A Celebration of Creative Thinking

During the course of a three-day showcase of creativity at Bolton School, over six hundred pupils from across the Foundation engaged with a creative thinking review which took place in the school’s Arts Centre.

Year 6 pupils from Hesketh House, the Junior Girls’ School, shared capstone projects - unique opportunities to carry out research to provide innovative solutions for real life problems - focused on science, oracy and media presentation. Year 7 girls’ work demonstrated early exploration of the school's locality through a geographical and local history lens, while Year 4 boys from Park Road, the Junior Boys’ School, created flags with natural dyes, Year 5 displayed 3D tree models and Year 6 showed off their Andy Goldsworthy inspired sculpture dioramas - in take away burger boxes!

The work focused on the three tenets of Bolton School’s creative and characterful learning: curriculum, co-curricular and community. Sessions exploring the pupils' project work focused on the key transition juncture of Year 2 Beech House Infant School to Year 3 of Hesketh House and Years 6 to 7 and which allowed pupils of different ages to explore together intellectual curiosity in Science, English, Geography, History and Art with an eco-advocacy and community cohesion focus. 

Helen Holt, Deputy Head of the Junior Girls’ School, shared her thoughts: ‘Focus on creative thinking originated from our Hesketh Habits, deepened in academic work due to action research with the University of Winchester and Rethinking Assessment, and is now habitual in our classrooms and co-curricular work. We are looking forward to younger year groups trying their hand at capstone projects.’

Exhibits also included work showing the use of AI tools in English to develop imaginative skills in storytelling, with Year 6 girls sharing their work with Year 2 pupils at Beech House. There were also displays linked to BeeWell data to explore personal and collective creative health, teacher CPD materials and 'One Square Mile' pilot work, in which pupils had used curiosity and imagination to engage with the school's locality.

Avni Patel, a Year 6 pupil in the Junior Girls’ School, who was busy touring the School’s Head of Educational Research and Innovation around the exhibition, said: ‘I’ve learned that it's fun to be curious and creative. I got to do a lot of fact-finding for our non-fiction project and we displayed our research work for discussion. It really helped me understand what we need to do to stop oak trees becoming extinct.’

Proudly displaying his work, Year 5 Junior Boy William Webster said: ‘I really enjoyed learning about David Hockney and how he paints trees. Afterwards, we all got to make and exhibit models of trees.’

Foundation Director of Creative Learning Naomi Lord said: ‘It has been wonderful to watch the superb collaboration and communication over the last few days. Many brilliant learning conversations have occurred between Junior and Senior School pupils as they have explored each other's projects, and between Year 6 and Year 2 pupils as they write endings for collaborative stories and across year groups in our Junior Girls’ School. Pupils also demonstrated great confidence and oracy skills in explaining their work to a range of visitors.’

View a gallery of photos here: