We have high aspirations for all our boys and provide an enriching environment in which they can achieve them. An education at Bolton School will enable your son to identify and cultivate his own special interests and talents, develop a sense of intellectual curiosity and achieve excellent academic results.

Ours is a vibrant, diverse community where your son will be happy and make life-long friends. He will become a confident, eloquent and considerate young man, who will learn the vital leadership skills to make his way in the world and make a difference for good.

Our website pages can only offer a glimpse of what we can offer your son. We would be delighted to provide you with a tour of the school, so that you are able to see at first-hand what a truly exceptional education Bolton School provides.

Nic Ford

Mr Nic Ford
Head of Boys’ Division

The Boys' Division is an HMC school.

Learn more about HMC schools

The Senior School

Find out how boys learn in our Senior School and discover what an average day looks like:


The Ainsworth Academic Society

The Ainsworth Society gives around fifteen strongly academic boys the opportunity to discuss and debate with the Headmaster. The Society meets in separate forums for each year group of the Lower School: Years 7, 8 and 9.

Bolton School Boys' Division

Members of these enriching forums commit to attending meetings once every half term in the Headmaster’s Study and reading a book that has been selected for discussion. Between meetings, participants are also expected to share their views on issues related to that half term’s book. The reading material spans all disciplines and pupils are encouraged to make suggestions for which books to read.

Joining the Ainsworth Society is by invitation only. In Year 7, the group is composed of those who have won academic awards in our entrance exam. For Years 8 and 9, the group is chosen using MidYIS scores and our Gifted and Talented Register.

The society takes its name from the Ainsworths of Smithills, one of Bolton’s oldest families. Robert Ainsworth, who attended Bolton School, was born in 1660 and made a successful career in running schools in London. In 1736, after 22 years work, he published the most significant Latin dictionary of its time: the Ainsworth Latin Dictionary. This remained the standard Latin dictionary into Victorian times and the school still has a copy of this book, with his inscription, in its collection housed in the Chained Library. Robert Ainsworth is without doubt one of the school’s most distinguished early scholars.