School’s National Recognition is Good for the Town

Earlier this month Bolton School was named TES Independent School of the Year. The TES is the leading newspaper for education and this is the top award at the top awards ceremony. This is clearly wonderful news for the school. But it is also great news for Bolton.

For some time now there has been an excellent sense of team work across all the major institutions of Bolton to make sure that our town has the local and national profile it needs so that there is investment in the town, our sense of civic pride can be focused on progress and we can all be proud to be from Bolton. We know that Bolton, between Manchester and the moors, brings with it a sense of both being close to city life and the outdoors, but you don’t step far outside our region to find those who have no idea what is on offer here.  The Ironman brings a focus on Bolton and now we have the Rugby League cup games. So, if Bolton School is nationally recognised, then so is our town and we will all benefit from that recognition in so many ways.

This national recognition for Bolton School is also good for education across all of our schools in Bolton. The Bolton Learning Partnership of the local secondary schools is genuinely at the cutting edge of inter school cooperation and collaboration focused only on what is best for the pupils. The partnership has been noticed nationally through the award, as Bolton School is a member. There is real interest in the many things we do well for all the young people and it is good that this can achieve some prominence. The Bolton Vision is all about the various strands of our civic life pulling together, supporting each other and finding those synergies that can mean that all benefit from success. Bolton School winning national prominence is a start. Perhaps the football team might one day be back in the Premier league as well?

About Philip Britton

Philip Britton is the Head of Foundation of Bolton School. He was brought up on Tyneside, took a first in physics at Oxford and did teacher training at Cambridge. He worked as physics teacher, Head of Physics and Deputy Head at Leeds Grammar School before moving to Bolton in 2008. In 2010 he was awarded an MBE for services to physics and is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics where he has been much involved in physics education, encouraging teachers to encourage the next generation of physicists.