Boltonschool.Org Summer 2017 a MESSAGE from the HEAD
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boltonschool.org Summer 2017 A MESSAGE FROM THE HEAD This year’s magazine celebrates the fact that Bolton School was announced as a recipient of the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in June of this year. We believe that we are the first School in the country to win such an Award. At the heart of our ethos in the Girls’ Division are the words of the School Prayer: that we should ‘extend to others that which we so richly enjoy’. Community Service is therefore at the centre of what we do and you can read much about the girls’ volunteering and charitable giving in the pages of this magazine. It is wonderful to work in an environment where the pupils are so keen to share their privileges with others. Community Service is also one of the key elements of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards, which all girls in Year 9 take at Bronze Level and very many girls go on to complete at Silver and Gold. You can read about their adventures on expedition on pages 25 to 28. I certainly hope that Hannah’s account of her Gold Award trip on ‘Tenacity’ inspires some of the younger girls to do the same. As you will see from the girls’ stories, expeditions may be exhausting and may test individual resilience, but they are also a wonderful bonding experience and enable girls to develop skills and attributes which would otherwise remain hidden. Aside from service and the expedition, girls are also expected to learn a skill for DofE. Indeed at Bolton School, the development of the girls’ skills is one of our key aims. I am always amazed by the products which they create in Design Technology, Resistant Materials, Textiles and Food Preparation. I am sure that you will be equally impressed when you turn to pages 33 to 36. Similarly, girls have endless opportunities to develop their dramatic, musical and sporting abilities. This year the School production of ‘Miss Saigon’ was a memorable, magical experience for cast, crew and audiences alike. Finally, academic challenge is vital in a selective, academic school like ours. The Enrichment talks (p.4) have been a great success and have attracted girls, parents and friends of the School alike. We are already enjoying planning next year’s programme. No less important if the girls are be stimulated in their studies are the many trips which the Departments have organised over the year. I am always grateful to the staff for their amazing contribution to this part of school life, particularly when so many visits occur during the school holidays. As a community we are committed to making the most out of all our opportunities and for that we are all richly rewarded indeed. Miss S Hincks, Headmistress Bolton School Girls’ Division A MESSAGE FROM THE HEAD CONTENTS MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR 1-2 School Receives Queen’s 20 Drama Department Award for Voluntary Service Welcome to the latest edition of Spirit. 21 Geography Department Our themes for the magazine this year 3 Memories of Miss Saigon Classics Department are Adventure and Service: epitomised 4 An Enriching Year 22 History Department by the images on the cover. The front of 5 Charities 23-24 Art Department the magazine features pupils undertaking 6 Extracurricular Activities 25-28 Duke Of Ediburgh Award their The Duke of Edinburgh Award 29-32 Music Department expedition, and girls’ Adventures can be 7-8 Year 7 further explored in the pages of this edition 9 Year 8 33-35 Technology Department through DofE, trips to Patterdale Hall, 10 Year 9 36 FTT Department Outdoor Learning and international travel. 11 Year 10 37 German Department The back cover depicts The Queen’s Award 12 Year 11 38 Spanish Department for Voluntary Service, which the School 39 French Department was proud to receive in 2017. As always, 13 Year 12 Spirit will give you a flavour of what each 14 Year 13 40-46 PE Department year group has achieved and enjoyed, and I 15-16 English Department 47-50 Hesketh House hope you enjoy looking back on a busy year 17-18 Careers Department 51 Staff Leavers in the Girls’ Division. Alumni 19-20 Maths Department 52-54 Miss A Bradshaw Science Department 55-56 Destination of Leavers SPIRIT 2017 COMMUNITY ACTION & VOLUNTEERING School Receives Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service Bolton School has won the Pupils throughout Bolton School Queen’s Award for Voluntary are involved with a huge number Service (QAVS) 2017. This unique of projects locally, nationally UK national honour, which is and internationally. However, on equivalent to an MBE and is the top of that, the whole School is highest accolade given to local instilled with Lord Leverhulme’s volunteer groups, was created by ethos of giving back to the local the Queen in 2002 to mark the community: something which occasion of her Golden Jubilee. The is echoed by the School Prayer. award has been given to the whole By providing opportunities to School, from the Nursery to the get involved and supporting Sixth Form, and we believe we are them in their voluntary work, the first school in the country to the School cultivates social be honoured in this way. responsibility in each pupil and a culture of volunteering across the Miss Hincks was thrilled at the Foundation. Establishing a habit of news: “We are absolutely delighted volunteering to benefit others and to win this award, which reflects give back to society is a key part of the wide range of community each pupil’s education. activities that our pupils are involved with – from our Infants Photos (L-R): Urban Outreach singing for local older residents Hampers donation, Tea at the to our Sixth Formers committing Riley, Operation Christmas Child thousands of hours of their time to shoeboxes donation, helping out at SHINE, Harvest in the Girls’ Division voluntary service.” 01 Bolton School Girls’ Division COMMUNITY ACTION & VOLUNTEERING COMMUNITY ACTION & VOLUNTEERING School Receives Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service A letter from the QAVS Team to The Autumn Term saw a flurry of the School said: community action projects. The School made a huge donation of “ The work your food items to Urban Outreach group does for the at Harvest, and as Christmas approached the girls donated community was 91 shoeboxes to Operation very much admired Christmas Child. Six teams of Year 12 pupils took on the ‘Saucy by the independent Pie Challenge’, attempting to Assessment collect 1,300 packets of mince pies and accompanying brandy Committee, chaired or rum sauce in time to fill Urban by Sir Martyn Outreach’s Christmas Hampers. With just over three weeks to Lewis CBE […]. The achieve their goal, the pressure award represents was really on and the girls were put to the test! Their fundraising a tremendous activities, donations from achievement for supermarkets, and the generosity of the Girls’ Division – in particular your organisation. 7D, 8C, 9B, 10F, 11C, D1 and E1 We hope that – all helped the Sixth Formers to achieve their target on time. everyone involved, Tea at the Riley has once again and particularly been enormously popular your volunteers, throughout the year. Guests have joined Sixth Form girls in feel immensely the Leverhulme Suite of the Riley proud of the Centre each month for hand-made finger sandwiches, home-baked recognition that cakes, a cup of tea or coffee and this Award a good chat. Pupils have also provided entertainment for their represents.” guests through the year, including special performances from Beech Year 12 in particular have been House Choir and the Junior Girls. really engaged with volunteering this year and have supported Pupils have also volunteered a broad range of community at care homes and hospices, projects. They have registered have given their time to read 5911 hours of voluntary work, an with younger pupils, and have average of 65 hours per student, been involved with running the and 20 girls have achieved a gold SHINE: Serious Fun on Saturdays certificate to certify they have programme for local pupils in Year volunteered over 100 hours! 5, among many other projects. SPIRIT 2017 02 MISS SAIGON Memories of Miss Saigon By Molly McLaughlin, Year 13, who shared the role of Kim with Caroline Blair, Year 12 Miss Saigon is set in Vietnam in the final days of the same boat and all of the staff were always ‘buzz’; we had worked incredibly hard over the the Vietnamese war, and tells the tragic love story prepared to give us constructive and one-to-one months and we couldn’t wait to show everyone of a young and vulnerable Vietnamese woman, support and advice. By the time of the shows, I the amazing spectacle. Kim, who falls in love with an American G.I. had become so used to acting in front of people And amazing it was! Every performance was soldier, Chris. that it almost became second nature to me. sold out leaving many more seeking tickets. The When it was first announced that Bolton School The cast began rehearsals in September 2016 and response from the audience was overwhelming were going to perform a joint production of Miss from the outset a very natural bond immediately and although I was so sad when the final show Saigon l was extremely excited as I had been formed amongst everyone from Year 10 upwards; came to an end, I felt extremely privileged to have to see it in London and had been obsessed ever we really did become a sort of family and I was had the experience, reassured by the fact that I since (and still am).