‘Volunteering improves your mental and physical well-being,’ were the wise words issued by former pupil Angela Rowley (Class of 1969) when she returned as guest speaker at the annual Community Action Celebration Evening at Bolton School. The awards ceremony celebrates the community service undertaken by Year 12 students during the academic year.
Addressing a large audience of parents, teachers and students in the Arts Centre, Angela said she was thrilled to hear about the wide range of volunteering at Bolton School and offered her congratulations to all. She said she was thrilled to be an Old Girl of the school, having loved her time in the Girls’ Division, where she first developed a passion for helping others. She recalled trips abroad with her German class and taking her duties as a Queen’s Guide very seriously. She also remembered working in Israel for two months, a trip partially funded by the Scott Bolton Trust.
Angela recounted a number of her own volunteering endeavours and in response to one of the student speeches about his work at Barnardo's, espoused the importance of using charity shops. She told how she made use of her local Barnardo’s shop just after Covid when she had to source a crockery set for her daughter’s wedding! She told of creating a community choir in Eccles and helping start a youth centre in Bramhall. The year 2000 was, Angela said, a pivotal year – her husband took a sabbatical as they visited a student in Kenya. Where they were staying, they quickly came to realise that there was no school or healthcare for the local community. She learnt how clean water is essential and realised the nearest thing they had to an ambulance in the village was a wheelbarrow! Through perseverance and hard work, Angela was integral in opening a clinic, raising money and employing a health worker. She provided funds to pay for vaccinations and the rebuilding of the local primary school. But this was not enough. Angela came to realise that, after primary school, girls tended to get married and boys became farmers. Again, through her fundraising and volunteering endeavours, there is now a high school for children up to the age of 18. The next thing she tackled was the lack of sanitary products for girls and she helped find and fund a long-lasting reusable solution. Since that day, she said, the top student each year has often been a girl, and more often than not, they go off to university. Even then her work was not done. Angela told how she used to visit three times a year before Covid and how she still visits twice a year. In recent years, she has been involved with setting up an afternoon meeting for older people.
Angela finished her talk by saying that volunteering is vital. Its virtues, she reminded the students, were highlighted in the Dr Michael Mosley Just One Thing series. Once you do it, she advised, it becomes part of your mindset. Her parting words were: ‘It improves your mental and physical well-being, it boosts your mood, reduces cholesterol and so much more! Remember, it is more blessed to give than to receive. Good luck with your futures!’
Mrs Sophie Entwistle, Assistant Head in the Girls’ Division and Head of Community Action, said the school’s volunteering scheme had begun with students being asked to do 20 hours of volunteering. This, she said, had quickly escalated and students now regularly undertake over 100 hours of volunteering. She described there often being a ‘penny-drop’ moment when students recognise that volunteering builds self-esteem and offers rewards in and of itself. Through it, students usually grow in self-confidence, while developing their team-working skills and their ability to work alone. The commitment, this year, by students in Year 12 across both Division was, she said, worth a social value of over £50,000. They had delivered 10,100 hours of volunteering – equivalent to over six years of full-time work. Mrs Entwistle, the Head of Division Mrs Kyle and the guest speaker then handed out certificates to the high achievers – dozens of silver certificates for students volunteering more than 50 hours of their time and 32 gold certificates to those having volunteered over 100 hours.
Earlier in the evening several Sixth Form students gave insights into their own volunteering experiences over the course of the 2023-24 academic year. Sophie recollected her experiences helping out at Devonshire Road Primary School for 7 months; Harry spoke about his time at Bolton Hospice and Barnardo’s Charity Shop in Horwich. Tilly recapped how she helped out at Open Morning and Sixth Form Open Evenings, at Tea at the Riley and with Bolton Lions; William talked about his work at Withins School, working in a paired readers’ scheme and as a librarian, at a local tennis club and at his local scout troop; Zahara remembered her time as a swim coach, Maths mentor and as a water polo coach; and Ramez spoke about volunteering at Bolton Hospice charity shop.
