The last week of September kept everyone busy with an array of out trips for Grade 11s and some exciting Saturday activities for everyone to enjoy! This past week also saw the Senior boys’ soccer team take silver in the ISA tournament!

Fantastic Bolton house turn out to see The Victoria Royals’ hockey game this past Saturday at Save-On Foods Arena as they hosted the Prince George Cougars. While it didn’t get the Royals’ the win that day, Diego’s chant of “Go Royals Go!” got him some time on the big screen!

While Juan Pablo and Mark kept an eye on the time down at the beach, others spent their time enjoying coffee and baked goods down at the Allenby Cafe

Relaxing times around the house with some taking in the Canelo boxing match and others attending Mr Driscoll’s master class in how to keep the pool table clean.

Hi everyone! My name is Mr. Bell and I am very excited to be entering my fifth year in the Bolton House and eighth year as a House Parent with SMUS!

I was born and raised in Victoria and grew up just minutes from the St. Michaels campus. I teach Grade 3 at the SMUS Jr. School down in Oak Bay and have coached basketball and volleyball at the SMUS for the past six years. I also love to play lacrosse and explore the island in my spare time! I am looking forward to an exciting and successful year in Bolton House!

What can happen in a week at SMUS, you ask? Well, let’s start with the final house games – The House Olympics.

Seb and Ava fought to the end in one of the most exciting SpikeBall finals you’ll ever see

From House Games, the Penguins cleaned themselves up for the SMOSCARS – and boy do they all clean up nice! A final dinner with the whole boarding community capped off with a few awards!

Ian was awarded the Master Chef award and Tommy was the big winner of the Rookie of the Year!

A few days later these Penguins were off to compete in the Senior Boys Rugby Provincials!

Martin, Savo, Nokia and Seb were integral parts (as well as Coach Mr. Kim!) of the Senior boys finishing 2-1 and capturing 5th place in the Province! Well done!!

Somehow this week’s recap is only halfway done!

As Saturday comes along so do Saturday Activities! The fair came to town in the form of the Oak Bay Tea Party. Of course, Ai, Tommy Hanson and Theo took advantage of the rides!

Mr. Danskin took some of our Bolton Penguins on his very own Victoria Taco Tour!

And to draw this week to a close, the BIG CLEAN began with clearing out the luggage from the storage. A mighty task for one but as you’ll see below, many hands make light work!

Not to be outdone, Seb and Harun played with Bays United U18 Silver Soccer team

With APs and finals around the corner, our Bolton Penguins are getting down to business with their studies during prep.

During our house meeting, we gave out a handful of Bolton pins for those who best exemplify the Bolton values inside and outside of the house. Ian, Inaki, Christian and Bradley were all given theirs for their work in the SMUS Art Show a few weeks back and Cesar was awarded the Bolton pin for “sweeping the sheds” – something that is preached during every meeting. Well done Penguins!

Rockin’ and Rollin’ Down South! Interview from our Musical Virtuoso about their trip to Cuba

Hayes and Peter were part of the School’s band trip down to Cuba over spring break! Peter, the guitarist, and Hayes, saxophone extraordinaire, were two of 42 students who took part in the trip.

What were your first impressions of Cuba?

Hayes: Super hot! The beautiful weather just hits you as you come off the plane!

Peter: The culture was very unique! It was odd at first not to see some of the daily items you would see everywhere in Canada.

How many schools did you visit?

Peter: We visited two schools!

Hayes: And one community centre!

Peter: We would play for about 35 minutes or 5 songs and then watch them

How were they?

Hayes: They were great – super gifted! They didn’t even need to look at their sheets of music

Any favourite moments?

Peter: Loved the beaches and lounging by the ocean!

Hayes: I really liked seeing the streets and all the retro cars!

Final question – Would you travel with Mr. Fryer again??

Peter: Oh ya would do it again!

Hayes: I guess.

With the end of the term and an extended spring break upon us, the Bolton Penguins show how well-rounded we can be!

Max was feeling like a homecooked meal so he made himself some spaghetti; while Hanson and Darren made and sold their specialty grilled cheese sandwiches for their business class!

Declan and the Grade 9 basketball team placed 5th in the province at the provincial championships! They even had the energy to cheer on the Senior Girls basketball team in the finals of their provincials.

Always giving a helping hand, Savo, along with Martin, Nokia, and Seb, helped the senior rugby team to a few wins over the week! Savo was also the most recent recipient of the Bolton Pin!

The rest of the week flew by as it was the end of term four. This meant a lot of studying, tests and some much needed rest over the weekend. This Monday is the beginning of term five and Friday marks the beginning of spring break. Students will be heading all over the world! Many going straight home or visiting family nearby and some are going on a music trip to Cuba. We wish everyone a safe, positive, and relaxing break! We will see you back in April.

This week was full of studying and test preparation for some and the mountain for others!

Luckily Teigan was one of those who escaped the exams and enjoyed the fresh powder on Mount Washington!

Last week, some of our very own Bolton Penguins, Josh and Leupold, came to Mr. Bell’s Grade 3 class to talk about their Lunar New Year celebrations from across the world. The third graders were so excited to have boarding students in the class!

Nokia is the VERY deserving recipient of the Bolton Pin! He has exemplified what Bolton stands for – Brotherhood, Honour, Service – and has done so for 6 years (must be a record!)

We have been VERY lucky with the weather lately! So lucky, in fact, that the Grade 9s decided to explore other regions of our province on their Out Trips!

Cesar and Inaki enjoying some camping! While others explored Kelowna and the Pacific Ocean!

Christian explored the West coast with the help of a trusty Grade 12 – Harun!

Speaking of Harun! He played an important role in the senior soccer team – Just look!

Soccer was clearly on our mind with the upcoming house games coming up! The penguins set up a fifa tournament in the foyer!

House Games!!

And as we do every week, we ended the weekend with a house meeting! We had a few things to celebrate during the meeting – a birthday and the first Bolton pin being awarded!

With a new year upon us we are so excited to welcome all of the new and returning students into Bolton House!

Some of our Grade 12s – Jeremy, Joshua, Sebastian, Michael, Nokia, Ernest, Harun and Justin – helping make the house look all festive before our new boarders arrive!

Once everyone arrived it was time for some name games!

Returning students from Bolton and the neighbouring house Timmis got together to teach our boarding routines!

Finished off the day with a great soccer game

Ya for beach day!

Looking sharp for the first day of school!

Hi everyone! My name is Mr. Bell and I am very excited to be entering my fourth year in the Bolton House and seventh year as a House Parent with SMUS!

I was born and raised in Victoria and grew up just minutes from the St. Michaels campus. I teach grade 3 at the SMUS Jr. School down in Oak Bay and have coached basketball and volleyball at the SMUS for the past six years. I also love to play lacrosse and explore the island in my spare time! I am looking forward to an exciting and successful year in Bolton House!

We are at the final weekend of the school year with only a handful of days remaining. This week had the start of goodbyes and many events for the grads and those who will be returning. We want to thank everyone in Bolton House for a wonderful year, hope everyone has a great summer and returns fresh in the Fall.

Everything has been winding down including many sports that are coming to their conclusion.

Krissh and Dylan went with the tennis team to Vancouver for the provincial championship. SMUS had a challenging tournament, but finished with a bronze!

The rowing team headed to St. Catherines, Ontario for nationals. Malik was there representing Bolton House and won two national championships!

We had a meeting on Monday night to say goodbye to two from Bolton, Adam who has served us well as our head of house over this year, and Eric who were both given Bolton mugs as a gift for joining us over the recent years.

Monday also saw Mr. Turner host all the athletes who had played in a provincial tournament in terms 2 or 3 for a pizza lunch. It was great to see so many Bolton boys in the mix, what a year!

If pizza wasn’t enough, Monday was also the annual ice cream day started by Mr. Symons back in 1931! Read about the history of this fun event here https://www.smus.ca/news/the-history-of-ice-cream-day.

It was also Spirit week at the Senior School with Keep the Beat, fun activities and great outfits on display.

Tuesday night was the Athletics Banquet featuring all the senior teams from the year. Congrats to all the athletes on a fantastic year of athletics and sportsmanship.

The Grade 12 rugby players were also presented with an Alumni jersey as a final wrap up to the season. It was great having them sacrifice so much time and energy to support the program, especially Louis who started back in grade 8!

This Saturday we celebrated the annual tradition of setting up a giant slip n’ slide down the hill in front of the Wenman Pavilion. There was a little apprehension at first, but nearly the entire house took a chance to experience the big slide.

Also, there were volleyball nets and spikeball set up to have fun on the field. The weather finally cooperated for everyone to enjoy the day outside.

Later that night we had a BBQ and everyone got an ice cream from an ice cream truck which was a big hit. Jason especially enjoyed his as you can see below.

As people began cleaning their rooms it was amazing the things that were found. Kenneth found himself stuck in the office when the face masks came out and like the good sport he is he agreed to try it out.

Amid all the celebrations and packing, there were still academic courses taking place with many final exams and projects. Here is some proof!

The final weekend wrapped up with the Bolton House farewell speeches and the final Boarding Chapel. This year we say goodbye to Malte and Noah heading back to Germany, Jeronimo going home to Mexico and Kaz heading back to the USA. We have 14 grads heading off to schools all over North America and we wish them all our very best. We know that they are destined for great things and look forward to hearing of their exploits and to hopefully seeing them again on campus when they come back to visit.

Congratulations to Malik for winning the Robert Common Award for Honour…

Leo for winning the Rob Cameron Award for Brotherhood…

and to Chris for winning the Chuck and Wendy Shergold Award for Strength.

A special thank you to all the houseparents and Bolton boys and their families for making my last 11 years in Bolton such a delight. I will dearly miss the community and people who make this such a special place. I’m glad to know that my desire to “sweep the sheds” has resonated so well! Thank you.

Before saying goodbye and thank you to all the parents, grandparents, siblings, guardians, aunts, uncles and anyone else who helped make this year such a great success for every Bolton boy, we leave you with this remarkable musical performance by Marcus during chapel. Wow.

We wish all the Bolton boys and their families a safe and happy summer wherever they might be. To those graduating best of luck in your next adventures and to those returning next year we look forward to welcoming you back to Bolton in September for another year of learning and fun. Goodbye for now.