It has been a highly unusual Sixth Form experience for those Year 13 students departing Bolton School this summer. Their educational journey has continued through lockdowns, across distance learning and back in the classroom in year group bubbles, and Results Day this year was a final celebration of all they have achieved through hard work and perseverance.
Staff welcomed the Class of 2021 back into school for a ‘nearly normal’ Results Day to round out their time at Bolton School. Students collected their results from form tutors in the Great Hall and enjoyed celebrating everyone’s A Level successes in the Riley Sixth Form Centre and outdoors.
Headmaster Philip Britton said: ‘It is such a joy to celebrate with the boys this morning as they receive their results and make plans for the next steps in their life beyond Bolton School. They had essentially one normal term of Sixth Form life before the pandemic. Throughout that time, they have kept motivated, worked from home and, when in school, fully engaged with all we can do. They have acted in filmed plays, recorded for online concerts, spoken at Zoom assemblies and played matches within school when they could not play other schools. The spirit they have shown in enjoying what can be rather than moaning about what could not happen has been exceptional.
‘Although the public reports were that exams were cancelled, actually assembling the basket of evidence probably involved more sustained preparation and assessment than the normal exam process and certainly in more difficult circumstances. That the results are terrific this morning and allow students to move on to their next steps is all about their tenacity and the professionalism and determination of their teachers.
‘It is not a day for trying to compare results with previous years, because this year, like last, is not like any other year. We must remember that this last few years have disrupted education more than any event since the Second World War. Trying to imagine things would be normal and comparable is wrong – of course things are not normal. But what is just as usual is that the Bolton School boys have been adaptable and determined, just as they always are.’
Four of the school’s athletes will be travelling to the US for their studies after securing sports scholarships: Alfie Yearsley and Tom Simpson will begin their university careers this September, with Luca Williams-Denton and Jensen Myerscough deferring their places to 2022. Thomas Yates, who is a member of the seven-years-undefeated senior Water Polo team, has earned a spot at Durham University to study Chemistry; and Piers Skeels-Caldwell, the captain of the Rugby First XI who jointly raised £5,000 for Cancer Research UK earlier this year, will go on to read German and Business at Leeds. He ran his ‘24 miles in 24 hours’ charity fundraiser alongside his friend and First XI teammate Daniel Bentham, who also achieved the grades needed to secure his university place.
Hamzah Chariwala and Thomas Higham both achieved 5 A* grades, including the EPQ (Extended Project Qualification): Hamzah goes on to read Design Engineering at Imperial; while Thomas will study Maths at Warwick University.
Three boys head to Oxbridge places: Jude Ashcroft to study Classics at Cambridge, Thomas Britton to read History at Oxford and Jack Danson to study MFL at Oxford.
70% of students in the Boys’ Division achieved at least ABB grades, which allows access to the top universities. Almost two thirds (62.6%) of grades awarded this year were A* or A, of which 25.2% are A*, and 84.9% of grades were between A* and B. The pass rate for the cohort of 110 was 100%.
