sports Day. The weather held out and saw pupils compete in a vast array of

Track and Field events. The year group Tug of War was very popular, but it all came down to the ﬁnal Relays.

The ﬁnal results were as follows:

Wigan - 4th place

Chorley - 3rd place

Manchester - 2nd place

Blackburn - 1st place

Duke of Edinburgh participants from Bolton School dedicated 12,597 hours to volunteering between April 2023 and March 2024, with a social value of £66,509. This is an incredible

achievement and we hope that the pupils are proud of themselves. Volunteering has a huge impact on young people that is why it is such an essential part of the DofE programme.

Congratulations to all of Year 9 and Year 10 boys who completed their Bronze expeditions over the last couple of weeks. Mr. Jones commented that they were all brilliant, and deserved the praise.

Congratulations to Sebastian Casey (Year 7) who has broken a Traﬀord Athletics decade old club record at the recent national medal meeting. The Head of Athletics at the club said that his time of 12.84s in the Under 13B 75m Hurdles took 0.06 oﬀ the previous record of 12.9s set in 2013. He also said that Sebastian is only the third UK wide athlete to go below 13 seconds in 2024. Well done!

Congratulation to the Town Champions after this week's Championships:

Year 7

Bear Roberts in the High Jump, Louis Ball in Discus and Ashton Morrissey in 1500m

Year 8

Daniel Bleakley in 1500m and Aryan Nunkoo in 800m

Year 9

Charlie Simpson, David Kurlovic, Chris Frank and Oskar Fadil in 4x100m relay

Year 10

Kieran Holt in 300m and Hugo James in the High Jump

Congratulation to Our Year 7 boys’ Water polo team who are the ManUp!2024 mini polo champions. They played the competition at the outdoor pool in Nantwich, Cheshire in June against a range of local club sides. They won all the games in the round robin phase and then won their Semi-ﬁnal against Chester and then the grand Final against Northampton to win the title.

Several of our Year 7 pupils trialled successfully for the Under 14s section of the North West Talent Centre, which is the ﬁrst step in the England Talent Pathway for Water polo. Very well done!

Futures, this year we hope to raise £50k to build a Secondary School that will facilitate Malawian orphans to have an education post 11 years, providing a future away from working the land. Please try your hardest to raise and collect your sponsorship.

We raised over £750 at the recent non uniform House Day. All proceeds will be donated to the Malawi new school appeal.

The Bolton School Charity Walk to Rivington Pike took place on Wednesday 3rd July, raising funds for the Malawi School Build project. Working alongside the charity Great Minds Bright

Each autumn the Parents' Association awards wish list funding, for which staﬀ in the Boys' Division make bids. Since 2013 they have awarded £104,808. The money comes from the voluntary annual contribution made by your parents and other fundraising activities. Outdoor pursuits, sport and music have received the most funding; not surprisingly, as these activities need expensive kit. The Parents' Association is happy to help raise funds to improve the range and extent of options for pupils in Boys’ Division and we thank them for all that they do for us all within Boys’ Division.

Since September the Outgrown Uniform Shop has raised over £1,700 for the Headmaster's Fund, as well as providing great value uniform for pupils and saving good quality items from being wasted.

Credits

Editor: Miss K.S. Wrathmell

Contributors: Mr. J. Newbould, Miss A. Bradshaw, Mr. P. Limb, Mr. N.R.W. Wyatt, Miss S.V. Burgess, Mrs. H.M. Brandon, Mrs. N. James, Mr. P. Hatton, Mr. D.F. Teasdale, Miss K.S. Wrathmell, Mrs. Howarth, Mrs. Caller, Ammar Maljee, Ethan Dixon, Hassan Ali