St James's Church of England High School

School overview

St James's Church of England High School is a secondary school serving Bolton, classified by the DfE as a converter academy with a Church of England religious character. It has 1,064 pupils aged 11 to 16 on roll. At its most recent graded inspection, Ofsted rated St James's Church of England High School 'Good'. In the most recent GCSE results, pupils achieved an average Attainment 8 score of 53.5, above the national average of 46. That marks an improvement of 5.6 points in its Attainment 8 score on the previous year. On our composite score, which combines the DfE attainment measures above, this places it among the top 18% of secondary schools in England.

58% of pupils achieved a grade 5 or above in both English and maths, well above the national average of about 45%. 82% achieved a standard pass (grade 4+) in English and maths. Competition for places is real here - 61% of first-choice applicants were offered a Year 7 place for September 2026 (315 first choices for 197 places). After Year 11, 92% of its leavers went on to education, an apprenticeship or work that they stayed in for at least two terms. Overall pupil absence was 6.3%. There are about 15.8 pupils per teacher. When comparing schools, it is still worth visiting in person to see whether the atmosphere and approach suit your child. 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.