Pupils in Years 7 and 8 from Bolton School Girls’ Division joined with teachers and parents to celebrate their successful year at a joyous end of term evening of readings, poetry and music.
Headmistress, Sue Hincks, commended the girls, telling Year 7 how everyone was so delighted with how they had settled into Senior School and how they had done well to engage in such a wide range of curricular and extra-curricular activities. Praise was also heaped on the Year 8 girls who had consolidated their learning and had also produced lots of good work and Miss Hincks spoke of having gained much satisfaction from reading their excellent reports written by their Form teachers.
The Head, along with the Mayor of Bolton, the Chairman of Governors Mr Michael Griffiths and the girls’ Heads of Year and Form Teachers, handed out prizes and awards for academic and extra-curricular achievements to the high performing girls.
The theme for the evening was an exploration of difference and a celebration of uniqueness and got underway with a performance of Viva La Vida, which saw individual girls processing into the Great Hall from all angles to offer up a stunningly choreographed version of this Coldplay classic.
Year 8 pupil, Avneet Singh read an extract from the book Wonder before the girls sang a rousing rendition of This Is Me from the film, The Greatest Showman. This was followed by a song by Belle from Beauty and the Beast before Eve Blackmore read an extract from Oliver. Where is Love? from the Broadway musical Oliver was then offered up by the girls and readings from Annie by Jemima Stubbs and Angelie Chitre.
An uplifting Hard-Knock Life from Annie was followed by a powerful reading by Molly Bell of Maya Angelou’s Caged Bird . The theme from Schindler’s List was then followed by Evie Owens who read her own poem Riddle before the girls then sang the pop song Beautiful, which is about finding the inner beauty in yourself and in others.
Yaqeen Al Kayabi and Safia Adam both delivered readings from the musical The Pirate Queen before the year groups sang Never Enough from The Greatest Showman. Safaa Patel recited another Maya Angelou poem, Still I Rise, and this was followed by the song Let it Go from the film Frozen, when Elsa has exiled herself to an icy castle as her power becomes uncontrollable.
Maryam Ali then recited her own powerful poem, Never Again, written after the recent Manchester Arena atrocity. The girls then rounded their evening off with Rachel Platten’s Fight Song which deals with how we all have to fight to believe in ourselves, and must take great care to show that we believe in others, and accept them for who they are.
Miss Hincks praised all the readers and the Music Department, particularly Mrs Price, Music Director, for her creativity and musicality and told how we can look forward to the next academic year which will include a Musical and a Bridgewater Hall Concert on top of the long list of usual concerts and shows.
The audience then closed out the evening by rising to sing The School Song, Jerusalem and The National Anthem. Girls then returned to their Form rooms where they met their parents and continued their celebrations, enjoying a "street party" along the corridors of the School.
Picture: Mark Power, KKP Photography