St Joseph's RC High School

Voluntary aided school·Secondary school Bolton·BL6 6HW
Composite score
56.0
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#1,747
National rank
#207
In North West
#12
In Bolton
Top 55%
Nationally

Performance (KS4 GCSE)

Attainment 8 score
44.8
National avg ≈ 46
Progress 8 score
—
% achieving 9–5 in English & Maths
50%
% achieving 9–4 in English & Maths
70%
% EBacc grade 5+
17%
EBacc average points score
3.99

Ofsted judgements

Legacy framework · Read full report ↗

Quality of education
Good
Behaviour and attitudes
Good
Personal development
Good
Leadership and management
Good
Safeguarding effective?
Yes

Getting a place

Offered a place after putting it first
92%
218 first choices, 205 places
First choices per place
1.06
more first choices than places
Applications naming the school
529
any preference, for 205 places
Applications from another council area
12%
First preferences per place, last five years▲ 0.08
00.511.5
1 per place
0.9520221.0920231.0020240.9920251.062026

Red dashed line = one first choice per place. How to read this

We do not have a checked cut-off distance for St Joseph's RC High School yet. Bolton does publish allocation figures and we are working through them council by council — we only show a distance once we have found it in the council’s own document.

Application figures: DfE, school level applications and offers (2026 intake).

School profile

Age range
11–16
Pupils on roll
1,051
Gender
Mixed
Religious character
Roman Catholic
Admissions
Non-Selective

Pupil background

% FSM ever-6
22.3%
Typical secondary: 27.5%
% EAL
18.5%
Typical secondary: 12.0%

Special educational needs

% SEN support
9.0%
Typical secondary: 13.7%
% with an EHC plan
3.0%
Typical secondary: 2.9%

Attendance

Overall absence
8.1%
Typical secondary: 8.9%
Persistently absent
24.4%
Typical secondary: 25.7%

Staffing & funding

Pupils per teacher
18.1
Typical secondary: 16.7
Spend per pupil
£7,251
Typical secondary: £7,815

“Typical” = the median secondary school in England. What this means

What pupils do next

The share of this school's Year 11 leavers in education, training or employment for at least two terms afterwards.

In education, training or work
95%
203 pupils tracked
Stayed in education
87%
Apprenticeship
3%
Employment
4%

DfE, KS4 destination measures.

Nearby secondary schools

Location

School overview

St Joseph's RC High School is a secondary school serving Bolton, classified by the DfE as a voluntary aided school with a Roman Catholic religious character. It has 1,051 pupils aged 11 to 16 on roll. In the most recent GCSE results, pupils achieved an average Attainment 8 score of 44.8, broadly in line with the national average of 46. That is down 1.1 points in its Attainment 8 score on the previous year. On our composite score, which combines the DfE attainment measures above, this places it in the lower half of secondary schools nationally.

50% of pupils achieved a grade 5 or above in both English and maths, above the national average of about 45%. 70% achieved a standard pass (grade 4+) in English and maths. Competition for places is real here - 92% of first-choice applicants were offered a Year 7 place for September 2026 (218 first choices for 205 places). After Year 11, 95% of its leavers went on to education, an apprenticeship or work that they stayed in for at least two terms. Overall pupil absence was 8.1%. There are about 18.1 pupils per teacher. St Joseph's RC High School does not currently have a recent graded Ofsted judgement on record (often the case for newer or recently converted schools), so it is worth asking when its next inspection is expected. 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.

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