Bolton School was delighted to welcome back Old Girl Megan Goodall (née Bowden, Class of 2011) as the keynote speaker for this year’s Primary Division Hulton Lecture. Now a commercial pilot flying Boeing 737s for a living, Megan has had a varied career which she was pleased to share with the audience of Year 6 pupils and their families on the night.
The Hulton Lecture is aimed at Primary Division pupils, particularly those in Year 6, and complements the annual lectures hosted by the Boys’ and Girls’ Divisions. It is named in recognition of the Hulton Charity Trust, which has links with education in Bolton dating back to the 17th century. This is the fourth year that the Hulton Lecture has been held by Bolton School.
On the evening of 5 May, the Girls’ Division Great Hall filled up with an audience of pupils from the Junior Boys’ and Junior Girls’ Schools, mostly in Year 6, and their families, keen to hear from a real-life pilot about her career.
Megan was able to share with the audience not only her amazing job flying commercial airlines, but also the unconventional path that led her to where she is today. She spoke about the setbacks and challenges that meant she could not follow her childhood dreams of becoming a doctor or finish her Japanese degree at university, her work both in television production and as a snowboard instructor, and a life-changing realisation while in hospital that what she really wanted to do was fly.
She explained how all of those varied and seemingly separate experiences now feed in to her work every single day. She said: “There was no grand master plan to eventually end up as a pilot. Everything that happened came from other plans going wrong. If you could have asked eleven year old me if I’d want any of that stuff to happen, I would have said, ‘No way!’ But that would have meant I missed out on all the experiences which actually make me good at my job today. The Japanese, the TV chaos, the snowboarding, the hospital — that's where I learned curiosity, teamwork, showing up, and knowing myself. And underneath all of it, that's where I learned resilience. Because resilience isn't one thing you learn in one place. It's what you build, one detour at a time, every time something doesn't go to plan.”
Megan’s talk was an inspiring reminder that having a plan isn’t always important and that things going wrong can lead to an amazing and fulfilling life.
The Hulton Lecture was followed by a lively question and answer session with the audience.
In addition to Primary Division pupils, families who will join Bolton School’s Year 7 in September were invited to attend the Hulton Lecture and the School also welcomed representatives of the historic Bank Street Chapel to join the audience for the evening.
Watch the Hulton Lecture 2026 in full:
Photos from the Hulton Lecture 2026:
