St Mary's RC Primary School

School overview

St Mary's RC Primary School is a primary school serving Bolton, classified by the DfE as a voluntary aided school with a Roman Catholic religious character. It has 217 pupils aged 5 to 11 on roll. At its most recent graded inspection, Ofsted rated St Mary's RC Primary School 'Good'. In the most recent Key Stage 2 SATs, 56% of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined — broadly in line with the national average of 61%. That is down 22.0 percentage points in the proportion reaching the expected standard on the previous year. On our composite score, which combines the DfE attainment measures above, this places it in the lower half of primary schools nationally.

Pupils achieved an average scaled score of 105 in reading and 103 in maths (national averages are about 105 and 104). 6% reached the higher standard across all three subjects (around 8% do so nationally). Competition for places is real here - 87% of first-choice applicants were offered a Reception place for September 2026 (30 first choices for 29 places). Overall pupil absence was 4.4%. There are about 24.9 pupils per teacher. Given the recent dip in results, it may be worth asking the school what is behind the change and what is being done in response. This overview is generated automatically from the latest published DfE performance tables and Ofsted data; figures are rounded, and you can check the originals via the official links above.