The Boys’ Division community came together towards the end of term to celebrate a multitude of achievements in the annual Prizegiving ceremony. This year’s guest speaker was Old Boy Roger Draper (Class of 1986), who has been involved in the global business of sport for over 20 years and is the former CEO of Sport England and the Lawn Tennis Association.
Parents, pupils and staff gathered in the Great Hall while Sixth Form Organ Scholars Laurence Britton and Xuan Wang provided music. The evening was punctuated by a further two very different musical performances from Year 12 students: James Bland played Movement 1 – Elégie (Paisiblement, Dans Presser) from Sonata for Oboe and Piano by Francis Poulenc, accompanied by Mrs Whitmore; and later in the programme Dylan Lincoln performed ‘Tornado of Souls’ by Megadeth on the electric guitar. Following a brief welcome from Head of Boys’ Division Mr Ford, Prizegiving began with the singing of the School Song: ‘Forty Years On’.
Mr Ford then gave his Review of the Year. He noted that this was the first Prizegiving in several years with no pandemic-related restrictions, and that the boys’ academic achievements have continued despite this disruption to their education. He then described just a few of the many impressive accolades that pupils have collected this year. These included receiving science Olympiad certificates and success in national maths, engineering and computing competitions; achievements in linguistic Olympiads and foreign language debating competitions; and boys becoming ‘Word Millionaires’, earning reading awards and performing in public speaking competitions. He remarked that the half-termly Celebration Assemblies have involved an average of 100 boys every time.
In the world of sport, the School has achieved the School Games Gold Award for the second year running, and over 70 students were celebrated in the annual Cups and Colours assembly. Mr Ford presented a ‘highlights reel’ of trophies collected in football, rugby, water polo, swimming, athletics, climbing and cross country. Moving on to drama and performance, Mr Ford looked back on this year’s drama productions, ‘The Great Gatsby’ and ‘Beauty and the Beast’, the Bridgewater Hall Gala Concert featuring over 600 young musicians, the Young Musician of the Year competition and a full suite of concerts. The Senior Concert Band also won a Gold Award at the Concert Band Festival.
He thanked staff and parents alike for their support of the boys in all of their endeavours. He also expressed his appreciation for the many Old Boys who gave their time to present careers events such as Perspectives Lectures and World of Work talks, as well as being part of the mentoring scheme, which recently was recognised at the Northern Leadership Awards.
Tim Taylor, the Vice Chair of the Governing Body, then took to the podium to give a brief address. He looked back on his own time at Bolton School before congratulating the boys and echoing Mr Ford’s thanks to parents and staff, who make up ‘the team behind the individual successes’ celebrated at Prizegiving.
Ahead of the presentation of prizes, special guest Roger Draper gave an entertaining and inspirational address. He began by reminiscing about his school days and the staff he remembered fondly. He also said that, despite having Perthes’ as a child and being unable to walk for almost three years, he was ‘sports mad’ and ended up representing school in most sports. He also talked about his years of study at Loughborough University, where he held international honours in two sports: tennis and rugby.
By the age of 32, he was the chief executive of the Sports Council of Sport England: a huge step up when, just ten years before, he was learning about sports policy at university! His first big project was the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. He went on to be an Accounting Officer for Wembley national stadium, setting up the Sports Lottery, and worked as Accounting Officer on the London Olympics and Paralympics. He was part of the team that helped to transform UK sport so that the country moved from 22nd or 23rd in the medal table to second or third. Since then, he has run British Tennis for seven years, during which time the UK went from 53rd in the world rankings to first, and ran the Super League for a few years. Most recently, he has been helping to set up the sports infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, using sport to change people’s lives.
He shared five things he has learned from 30 years of working with the best sportspeople in the world: high vision and simplicity; excel in planning; focus; seize opportunity; and world class execution. He went on to explain more about these, giving details about how each one is an important aspect of ‘why winners win’.
Finally, he gave three lessons from his own experience. He told the boys to always follow their passion and inspiration, and listed to and work with people who share that passion. He advised them to accept that they will fail and don’t be afraid of it, but learn from it and ‘if you do fail, fail fast’. The third lesson to always be yourself: something he said he has struggled with himself in the past, as a young northerner, but worked to overcome.
Following the presentation of prizes, the Captain of the School, Alexander McKie, led the vote of thanks to Roger.
Mr Ford then paid tribute to members of staff leaving this year, including three who have accrued a total of 80 years of service between them. The departing staff were: Miss Gillibrand, Mr Gilligan, Mr Lucas-Nolan, Mr Patel, Miss Sherry, Mr Roberts, Dr Yates, Mrs Whitmore and Mr Fernside. He spoke about their time at the School and thanked them for their varied contributions to school life.
Finally, Head of Foundation Mr Britton spoke to the gathering to bring the evening to a close. He said that Prizegiving is a celebration of achievement, an appropriate occasion to be proud and an opportunity to ‘look back on what has shaped us and forward to all that might be’. He thanked the Governors for the many hours of time they volunteer to the school, and teaching colleagues for their passion and commitment to the development of young people. He also thanked the parents for their engagement with School and their important support for the boys, whose talents and personality, he said, are what make up the Boys Division.
Prizegiving ended with the whole of the Great Halls standing to sing ‘Jerusalem’.
Earlier in the day, Roger enjoyed leading a tennis session with a group of pupils at the Leverhulme Pavilion, and held an interesting question and answer session with Year 10 boys studying PE at GCSE.
Watch the Prizegiving Livestream in full on YouTube or via the play button below:
View a gallery of pictures from this year's Prizegiving:
