St Joseph's RC High School

About St Joseph's RC High School

St Joseph's RC High School in Bolton was rated Good by Ofsted in its most recent inspection in March 2025, a notable improvement from its previous Requires Improvement rating in December 2022. The school's Progress 8 score for the 2023/24 academic year sits at -0.14, which places it in the 'Average' banding nationally. This means that, on average, pupils achieve slightly below the expected progress across their eight best GCSE subjects compared with students nationally. Within Bolton, this score ranks the school 16th out of 22 secondary schools, and 15th out of 19 when looking at the local authority's own ranking metric. The school's Attainment 8 score is 45.9, and 52.8% of pupils achieved a grade 5 or above in English and maths, with 73.6% achieving a grade 4 or above. The EBacc average point score is 3.99, with 37.7% of pupils entering the EBacc combination of subjects.

Looking more closely at the Progress 8 breakdown, there is variation across subject areas. Pupils made slightly better progress in English, with a Progress 8 score of +0.13, and in maths the score was +0.03, both broadly in line with the national average. However, progress in the EBacc subjects was weaker at -0.43, and in open subjects it was -0.13. The school's local authority average Progress 8 score is +0.07, so St Joseph's sits below that benchmark. The percentage of pupils eligible for free school meals is 21.3%, which is above the national average, and the school is oversubscribed: for 2025/26 entry, there were 209 first preference applications for 212 total places, with 201 first preference offers made. The oversubscription ratio is 2.43, meaning more than two families applied for every available place.

The school is a Roman Catholic secondary for boys and girls aged 11 to 16, with no sixth form. Facilities include a library, science labs, astro turf, playing fields, tennis courts, art studios, a gymnasium, sports hall, music rooms, an ICT suite and a chapel. Sports on offer include swimming, rugby, rowing, basketball and football, while clubs include Art Club, Coding, Model UN, Debate and a Newspaper. The school has a wide range of SEND provisions, covering specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication needs, hearing impairment, physical disability, and autistic spectrum disorder. Parent View responses from 103 parents between September 2024 and September 2025 were largely positive: 86% would recommend the school, 91% agreed or strongly agreed their child is happy, and 94% agreed or strongly agreed their child feels safe. This school will suit families who value a faith-based environment with a strong sense of community and who are comfortable with a school that is improving its academic standing but still sits below the local authority average for progress.

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