BGS Prize Giving - report

Adam Shergold

The Boston Grammar School Prize Giving 2014 took place on 18 December at the Centenary Methodist Church, Boston. The guest of honour was Adam Shergold, an Online Sports Journalist at the Daily Mail.

Music for singing and for musical interludes was provided by the Boston Grammar School Jazz Band and other musicians from the school.

John McHenry, the headteacher of the school gave the welcome and Phillip Bosworth the Chairman's Address.

The prizes notably included two new ones marking the retirement of well loved members of staff. The NW Wainwright Award for outstanding sporting achievement went jointly to Zurna Olali and Stuart Wharff. The Anderson Prize for German went to Louis Holland.

Head of School, John Lisle, gave the vote of thanks to Adam Shergold as the guest of honour.

The event was closed with the usual singing of the school song and the national anthem.

School bands

Evil Scarecrow

I usually start discussions here on the blog and move them later to Facebook. However for various reasons the latest hot topic started over on the Boston Grammar School Alumni Facebook group.

There had been a short conversation about the recent report in the Boston Standard that a study showed Boston to one of the least musical places in the country. It's the usual journalistic simplification so I would suggest at least having a cursory read of the original report before blowing your top.

That discussion prompted me to act on something I had been considering for a long time: to start articles on school bands on the OBA Wiki. You will now already find quite a large and growing selection of bands linked from the Bands Category page of the Wiki, with more being added all the time.

If you have any information about school bands past or present, whether organised by the school (like the BGS Jazz Band), formed by students of the school, or made up mainly of former students of BGS, then please set up an account on the Wiki and start editing. The Wiki uses the Media Wiki framework, just the same as used by Wikipedia, so if you've ever edited Wikipedia you already know pretty much what to do.

If you really can't see yourself editing the Wiki, then please send the information you have to me: webmaster@bostonian.org.uk but it will probably take longer to appear.

BGS Prize Giving - report

The Boston Grammar School Prize Giving 2013 took place on 20 December at the Centenary Methodist Church, Boston. The guest of honour was Charles Hart, the father of Manchester City and England goalkeeper, Joe Hart.

Music for singing and for musical interludes was provided by the Boston Grammar School Jazz Band and other musicians from the school.

Paul Marsh, the principle of the school spoke of the school's excellent academic and sporting achievements throughout the year, particularly noting that as a small school, BGS "punches above its weight" in sporting competitions.

In his address as Chairman of the Governors, Cllr Stephen Woodliffe, told of his original involvement with the school as a mathematics teacher for 18 years, how having left to teach elsewhere, retired and become a Boston councillor, he became involved again with the school as a governor, and eventually became Chairman of the Governors earlier this year, just before the Ofsted inspection which showed that the school had improved significantly since the previous inspection in 2010. He noted that the recent flood was probably the biggest challenge for the school in the last 50 years but showed hope that it would recover well.

The prizes notably included the new Trevor Page Sports Prize, donated by Trevor Page (BGS 1949-55) - two of his father's sporting trophies, originally won in the 1920s or 30s. The junior prize was won by Jack Henton and the Intermediate prize by Stuart Wharff.

Following presentation of the prizes, Charles Hart spoke of how his son, Joe, achieved his goal with support from his family and by putting in the extra effort which allowed him to rise to the top in his chosen field, football. Charles invited those present to do likewise, for each to put in the extra effort to achieve to their potential: in sport, engineering, politics, or whatever their chosen goal.

Head of School, Ellis Potter, gave the vote of thanks to Charles Hart as the guest of honour and presented him with mementos of the day including a prefect's tie and badge.

The event was closed with the usual singing of the school song and the national anthem.

Bill Hilton and Christina Les - Wedding

MW "Bill" Hilton (BGS 1986-93)

Bill Hilton married Christina Les on 4 April 2013 at Bangor, in Top College which is the main building of Bangor University.

Christina, originally from Darlington, is a linguist and is currently studying for an MA in Translation Studies at Bangor.

When at BGS, Bill played in the Jazz Band. He now has his own business doing copywriting and training. He has written books, including How To Really Play The Piano (The Stuff Your Teacher Never Taught You) which is supported by a very popular series of videos on YouTube.