The Cockerel - May 2022

The Cockerel

Leavers' Celebrations for Year 13

Leavers' Celebrations for Year 13

Year 13 students enjoyed a celebratory send-off during their last week in school. For the first time, both Divisions came together for a fancy-dress Fun Run in aid of charity: a tradition that has been running in the Boys’ Division for some years. This time, boys and girls took to the Levels in costume to run or walk laps and raise money for a good cause. The charity this year was the Ukraine appeal, which was chosen by the family of Cameron Milton, a Year 13 student who sadly died in March. The total raised was £140. After the Fun Run, everyone was treated to ice creams to cool down before the end of the day.

On Wednesday, the cohort’s last full day in school together, the Boys’ and Girls’ Divisions enjoyed separate year group celebrations before coming together for a special lunch in the Boys’ Division Dining Hall.

called them a ‘pioneering year group’, who were the first to experience joint lunches in the Arts Centre, as well as handling the pandemic. He also reassured the students about their exams to come. Finally, he added that it was great to be able to enjoy one another’s company together and in person, particularly since their Sixth Form years have been dogged by Covid.

Mrs. Kyle, the Head of Girls’ Division, and Mr. Ford, the Head of Boys’ Division, also said a few words and wished all of the students well.

After their celebratory lunch, students departed for Study Leave ahead of their A Level exams.

Head of Foundation

Mr. Philip Britton gave a brief address before the food was served. He

School provides four GB Under 19 Water polo players

School provides four GB Under 19 Water polo players

Two current Year 13 students at Bolton School, Harry Bentham and James Blenkinship, along with two students who left last summer, Daniel Bentham and Tom Simpson, joined the GB Under 19 Water polo squad last week for the LEN European Championships Qualification Tournament held in Malta. The squad was managed by Bolton School Water polo coach Andy McGinty. They played three matches, losing to a strong Netherlands team 20-5, narrowly losing out to Malta 9-6 and beating Finland 15-6.

Coach Mr. McGinty said: ‘The team performed well across the tournament and were disappointed with the Malta result. Their preparation included a training camp with the German national team in Hanover and a warm up tournament in Slovakia playing Slovakia, Czech Republic and Ukraine, as well as club teams from Hungary and Greece.’

Spring Concert Performed in Stunning Venue

Spring Concert Performed in Stunning Venue

This year’s Bolton School Joint Spring Concert was enjoyed by a large audience in the town’s parish church, next to which the School was once sited.

Reverend Canon Dr. Chris Bracegirdle welcomed the School to what he believed to be ‘the best parish church in the world’ before the Senior Concert Band, conducted by Miss Sherry, got the evening of music underway. They played three melodies with accomplished aplomb: With Fire and Sword, Viva! and soundtrack highlights from Guardians of the Galaxy . They were followed ‘on stage’ by the School’s Intermediate Concert Band who, led by Mrs. Wade, performed admirable versions of Pirates of the Caribbean and Skyfall.

City of Stars and In the Mood were the chosen numbers of the saxophone ensemble, which comprised boys and girls. The Boys’ Division Tuned Percussion Ensemble played Earth Wind and Fire’s Fantasy, which had been arranged by Mr. Forgrieve.

The Chamber Choir, conducted by Mr. Ainscough and making full uses of the stunning acoustics, performed Stephen Sondheim’s The Ballad of Sweeney Todd and Sunday before it was the turn of the Girls’ Division Tuned Percussion Ensemble to play Tico Tico.

The wonderful evening of early Spring music-making concluded with Mr. Lovatt directing the Senior Orchestra through The Blue Danube Waltz, Adagio for Strings and Romeo and Juliet Overture.

Teachers' Three Welsh Peaks Charity Walk

Teachers' Three Welsh Peaks Charity Walk

Four teachers from Bolton School Boys’ Division – Maths Teacher Luke Jones, Geography Teacher Charlotte Dean, Head of Outdoor Learning Steve Bradley and Maths Teacher Greg Bradley, along with his son George – walked the Welsh Three Peaks overnight to raise funds for two charities: Pilgrim Bandits, which supports injured veterans and MIND, which raises awareness of and supports mental health issues.

Maths Teacher Mr. Bradley takes up the story: ‘Starting at Pen-y-Pass at 6.15 pm we summited Yr Wyddfa, otherwise known as Snowdon, then drove to Cader Idris and summited there, before driving onto Pen y Fan and reaching the summit for a 6.30 am sunrise. The event was dubbed Operation Night Wolves III. The event was organised in conjunction with a group I am a member of called Gone Tabbing –Pilgrim Bandits is its main charity – which is loosely based around military style fitness and outdoor adventures, but anyone can join.

‘So far we have raised over £1,000 for the two charities and the School is donating another £1,500 from the proceeds of a non-uniform day.’

Environmental Advisers share Career Paths

Environmental Advisers share Career Paths

This term, a pair of Environmental Advisors at J. Murphy & Sons shared their career experiences with girls in Year 10 and boys in Year 11 as part of an ongoing series of World of Work talks organised by the Development Office.

Stephanie Lewin spoke to Girls’ Division pupils over Zoom, while Josh Smith talked to Boys’ Division students. Both talks offered an interesting perspective and provided the audience with both insight and advice.

Steph opened her talk by admitting that she didn’t initially know what she wanted to do. After studying Music at university and considering a teaching career, she ended up in a temp position doing data entry related to the carbon footprint of a product made in a factory. This turned into a permanent position and she was offered the opportunity to complete a Masters in Environmental Management. She said she ‘struggled through’ this course: it was hard, coming from a non-science background, especially when she was working full-time.

After being made redundant, she tried lots of different things to figure out what she wanted to do next, and advised her audience that everything offers experience.

Inspired by the statistic that most women only apply for a job when they can do everything in the job description, while men will apply even if there are some things they can’t do, she decided to take a chance and apply for a job as an Environmental Advisor in the railway construction industry: her current role. Though in the first

interview she felt that she hadn’t done well due to a lack of technical knowledge, she was invited back for a second. She advised the girls that technical knowledge can always be learned later, and sometimes the most important thing is showing that you are the right fit for the team.

Steph went on to give a brief ‘day in the life’ overview of what her job involves. She talked about having six to eight projects on the go at once, and how varied her job can be, from writing reports at her desk to walking across fields to conduct site assessments, and working with everyone involved in the project. Though the construction industry is male-dominated, she said that the 20% of women in the workforce are spread across every single role, and that it’s nice to be able to bring a female perspective to the job. This careers talk is available to watch again here.

investigations. He talked about some of his recent jobs and the places he has worked in, for example in ancient woodland, and what measures are needed to protect animals and plants while also remediating an emergency situation.

Josh also talked about his job, which is primarily to do with emergency work on railways. He explained what various parts of the job

description really mean: how he establishes best practice in environmental and sustainability matters, ensures that everyone is aware of their environmental responsibilities, creates environmental management plans for sites and supports teams in complying with these, and carries out regular inspections and incident

Moving on to discuss his career as a whole, Josh said that he initially wanted to be a marine biologist or a keeper for big cats! He therefore concentrated on subjects that would get him into this field and studied Natural Sciences and Zoology at university. After his degree, he was accepted onto an internship in America working with big cats, but needed money to get him there. He tried working for a law firm, but then found out about the environmental and sustainability advisor role at J. Murphy & Sons. This was more similar to what he wanted to be doing, so he applied to join the company and waited to apply internally when the role he wanted became available. He said: ‘I thought it was important to put this kind of career journey in, because plans definitely do change and I kind of fell into a job that I absolutely love.’

Answering questions at the end of his talk, Josh spoke about volunteering at Cats’ Protection to give himself experience working with animals and to show his commitment and interest. He also said that he doesn’t wish that he was a marine biologist or big cats keeper now: it would’ve been a good challenge, but he said that he’d found his niche in this job and is glad to be where he is today.

Bolton School is grateful to both Steph and Josh for speaking to pupils about their careers and inspiring student to think about different pathways into jobs that they may not have considered. This careers talk is available to watch again here.

Bolton Boys to present at prestigious Science Festival

Bolton Boys to present at prestigious Science Festival

This summer, a small team of boys from Bolton School will travel to London to present their science project at the Royal Society’s Summer Science Exhibition. The prestigious event highlights exciting research from across the UK and this year includes a Young Researcher Zone, where students from schools and colleges present the science they have been doing with STEM partners in the Royal Society Partnership Project Programme.

Bolton School Boys’ Division successfully bid for a partnership grant in 2019 to look at the environmental impact of disposable contact lenses. A chance Twitter conversation between Dr. Turner, who works in both the Chemistry Department of the Boys’ Division and at the University of Manchester, and Professor Phil Morgan, a Professor of Optometry at the university, led to the research question. While a lot of work had been done on the impact of the plastic packaging of the contact lenses, there was little research into the persistence of the actual contact lenses in the environment. Professor Morgan, whose son is an Old Boy of Bolton School, is a renowned expert in the clinical performance of contact lenses and has published over 200 papers in the area.

The boys’ initial work focused on soil tests, which showed that the contact lens materials were not really affected by normal soil conditions and the hydrogels within them were remarkably regenerative! Then the effect of different

substances was tested, including boiling water and various enzymes. The hydrogels remained indestructible.

The COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted the project, but when experimental work resumed, an increased familiarity with alcohol hand gels sparked an idea for developing a home gel system that would weaken the contact lens structure and hopefully reduce the time the materials persist in the environment when they are disposed of. The current project team has been testing various gel combinations to find one that is suitable for home use. This has included consideration of variables including chemical and physical hazards, effectiveness and viscosity. The effectiveness of the gel systems will be evaluated by looking at the Raman spectra of the materials, which should show which chemical bonds have been changed.

The current project group has also surveyed contact lens users to try and find out how well they comply with instructions about their contact lens care and whether they have ever thought about the environmental impact of their lenses.

Dr. Turner and the team are really excited to present this research to the public alongside many of the UK’s leading researchers on 6 and 7 July. Look out for updates on the School's Chemistry Department Twitter feed.

Eco-committee Half Term update

Eco-committee Half Term update

Since the last update, pupils across the whole school have been keenly getting involved in some of the Eco-committee's initiatives. It has been a pleasure to see such engagement with our environmental work in school.

A week-long collection for the Big Battery Hunt saw form groups compete as they brought in old batteries from home for recycling. We had huge carrier bags and shoeboxes full of batteries from some homes and in total collected over 3000 batteries which were recycled through Bolton Council. Well done to all the forms, who used this opportunity to reduce hazardous waste, especially our three top forms (7a with 460, 9d with 378 and 7g with 305 batteries).

Continuing with the theme of waste, our Year 7 forms have taken it in turns to complete litter picking at the edges of our school grounds during tutor periods. All boys really engaged with this and were surprised at the volume of litter collected in the hedges lining the roads around school. We are looking forward to introducing more year groups to this initiative.

Representatives from each year group planted trees to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee with the Queen's Green Canopy project. Our trees can be visited on the Tudor Avenue car park area.

Finally, the climate emergency has been extremely high on the agenda this year with COP26 being held in Glasgow and so we launched our own version of the inaugural global Earthshot Competition with students across the school having the opportunity to design an innovative climate solution in response to one of the five Earthshot themes. The entries were judged by a teacher panel based on their feasibility, impact and quality of their poster design. The joint winners were Joseph Williams in 9b and Jack Fletcher in 12e. Their posters will shortly be displayed in school. Four other students were highly commended for their entries: Jacob Jones in 7d, Miguel Jones-Brosed in 10e, Alistair Reed in 12d and Reuben Simpson in 12g.

Duke of Edinburgh Awards Celebration

Duke of Edinburgh Awards Celebration

Pupils, parents and teachers from the Girls’ and Boys’ Divisions of Bolton School gathered to celebrate this year’s crop of Silver and Gold Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) Awards.

Head of Foundation Mr. Britton congratulated students on achieving their awards during what has been an extraordinary time. He thanked parents for their help in delivering and picking up pupils in remote locations on a daily basis during their Covid-affected expeditions and praised the girls and boys for being imaginative in completing their Service, Physical and Skills sections of the awards.

Four students reflected on their achievements: Silver awardees Ellis Matthews and Iman Javid and Gold awardees James Hopkinson and Celia Logan. All spoke about learning the importance of giving time and assistance to others and said that they would highly recommend the Award to fellow pupils. They told of building up their perseverance and resilience capabilities; the challenging but rewarding expedition; of gaining new – and perfecting old – skills such as cooking, gardening, water polo coaching and playing the violin; volunteering and working for local and national charities; and gaining new knowledge about a diverse range of subjects.

The Silver Awards were then handed out by former pupil and Pyranha Kayaks’ Marketing Manager Mathew Wilkinson (Class of 2007) and the Gold Awards by Head of Girls’ Division, Mrs. Kyle, the recipients of which would receive their actual certificates at a venue in London in the near future. Mr. Britton pointed out that so many pupils achieve the Bronze Awards across both Divisions that these are handed out in assemblies. In the Girls’ Division this year, a record 26 students completed Gold in time for the presentation evening.

Old Boy Mathew congratulated all those receiving awards and recalled how he too had achieved the Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards. Mathew told how he had embraced outdoor pursuits whilst at the School, undertaking a wide range of interesting trips in the early noughties, including skiing in the Swiss Alps and 3

weeks of sea kayaking in Vancouver. He told how Bolton School had inspired his interest in the great outdoors and particularly his love of paddlesports and recounted further excursions to Slovenia, Nepal and Menorca, where he found himself out of his comfort zone as he tried to circumnavigate the island. Mathew said outdoor adventure will allow you to find people of a similar mentality to yourself, enable you to build your leadership and tenacity skills and to develop lifelong interests.

Mr. Britton offered a Vote of Thanks and commended the teachers who coordinated the DofE student activities – Mr. Jones, both Mr. Bradleys and Miss Dean in Boys’ Division and Ms. Marrs and Miss Lindle in Girls’ Division.

School celebrates record Bursary donation

School celebrates record Bursary donation

Bolton School celebrates record donation from John and Sally Roberts that will help level up talent and opportunity through new means-tested bursaries. Old Boltonian, AO Founder and CEO, John Roberts, and his wife Sally, will support 14 pupils through their full senior school experience. It is the largest oneoff donation received by Bolton School to its bursary fund. The donation has facilitated a new outreach partnership between Bolton School and youth charity OnSide to support applications.

Through a new partnership between Bolton School and the youth charity OnSide, John and Sally Roberts will support 14 pupils with means-tested bursaries, funding two Year 7 pupils a year for seven years through to completion of their A Level studies. This builds on their previous support for bursaries at the school over the past six years. The first two pupils, both members of the OnSide Network of Youth Zones, join Year 7 in September. The donation is part of John and Sally’s ongoing commitment to support more young people achieve their full potential. The bursaries are available for young people that are members of

OnSide Youth Zones to support their education and cover additional expenses to ensure they benefit from all the opportunities the School has to offer.

As a result of the gift, Bolton School and OnSide have established a new outreach scheme called Flourish to promote social mobility by encouraging a wider range of applications to the School’s Bursary scheme. At the heart of its success is the high quality, dedicated work by OnSide’s youth workers.

Through the Flourish programme, Year 6 members of Youth Zones in Blackburn, Chorley and Wigan took part in activities including science experiments, performing arts workshops and graphic design sessions at Bolton School and received academic support ahead of taking the entrance

exam. This led to 8 young people taking the entrance exam in January 2022. Three pupils were successful, with two bursaries being provided by John and Sally and one provided by Bolton School. The Flourish programme will expand to Bolton Lads and Girls Club and Warrington Youth Zones this year, and work with Year 5 pupils throughout the coming Summer Term and then during the Autumn Term of their Year 6 studies, to support them to undertake the School’s entrance examination in January 2023.

Philip Britton, Head of Foundation at Bolton School said: “We are exceptionally grateful that John and Sally have chosen to make such a transformational gift to our Bursary Fund. John and Sally’s generosity has enabled us to develop an innovative outreach partnership with OnSide, as a means of reaching potential Bursary candidates who might otherwise never even have heard of Bolton School, nor understood that they might thrive here. The Flourish outreach programme will ensure we can find Bursary candidates with real potential, and support them to apply to the School, safe in the knowledge that there need be no barriers –financial or otherwise – to their future success. Our Bursary pupils take the opportunities their education here provides and then go out into the world to make a difference for good. We are delighted that John wishes to pass on the gift of a Bolton School education to the next generation of Bolton School pupils, and honoured by his and Sally’s practical, wholehearted commitment to delivering social mobility through the School’s Bursary programme and our partnership with OnSide.”

Bolton-born entrepreneur and Founder of AO John Roberts said: “Sally and I know that talent is evenly distributed, but opportunity is not. Bursaries are a brilliant way to level this up. Bolton School is an amazing place and we want young people from OnSide to have the same fantastic experience there as I did. It’s been brilliant seeing the two charities work together to make this happen – it’s definitely a model that could work in other parts of the country. The youth workers at OnSide are phenomenal at getting the best out of young people and bursaries like this are a direct way to support talent, wherever it’s found. We’re extremely proud of the new pupils and look forward to following their progress.”

OnSide is a national charity that funds, builds, launches and supports a network of state-of-the-art, multimillion-pound Youth Zones in the UK’s most disadvantaged areas. Helen Taylor, Director of Policy, Partnerships and Impact, OnSide added “Giving young people access to opportunities to fulfil their potential is at the heart of what OnSide Youth Zones are all about. We are incredibly grateful to John and Sally Roberts for their generous support, which has enabled this partnership to make a real difference to these young people’s lives.”

John and Sally are long-time supporters of OnSide Youth Zones. John has been a trustee since 2015 and also served as Chair of the Executive Board.

Chapter 10

Gold Award for School Concert Band

Gold Award for School Concert Band

During the Easter break, Bolton School’s Joint Senior Concert Band performed at the National Concert Band Festival in the prestigious concert hall of the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM).

The group performed to a large audience and received encouraging feedback from Simone Rebello of the RNCM. They also had the opportunity to watch numerous aspirational performances before a small number of the band joined the Royal Marines Band for a performance.

It proved to be an excellent day for the Concert Band, who was thrilled to receive a Gold Award, with the Percussion section being awarded an Outstanding Performance Award.

Cups and Colours celebrate Sporting Success

Cups and Colours celebrate Sporting Success

The Cups and Colours Assembly is the annual celebration of sporting achievement at Bolton School Boys’ Division. This event has been held virtually on Zoom for the past two years, but this year saw a welcome return to a packed Great Hall.

A large number of boys received Half and Full Colours for their involvement with a wide range of school sports: Hockey, Swimming, Water polo, Paddlesports, Climbing, Badminton, Tennis, Football, Rugby and also, following a win in the English Schools Competition, Chess.

For the very first time in school history, Colours for Rowing were awarded to James Hopkinson in Year 13.

Individual sportsmen were congratulated on their wider sporting achievements, such as national call-ups and involvement with professional squads in several sports, and the school’s various sports teams were celebrated throughout. In Swimming, the Junior team won the Town Gala, with the Intermediates and Seniors both finishing second, and the squad also won the Cutty Sark Trophy: a fast water gala against strong opposition. With the return of competitive water polo, the Under 15s finished second in their National Finals and the Seniors continued the School’s streak of success with another win at Under 18 level

following an epic final against Trinity to become National Champions. The Rowing squad entered their first competition and enjoyed a first taste of success. Badminton has seen a resurgence and the School’s players were chosen to represent Bolton at the Greater Manchester competition. The boys’ efforts and achievements in Football, Rugby, Golf, Tennis and Chess were also acknowledged.

Captains’ trophies were given out in each of the team sports, and the Trevor Pledger Award for Volunteering in Sport was presented to Ellis Matthews in Year 12 for his contribution to water polo training.

The Hindley Trophy is awarded for the best individual performance or outstanding sporting performance of the year. This year’s field of competition for this prize was particularly strong. Those up for the award were: Harry Bentham, Year 13, Great Britain Water polo; James Blenkinship, Year 13, Great Britain Water polo; Oliver Cook, Year 11, Sale Sharks Academy; Jamie Death, Year 12, Under 18 Gold and Under 21 Silver at the English Judo Championships; Kesh Fonseka, Year 11, North of England Cricket; Ben Price, Year 13, Lancashire Under 18s Football; and Max Turner, Year 13, England Hockey goalkeeper. However, the Trophy was ultimately awarded to Sam Olawumi in Year 13, Captain of the ISFA Under 18s and member of the Bolton Wanderers FC reserves.

Cricket colours will be awarded at the annual MCC match later this term, and a number of further sporting trophies will be presented at Prizegiving.

The Cups and Colours Assembly also paid tribute to Year 13 student and 1st XV Rugby player Cameron Milton, who sadly died in March. His commitment to sport and to his teammates has been much celebrated and the assembly once again commemorated him as a well-liked and passionate young sportsman. Cameron’s Full Colours for Rugby were collected by his brother Connor, with the rest of his family watching from the audience. As the Colours were presented, the 1st XV and Year 13 led the Great Hall in a standing ovation in Cameron’s honour. Mr. Fernside closed the assembly by thanking pupils and urging them to continue to enjoy their sport.

An Evening of Musical Entertainment

An Evening of Musical Entertainment

On Thursday 12th May, 49 musicians entertained an enthusiastic and supportive audience of family and friends in a Musical Evening in Great Hall. The Drum Corps ensured that the concert got off to a rousing start with Loosen Up! and Paradiddle Parade, followed by the Guitar Group’s foot-tapping rendition of Volare. After 8 solo performances, the Joint Strings Group gave a delightful performance of Hit The Road, Jack. Another 9 soloists then performed prior to the Year 7 Choir closing the concert with their inspiring version of You Will Be Found. Superb solo flute, clarinet, saxophone, violin, guitar, piano, organ, vocal, xylophone and glockenspiel performances, in a wide range of musical styles, were given by pupils from each year group in Years 7-13, namely Jamie Daley (7g), Charlie Feng (7d), Tanmay Gokul (7a), Charlie Simpson (7d), Advaith Govindu (8f), George Meredith-

Alexander (8a), Oliver Scales (8b), Nishan Sharma (8d), Suhayb Valli (9d), Harry Brown (10a), Amrit Mishra (10c), Levi Higham (11b), Laurence Britton (12f), Mark Liu (12i), Rishi Narla (12i), William Miles (13f) and Anuj Mishra (13i).

Foundation Head of Instrumental Studies, Ian Forgrieve, presented the concert and thanked all of the performers for ‘sharing their impressive talents and passion for music in a wonderful evening of high quality entertainment’.

Bolton Cultural Education Partnership and Bolton Culture Champions project at Crompton Place

Bolton Cultural Education Partnership and Bolton Culture Champions project at Crompton Place

The town’s Creatives Now youth-led project will open their studio to showcase process and installation work they have been working on at an exhibition in Bolton town centre’s Crompton Place on Saturday 25 June from 12.00 noon to 5.00pm.

The exhibition will include installations, publications and individual art works that represent the change that the collective wish to see in Bolton, presenting ideas for creative interventions to green Bolton and to encourage a more inclusive and diverse approach to arts and culture participation.

There will be opportunities for the public to add their own ideas into the installations and, following the open studio event, the collective will invite artists to pitch ideas to lead paid project roles inspired by the collective's ideas.

Across the Crompton Place Shopping Centre, there will also be exhibitions of children and young people's work from across the town, which have been created in response two Creatives Now briefs: 'Imagine If' and 'We are Young'

The ‘Imagine If’ project invites youngsters to watch Sir Ken’s Robinson’s video ‘Imagine If’ here. The short film explains how – beyond just living in the world as we find it – humans create civilisations, theories, technologies and strive to reach beyond the planet.

Applicants are then asked to spend some time thinking about their neighbourhood or town or school and how it might be positively changed for the collective good.

The project asks young people to reimagine those parts of life that we take for granted. They are encouraged to be creative and have been told that their idea could be a tiny intervention, a giant change or something in-between. Once they have a concept, the teenagers are then asked to start writing a sentence which begins ‘Imagine if….’ before designing a postcard, envelope or letter to illustrate their idea. The deadline for entering for young people aged up to 18 years of age is 10 June –further details including how to submit entries are on this flyer – after which the postcards will be exhibited in Crompton Place Shopping Centre from 25 June.

The ‘We are Young’ project invites contributions by 12-18 year olds for a town centre open exhibition running from the end of June to the end of August. The display will include a Crompton Place Shopping Centre takeover of empty units to mount the work and there will be additional holiday workshop options for participants. Entries are asked to respond to the exhibition theme, exploring and presenting the experience of what it is like being 12-18 years of age now. The artwork presented can be of any medium, including creative writing and film.

The invites coincide with a call out for more young people to join the Creatives Now project, further details of which are on this flyer.

The Creatives Now collective has made a documentary film exploring the public's relationship with Bolton and inviting them to share their hidden creative talents. This will be screened at the event. They will also display documentary photography linked to Bolton's Jubilee celebrations – a Mass Observation style project.

Bolton School Junior Girls' School, Hesketh House, will also present an installation of a future classroom of a Malawian school they are fundraising to build. They will invite the public to 'buy a brick' adding their contribution to the installation so they can see the build progress of the school from Boltonian contributions.

The afternoon will also include free workshops from the Octagon Theatre, Bolton Music Service and screenings from Bolton Film Festival. Bolton FM will broadcast from the centre on the day, featuring a range of interviews with Bolton's creative and educational leaders as well as chatting with the public about cultural change in the town. The project is a Bolton Cultural Education Partnership and Bolton Culture Champions project, facilitated by Bolton School and Bolton at Home, supported by Bolton Council and public health funding. The project is grateful to volunteers who support workshops and employ Kickstart Youth Voice Creative Champions from Curious Minds.

The Bolton School Football Festival is back!

The Bolton School Football Festival is back!

Bolton School’s Football Festival for local primary schools returned this year for the first time since 2019 and it proved to be as popular as ever. Girls and boys from well over one hundred teams took part in the event which ran over two days; a drills and fun day for Year 3 and Year 4 children with some small-sided games and a competitive knockout tournament day for Year 5 and Year 6 players.

The event was run by and at Bolton School with help from Year 7 and Year 8 pupils and Sixth Form students, some of which were collecting volunteering hours for their Duke of Edinburgh Awards. Keith Branagan, the renowned former Bolton Wanderers’ goalkeeper and Director of Football Coaching at the School, organised the Festival and, besides the Bolton School pupils, brought in a pool of senior referees.

In several closely fought games over the match day two action, Eagley Juniors ran out winners of the A competition, beating Sacred Heart 3-2 on penalties after a 0-0 draw. The B competition was won by Sacred Heart, who overcame St Brendan’s 1-0 and in the Girls’ Final, Egerton beat Cherry Tree by two goals to one.

Applauding Arts and House Achievements

Applauding Arts and House Achievements

The Arts Cups and Colours Assembly annually celebrates the achievements of Boys’ Division pupils both in the Arts and within the House system. This occasion highlights collective and individual endeavours within music, dance, drama and public speaking as well as public service, leadership and commitment.

The assembly was led by Deputy Head Dr. Mullins, who began by recognising how these activities and qualities are a distinguishing feature of the all-round education at Bolton School. He said: ‘It is our hope that the collection of experiences resulting from the creative and performing arts, public speaking and debating, and our House activities promotes intellectual curiosity, fosters creative thinking whilst at the same time enhancing our sense of empathy and physical and mental wellbeing.’

He invited a number of boys to the stage to share their experiences. Finley Littlefair (Year 13) spoke about the strong tradition of performing arts at the school and gave a recap of the numerous performances that have taken place throughout this year. Jack Swires (Year 13) spoke eloquently about his involvement with debating and MUN, which have also been very successful. Owais Khalid (Year 13) came to the podium to talk about the various endeavours of each House. Levi Higham (Year 11) also performed ‘East Coast Mainline’ by James Rae on the saxophone.

Dr. Mullins celebrated the year’s varied concerts as well as the achievements of the Joint Senior Concert Band at the National Concert Band Festival, where they received a Gold Award and the Percussion section were awarded an Outstanding Performance Award. He also mentioned the Platinum Artsmark, which recognises the School’s ongoing dedication to arts and culture and gives boys the opportunity to engage with the cultural ecology of the North West through collaborative partnerships with theatres, film companies, museums, galleries, concert venues, universities and freelance creatives. In addition, he spoke about the House system, which has been in place for 119 years and provides boys with the chance to learn from other year groups and their experiences.

Half and Full Colours were awarded for Drama, Music, Debating, Art and House activities. Dr. Mullins also announced the winners of House Winter Cups, which were presented by the Head, Mr. Ford. Chorley received the Junior Football Cup, Senior Football Cup, the Waterhouse Cup for Senior Rugby and the Golf Cup. The Inters (Years 9 and 10) Football Cup and Senior House Champions Cup were presented to Manchester. The Hockey Cup was awarded jointly to Wigan and Manchester, with Wigan also picking up the cup for Badminton. The Haselden Trophy for Cross Country went to Blackburn, as did the Junior Rugby Cup. Dr. Mullins finally announced the current standings in the race for the Lyde Cup, to much excitement in the Great Hall. The boys in their Houses will continue to compete for the Lyde Cup through the rest of the Summer Term.

Bolton Children's Fiction Award Shortlisted Authors share Stories

Bolton Children's Fiction Award Shortlisted Authors share Stories

Children involved in the Bolton Children’s Fiction Award (BCFA) have enjoyed hearing from all six shortlisted authors since the list of books for 2022 was announced back in December.

This exciting series of talks was held on Zoom with Bolton School Book Club members attending live from the Library. The authors talked about their shortlisted book, their writing process and inspirations. Boys and girls asked enthusiastic questions of all six writers, delving into detail about their books and asking more widely about writing. The recordings were then shared with everyone involved in BCFA 2022.

Using technology to connect with authors virtually began during the pandemic when they were unable to visit in person. However, continuing with the virtual visits this year has allowed every single pupil involved in the Award, across the whole of Bolton, to hear from every one of the authors ahead of the voting period!

Head Librarian Mrs. Howarth and Librarian Mrs. Caller said:

‘The decision to change the format of the Book Award this year was taken due to the social distancing measures necessary for COVID, but has proven to be a positive change – as well as a steep learning curve for the Librarians who have had

to learn to edit videos and manage Zoom meetings! The videos give a wider audience opportunity to ‘meet’ the authors and the 20 minute format has been ideal for using in Book Club meetings.

At Bolton School Library, we have noticed an increase in books borrowed following the videos and they have maintained the momentum and interest surrounding the Award throughout the year. Our keenest readers have benefited from the words of wisdom, writing tips and have learnt about the publishing process. We have also enjoyed reading tweets and comments from participating schools who have shared the videos with their readers.’

The new format has been well received by participants across Bolton.

‘The authors give a sense that anyone can be an author and derive inspiration from everything around them.’

‘I truly believe now that reading is a passport to countless adventures.’

‘The authors are people like you and me, but they have drawn from emotions and events around them.’

Fiona Fahlin, Librarian at Outwood Academy, said: ‘We have enjoyed reading and discussing the books and especially the author Zoom sessions which have been really helpful in not only rounding up the reads and seeing the authors, but there have been some amazing insights into creative writing and character development. This will really help our students going forward into GCSEs. Thank you, Bolton School Library!’

Children at the Olive School Primary said: ‘I have been fascinated about how the authors have been inspired.’

Mr. Franklin, Bolton School Junior Boys’ teacher, said: ‘Our BookBound group watched Helen Rutter’s Zoom. They were excited to see the author of the book and listen to the stories that she had to tell. It was interesting to hear about her inspiration for the story, and how it was based on her son. The boys found her tips on story writing very useful, and they were encouraged by the fact that she had not always been a ‘writer’ or ‘good at English’ when she was younger.’

Mrs. Joseph, Bolton School Junior Girls’ teacher, said: ‘Year 6 thought there was a great selection of books in the Book Award –it was fantastic to be inspired with new reading ideas and a varied choice of reading material. The pupils enjoyed the online author talks and said it was nice to hear about the book from the author themselves. The aspiring writers feel much more confident.

‘As a teacher I liked the fact that we could watch them at a time that suited us. We included some of them in our World Book Day celebrations, too.’

The BCFA shortlisted authors for 2022 are: Helen Rutter (The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh), Elle McNicoll (A Kind of Spark), Ele Fountain (Lost), Lesley Parr (The Valley of Lost Secrets), Joe Wilson (The Island That Didn’t Exist) and Stewart Foster (The Perfect Parent Project). They each connected with Bolton School’s Book Cubs on Zoom to

give a short talk and answer pupils’ questions.

Pupils across Bolton are now busily voting for their favourite books and the winner of this year’s Award will be announced in July 2022.

If you would like to watch recordings of any of the authors’ talks, please contact Bolton School Library: library@boltonschool.org

NMAP SCITT granted accreditation

NMAP SCITT granted accreditation

Bolton School has been a Hub school for the National Mathematics and Physics (NMAP) SCITT (School Centred Initial Teacher Training) led by and based at Wycombe High School in Buckinghamshire since its inception several years ago.

In December 2021, the Department for Education (DfE) published its response to the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) Market Review and asked all providers nationally to apply for accreditation to deliver ITT from September 2024. The deadline for submitting applications in Round 1 was 7 February, with the option to apply in Round 2 in June. Most providers applied in Round 1, however, only a third of applications have been successful.

Following the award, the NMAP SCITT will enter Stage 2 of the process, which is designed to be a supportive follow-up phase during which providers work with the DfE to further review training materials in a ‘light-touch quality assurance and triage process’.

We are now delighted to report that the NMAP SCITT has been successful in its application for accreditation for the delivery of Initial Teacher Training (ITT) from September 2024 onwards. We are one of only 80 ITT providers to have been successful in Round 1 of the accreditation process. This is a fantastic achievement and testament to the high quality of our provision and our partnership staff in Hub and placement schools across the country.

Wycombe High School Deputy Headteacher and SCITT Lead Sally Jarrett said, ‘We are delighted with the outcome of our application and look forward to continuing to provide high quality, subject-specialist training for the next generation of mathematics and physics teachers’.

Click here more information about the National Mathematics and Physics SCITT.

Founders and Benefactors Assembly

Founders and Benefactors Assembly

The Girls’ Division for the first time joined the Boys’ Division in holding a Founders and Benefactors Assembly to honour the many figures in Bolton School’s history who have helped to create and shape the School into the Foundation that exists today. The Boys’ Division has been holding this celebration annually since the School’s 100 and 500 anniversary celebrations in 2016.

Head of Foundation Mr. Philip Britton led the Founders and Benefactors Assemblies in both Boys’ and Girls’ Divisions.

Mr. Britton began by explaining that this assembly happens on or close to 7 May to commemorate the date of the death of one of Bolton School’s foremost benefactors: Lord Leverhulme. The flag was also flown in his honour during the week of the Founders and Benefactors Assemblies.

Mr. Britton went on to note the long and distinguished history of the Foundation, which stretches back to the founding of a school for boys in Bolton in 1516. Since then, the schools that became the Boys’ and Girls’ Divisions have been refounded on a number of occasions. This year, the Boys’ Division assembly focused on 1644, during the first Civil War, when Robert Lever reendowed the school with a gift in his will.

Mary Haslam, whose husband was a governor of the Boys’ school and who was also involved in the Women’s Suffrage movement, was one of the key figures involved in the founding of Bolton Girls’ Day School in 1877. Initially located at the Mechanics Institute and employing just one schoolmistress, it was notably open to all girls, regardless of their class. Bolton Girls’ Day School quickly became Bolton High School for Girls and in 1891 moved to a site on Park Road, where the Junior Boys’ School stands today. This school would go on to join with Bolton Grammar School for Boys in 1915 to become the Girls’ and Boys’ Divisions of Bolton School.

Mr. Ford, the Head of Boys’ Division, offered up a few words celebrating the enormous contribution that teachers at Bolton School have made to the school’s pupils.

Looking back, Mr. Britton drew out a few important themes, the first of which was the disgrace that a girls’ school was established so recently in our history, some 361 years after a school for boys. He also reiterated the importance of Mary Haslam, who decided to do something about the inequality she saw around her in Victorian England. With a group of friends, both men and women, she created a school for girls at this pivotal moment of change in the country’s history.

In both assemblies, the audience was invited to join in with singing ‘Jerusalem’ and the School Song: in the Boys’ Division ‘Forty Years On’.

The Boys’ Division Captain Ali Ahmed spoke at the Boys' assembly, giving thanks on behalf of the pupils for those who have contributed to the school: John Barton, the

Benefactor who first founded the school for boys in Bolton; Robert Lever, whose benefaction led to the Civil War refoundation of the Boys’ school in 1644; William Hesketh Lever, Lord Leverhulme, who is largely responsible for the current 1915 Foundation and buildings of the school; and many others through the years.

Mr. Britton closed the assembly by bidding Year 13 a fond farewell and wishing them luck in their upcoming A Level examinations.

Connecting with Old Boy in Hong Kong

Connecting with Old Boy in Hong Kong

Old Boy Nat Roohan (Class of 2017) spoke with boys in Year 8 about his degree apprenticeship with JP Morgan. After leaving Bolton School, he decided not to follow the traditional path of university and instead joined the JP Morgan Apprenticeship programme in London to obtain a degree in Finance from the University of Exeter, in addition to a number of professional qualifications. He travelled to Hong Kong with the company in early 2022 to work as a Securities Finance Trader for six months. Nat explained to the boys why he chose a degree apprenticeship and the benefits of taking this route. For example, he enjoyed not being on a student budget all the time as he had a salary from the start, the company paid for his degree, and he was able to gain valuable work experience while studying. However, he also said that it was a difficult decision to move into a corporate environment at the age of 18, and doing so meant that he didn’t get the ‘university lifestyle’.

The preparation for applying to a degree apprenticeship is similar to applying to university – Nat said that it’s important to work hard and get good results. However, he also recommended lots

of extra-curricular activities and reminded the audience that it’s important to show employers that they are well-rounded individuals.

During his time at Bolton School, Nat took part in the Cowgills Future Stars programme to gain additional knowledge of finance, as well as taking advantage of other opportunities through school and that he set up himself. He recommended doing as much work experience as possible.

Though he took Maths, Further Maths and Economics at A Level, and this has helped in parts, these subjects are not required. He emphasised that a wide range of people move into banking, and encouraged the boys to study languages as this can be helpful when working internationally.

Though his audience were only in Year 8, Nat finished his talk by saying, ‘The more you can do to put yourself in a good position, that helps.’

The Zoom call was then opened up to questions from the audiences. Nat explained that he chose JP Morgan because he saw in the people working there what he wanted to become. He

talked a little about the stigma attached to apprenticeships, the process for applying and how to find more information. When asked about skills that have helped him most in his career, he said it was not necessarily just one skill and added how school helped him in this: ‘You’re not going to Bolton School just to get good results, but it helps you become a well-rounded, interesting, nice young person.’

He talked about taking on the responsibilities of a job at 18, describing it as a ‘trade-o ff ’, and the challenge of moving to London by himself at a young age. However, he was able to adapt in part thanks to the routine of school. In addition, he was able to talk about the benefits that working for JP Morgan o ff ers, for example healthcare, pensions, clubs and societies and sports teams, but also the opportunity to work in another country, learn new

languages, and take financial exams. He described it as ‘like school: it is what you make of it, and it’s up to you to make the most of the opportunities.’

Nat also spoke about his experience working in Hong Kong and his hopes to extend his six-month placement there. Nat’s talk is available to watch in full here.

Chapter 20

Ballet Brothers to perform at Disneyland Paris

Ballet Brothers to perform at Disneyland Paris

Two brothers, Flynn and Patrick Humphreys, who both attend Bolton School, are rehearsing hard ahead of performing with their dance school at Disneyland Paris this August.

Flynn, a Year 4 pupil at the Junior Boys’ School, was recently awarded Honours after successfully completing the British Theatre Dance Association exam in Primary Ballet. Asked what made him take up dancing, he said: ‘I got into dancing because I saw a video of Wigan Warriors Rugby League team dancing. I liked it because most of the time you see a lot of females dancing and it was nice to see males dancing.’

Considering how difficult it is, Flynn thought: ‘I think jazz is the hardest because you need to be really flexible to do some of the stuff and I am not the most flexible person in the world, but I can now nearly do the splits. I prefer ballet to jazz because I think it is more elegant and graceful. I like tap because it’s loud and rhythmical.

‘I enjoy it because it’s a good hobby and also it might come in useful with my sport,’ he added. Asked whether he had been inspired by his older brother Patrick, who is in Year 9 and also dances, Flynn was quick to respond: ‘My older brother was inspired by me! My brother was watching my first dance and he liked it and wanted to do it as well.’

Patrick agreed: ‘I went to one of my brother’s shows and all the dancers and the performance inspired me to get into it. I’ve found it to be lots of fun and different to most other sports and I’ve made a lot of friends whilst doing it. I don’t mind that I’m the only boy in my age group, I get included in everything and Miss Anna has to remember that I have different positions in ballet to the girls! This is so when we dance together we don’t get tangled. In the last show I had a lift. I was nervous, but when I did it, the audience clapped really loudly and I was relieved.' Reflecting on the difficulty on dancing, he said: ‘It’s not hard but it takes a lot of practice to get the steps right. Mum always tells me off for tap dancing around the kitchen. I don’t really keep still much.’

The boys’ mum, Anne Humphreys, said: ‘Flynn was always very active and he saw a programme about the local rugby team and that they were doing ballet for fitness and balance. Flynn asked if he could do it so I took him along to the Anna Shimmin Academy

of Dance and he loved it. He has performed in four shows at St. Helens Theatre Royal and Patrick has performed in three. Both have been very lucky to have also performed on the Liverpool Empire stage before the pandemic. They have both taken many exams with the British Theatre Dance Association, Flynn most recently gaining a Primary Ballet with Honours award and Patrick Level 3 Tap. Exams are ongoing over the next few months. They are also rehearsing for their Euro Disney performance. This involves a performance on one of the stages as well as participating in the Main Street parade with the Disney characters. 'Both boys are very shy, so for them to put themselves in a position where they are the only boys performing on the stage, we are unbelievably proud of them.

‘They are both also members of cricket, football and hockey teams and their dancing has definitely benefited their performance in each sport.’

Octagon Theatre and Bolton School collaborate to offer Saturday theatre classes

If you are interested in acting, theatre craft, getting creative with scripts and making new friends then the new Saturday Social: Page to Stage classes offered by Bolton School and The Octagon Theatre could well be for you!

Working with theatre experts, you will explore favourite books and classic texts to bring stories to life from the page to the stage, learning acting and directing techniques as you go.

Workshops will take place on Saturday mornings at Bolton School in the Autumn Term. This is a fully-funded project with places available for young people aged 10 to 14 years who meet our criteria/are able to demonstrate a particular interest in theatre.

Project phases will last for 10 weeks, with some additional dates or longer sessions agreed in advance when working towards performances.

Two Taster Sessions are due to take place in the Summer Term: on Saturday 11 June and Saturday 2 July. If the classes in the Autumn are oversubscribed, priority will be given to those that attended the taster days. Full details on how to sign up are on this flyer:

Octagon Theatre and Bolton School collaborate to offer Saturday theatre classes

A snapshot of Extra-curricular School Life

A snapshot of Extra-curricular School Life

Congratulations to Neeraj Patel (pictured left) in Year 7 for making it through to the National Finals of the French Spelling Bee competition. He came fourth place out of 3686 students and the final will be held at Cambridge University at the end of June.

Well done to Jamie Chen for winning the Geography Easter challenge of cracking the code to Charlie’s Feng geographical puzzle. Similarly, well done to Tuaha Siddiqui for winning April’s Monthly Mission. He captured an amazing example of Physical Geography in his recent visit to Pakistan.

Congratulations to Rayyan Nasir and Jake Lewis in 8d for being the first to successfully complete the Neurodiversity Trail during Neurodiversity Week at the end of March. Congratulations also to Hanaan Ahmed in 8e for his Highly Commended entry in the competition.

Congratulations to the following boys for achieving the following awards in the Chemistry Olympiad. This competition is aimed at Year 13 students so particular mention to those Year 12s who gained an award, notably Siddhant Patel who achieved Gold.

The following boys have acquired an impressive number of commendation for academic excellence. These commendations contribute to each House's standings in the Lyde Cup annual House Competition.

Year 7 Gabe Payne 7a 83 commendations

Year 8 Ahmed Tahir 8c 80 commendations

Year 9 Nathan Watts 9b 85 commendations

Year 10 Adam Faulkner 10a 56 commendations

Year 11 Ben Rimmer 11b 26 commendations

Year 12 Barnaby Keogh 12i 24 commendations

Boys have relished the opportunity to read avidly and have been clocking up the number of words that they have read.

This academic year, the following boys have read:

1 million words: Ibrahim Ali (7e), Umayr Islam (8b), Muhammad Kassim (7e), Zain Khan (8f), Muhammad-Mikaeel Patel (9b), Zain Sabir (9c), Dheer Shah (7c), Yasir Shobowale (7g), Kingsley Sou (7d)

2 million words: Faheem Akram (7f), Hameedullah Amjad (8f), Isa Bus (7h), Jamie Chen (7f), Jacob Jones (7d), Ziming Ma (8d)

3 million words: Lucas Ng (8a), Avi Patel 7c

Year 13 James Hopkinson 13d 24 commendations

Congratulations to Alex Nielsen, Zen Jepson and Dan Williamson from Year 13 who completed the Manchester Marathon on 3rd April. Together they raised almost £3000 for Blessed Hill in Uganda. Very well done to them.

Congratulations to our musicians on their success in recent performance examinations:

Max Turner (13b) Grade 7 Vocals Pass

Xuan Wang (12g) Grade 6 Organ Merit

Laurence Britton (12f) Grade 5 Organ Merit

Stephen Nagai (7a) Grade 5 Violin Distinction

Oliver Longworth (12a) Grade 5 Elec. Guitar Merit

Suhayb Valli (9d) Grade 5 Musical Theatre Merit

Freddie Higham (13i) Grade 5 Piano Merit

Nathan Pierson (9e) Grade 4 Violin Merit

Alex Pierson (7a) Grade 3 Singing Distinction

Jack Rothwell (7e) Grade 3 Singing Distinction

Gabe Payne (7a) Grade 3 Tuned Percussion Distinction

George Meredith-Alexander (8a) Grade 3 Violin Merit

Within Sport, Joe Carolan, Rob Bentham and Harry Butler have helped the City of Manchester Water Polo Club Under 17 boys achieve a Silver medal at this year’s nationals, losing 8-6 to a talented Worthing side in the Final.

Jimmy Elliott’s progress with his water skiing continues to impress. Congratulations to him on being selected for the Under 14 GB Water skiing squad at the age of 11! The next stage is team selection and the opportunity to represent the country at the Europeans later this year.

Congratulations to Kyran Chitre, who represented Greater Manchester Under 14 Boys Hockey team in the recent North West regional tournaments, scoring two goals and helping them achieve a commendable third place.

Well done to Mark Lintott Year 10 for his athletics achievements through Bolton Harriers. Mark has started 2022 with the indoor athletics season. He ran the Under 17 60m in the Northern

Championships in January, making the Semi-finals and missing out on the final by one hundreth of a second. In February, he competed at the England Athletics National Indoor Championships in Sheffield after achieving the qualifying time for the Under 17 60m.

Congratulations to Dheer Shah 7c, Filippos Giannakopoulos 7c, Marton Lange 7g and Mustafa Malik 8e –despite a 4am start for travel to London, they attended King’s College School, Wimbledon in early May for the National Final of the ECF Junior Team Chess Challenge. The boys gave of their best in eight rounds of rapid chess against fierce opposition. However, in the end, we were outclassed, but the boys have learned from the experience. I thank them for their sportsmanship in the tournament and their excellent conduct throughout a very long day and my thanks too to Mr. Costello, Head of Chess, for his continued support and for arranging such fantastic opportunities.

Credits

Credits

Editor: Miss K.S. Wrathmell

Contributors: Mr. M. Power, Mr. J. Newbould, Miss A. Bradshaw, Mr. A. McGinty, Mr. I.K. Forgrieve, Mr. G.D. Bradley, Mr. P. J. Newbold, Dr. K.L. Turner, Miss. E.A. Bramhall, Mr. P.J. Britton, Miss H. Sherry, Mr. P. Fernside, Ms. N.R Lord, Mr. K. Branagan, Dr. F.H. Mullins, Mrs. M. Howarth, Mrs. A. Caller, Mrs. F. Fahlin, Pupils from Olive School Primary, Mr. A. Franklin, Mrs. Joseph, Mr. D.V.B. Lamb, Flynn Humphreys (4B), Patrick Humphreys (9d), Mrs. A. Humphreys, Mrs. J. Higham, Mr. A.C. Robson, Miss O.M. Sullivan, Ms. J.Z. Sigrist, Dr. M. Yates, Jimmy Elliott (7b), Mr. P. Costello