Secondary school in Bolton
Little Lever School
Church Street, Little Lever, Bolton, Greater Manchester, BL3 1BT
Ofsted
Ofsted report card published, on 19 May 2026.
The report card grades separate areas of the school's work. Ofsted does not combine them into one overall judgement.
- Current published outcome
- Report card — no overall grade
- Last overall grade in this dataset
- Not stored — this dataset keeps the latest inspection, which has no overall grade
- Days since inspection
- 136 days
- Framework era
- Current framework (no overall grade)
These four fields describe the latest published inspection on this record. The dataset does not keep a previous inspection row, so a school inspected under the current framework will usually have no overall grade to show as “prior”.
- Safeguarding
- Met
- Inclusion
- Expected standard
- Curriculum and teaching
- Strong standard
- Achievement
- Expected standard
- Attendance and behaviour
- Expected standard
- Personal development and wellbeing
- Expected standard
- Leadership and governance
- Expected standard
The report-card scale is Exceptional, Strong standard, Expected standard, Needs attention and Urgent improvement. Safeguarding is graded Met or Not met. These are separate judgements, not a league table or an overall score. How Ofsted's current grades work.
GCSE results 2024/25
Attainment 8 score
The average grade across eight GCSEs, doubling English and maths. 50 is roughly a grade 5 average.
Grade 5+ in English & maths
Grade 4+ in English & maths
EBacc average point score
Entered the EBacc
On Attainment 8 this school is around the middle of state-funded secondaries in England.
Compared with the fifth of schools whose intake is middle, which is where this one sits, it is in the better-performing half.
Progress 8 2023/24
Taking that range into account, progress was not statistically different from the national average. DfE bands this as average.
Progress 8 measures how far pupils moved between the end of primary and their GCSEs, which makes it far fairer than raw attainment. It is shown for 2023/24 because it could not be calculated for 2024/25: that year group would have sat their key stage 2 tests in summer 2020, when the tests were cancelled, so there is no starting point to measure from. Every school in England is affected, not just this one.
Getting a place 2026/27 entry
About as many first choices as places. Of the 216 families who named this school as their first choice, 99% were offered a place.
- Places offered
- 231
- Named it first choice
- 216
- First choices per place
- 0.94
- First choices offered a place
- 99%
for entry into Year 7
England average 1.00
England 88.5%
First preferences per place are down 18% on three years ago.
These are offers made on national offer day for 2026/27 entry, from the local authority's co-ordinated admissions round. They exclude later movement — waiting lists, appeals and in-year admissions — so a school shown as oversubscribed may still have places by September.
Oversubscription measures popularity, not quality, and the two are not the same thing: a school can be heavily oversubscribed because of its intake, its faith designation or simply because the nearest alternative is further away. We do not publish catchment maps, because catchments are not published: each admissions authority applies its own criteria afresh every year, and the distance that got a child in last year is not a boundary. Read the school's own admissions arrangements for the rules that will actually apply.
Pupils
- Pupils on roll
- 1085
- Places
- 1050
- How full
- Full — 1085 pupils against 1050 places
- Girls / boys
- 495 / 590
- Overall absence
- 10%
- Persistently absent
- 29%
secondary schools average 8.6%
secondary schools average 23.9% — pupils missing 10% or more of sessions
- Free school meals, last 6 years
- 31%
- English as an additional language
- 7%
- With an EHC plan
- 4%
- On SEN support
- 14%
England 25.7%
England 18.7%
England 3.5%
England 15%
School funding 2025-26 financial year
Not found for this URN in the 2025-26 release.
- Evidence found
- Not found for this URN in the 2025-26 release; this is not represented as £0.
- Source coverage
- DfE mainstream-school allocations for running costs for pupils aged 5-16, importer snapshot 23 August 2026.
- What this means
- The official mainstream allocation release does not provide a publishable row for this establishment.
- What this does not mean
- The school received no public funding or has no budget; other establishment types and funding streams use different publications.
Allocation is not expenditure. DfE says this release combines the schools block with several other revenue grants and excludes capital spending. Funding is shown for context and is never used in School Facts ordering, peer groups or quality claims. Source, licence and coverage.
Roads and getting there
Road casualties within 500m
- Child pedestrian casualties
- 1
- All reported collisions
- 10
- Of those, serious or fatal
- 2
- Busiest road nearby
- A6053
England average 1.6 — pedestrians under 16, over five years
England average 24.2 over five years
17,102 vehicles a day (2025)
Public transport
- Bus stops within 500m
- 8
- Nearest station
- Moses Gate Rail Station
England average 11.9
1.3 km away — railway station
Traffic volume is the context the collision count needs: a school beside a major road will record more collisions than one on a quiet street without being any less well run.
Every collision reported to the police within 500m of the school over the five years to 2024, from the Department for Transport's road casualty statistics. A high count usually says the school sits on or near a busy road, not that the school is unsafe — counts rise with traffic and with how built up an area is, and a rural school on a fast road may have fewer collisions but a worse one. Distances are straight-line from the school's recorded position.
What pupils do next
After GCSEs
- In education, work or training
- 88%
- Stayed in education
- 78%
- Started an apprenticeship
- 4%
- Stayed at this school's sixth form
- 0%
- No sustained destination
- 10%
- Pupils in the cohort
- 207
England 91.4%
England 85.4%
England 3.5%
England 5.8%
A destination counts only if it lasted at least six months, which is why these figures lag the exam results by a year. Small cohorts move these percentages a long way — check the cohort size before reading much into a gap.
The area around the school
Among around the middle for England.
Among around the middle for England for children in low-income families.
Indices of Deprivation 2019, for the small area the school stands in. 1 means the most deprived tenth of England, 10 the least. The second measure counts only children living in low-income families, which is the one that describes the intake a school is likely to draw on.
What homes cost nearby
- Median sale price
- £207,500
- Typical range
- £160,000 to £250,000
- Detached
- £295,000
- Semi-detached
- £220,000
- Terraced
- £150,000
- Flat
- £110,250
postcode sector BL3 1 · 313 sales
middle half of sales
Homes around this school are cheaper than most of England.
Every residential sale registered in this postcode sector since January 2024, from HM Land Registry. A sector covers roughly 2,500 addresses. England's median over the same period was £293,000.
Who lives there
- Adults with a degree
- 21%
- Adults with no qualifications
- 22%
- In professional or managerial work
- 8%
- Households deprived in 2+ ways
- 20%
- Residents in very good health
- 42%
England 33.8%
England 18.3%
England 13.4%
England 17.8%
England 48.4%
Housing
- Owned by the occupier
- 84%
- Social housing
- 4%
- Privately rented
- 12%
- Detached homes
- 66%
- Four or more bedrooms
- 14%
- No car
- 14%
England 62.7%
England 17%
England 19.2%
England 38.2%
England 22.5%
England 21.9%
Census 2021, for Bolton 024B and the wider neighbourhood around it. These figures describe the area, not the pupils — children may travel in from much further away, and for selective, faith and independent schools they usually do.
School details
- Type
- Academy converter
- Phase
- Secondary
- Ages
- Ages 11–16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Admissions
- Non-selective
- Religious character
- None
- Sixth form
- No
- Nursery
- No
- Boarding
- Day school
- Trust
- Lever Academy Trust
- Headteacher
- Headteacher: Dominic Mckeon
- Opened as this establishment
- 1 December 2015
- Register status
- Open
- Local authority
- Bolton
- Ward
- Little Lever & Darcy Lever
- Constituency
- Bolton North East
- URN
- 142296
The unique reference number used in all official school data.
The URN identifies this registered establishment. If a school converts or is replaced, DfE may issue a new URN; this page does not stitch different establishments together by a similar name.
Admissions history
The official school-level admissions releases contain up to 13 national-offer-day observations, from 2014/15 to 2026/27. The chart shows first choices per place; the table keeps the underlying counts.
Year 7
All 11 annual observations
| Entry year | Places | First choices | Per place | First choices offered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016/17 | 205 | 193 | 0.94 | 93% |
| 2017/18 | 206 | 187 | 0.91 | 96% |
| 2018/19 | 204 | 229 | 1.12 | 80% |
| 2019/20 | 208 | 208 | 1.00 | 85% |
| 2020/21 | 207 | 241 | 1.16 | 77% |
| 2021/22 | 214 | 231 | 1.08 | 86% |
| 2022/23 | 214 | 190 | 0.89 | 100% |
| 2023/24 | 217 | 248 | 1.14 | 80% |
| 2024/25 | 236 | 253 | 1.07 | 83% |
| 2025/26 | 238 | 208 | 0.87 | 98% |
| 2026/27 | 231 | 216 | 0.94 | 99% |
These are annual observations, not forecasts. They exclude waiting lists, appeals and in-year admissions. Each series follows this exact URN only, so academy conversions and missing releases remain visible as gaps rather than being joined by name.
Nearest secondary schools
| School | Ofsted | Attainment 8 | Progress 8 | Distance | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harper Green SchoolAcademy converter | Good 2023 | 42.8 | -0.11-0.32 to 0.09 · not a win | 1.4 mi | |
| Lord's SchoolOther independent school | No overall grade | — | — | 1.6 mi | |
| Kearsley AcademyAcademy sponsor led | Good 2022 | 51.8 | 0.550.30 to 0.80 | 1.6 mi | |
| Mount St Joseph RC High School a Voluntary AcademyAcademy converter | Requires improvement 2023 | — | — | 1.6 mi | |
| Bolton Islamic Girls SchoolOther independent school | No overall grade | — | — | 1.7 mi | |
| St James's Church of England High SchoolAcademy converter | Good 2022 | 53.5 | -0.07-0.27 to 0.12 · not a win | 1.8 mi | |
| Bolton St Catherine's AcademyAcademy converter | No overall grade | 34.3 | -0.71-0.97 to -0.45 | 2.1 mi | |
| King's Leadership Academy BoltonFree schools | Good 2023 | 45.4 | 0.14-0.10 to 0.37 · not a win | 2.3 mi |
Schools like this
The 12 state schools in England whose intake most closely matches this one — same phase and sector, and as near as the data allows on size, disadvantage, SEN, English as an additional language and the deprivation of the surrounding area. These are the schools it can fairly be judged against.
Attainment 8 score. This school is ahead of the schools that teach a comparable intake.
| School | Area | Ofsted | Attainment 8 | Progress 8 | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kings Norton Girls' SchoolAcademy converter | Birmingham | No overall grade | 56.6 | 0.640.41 to 0.87 | |
| Northallerton School & Sixth Form CollegeAcademy sponsor led | Northallerton | Report card 2026 | 37.5 | -0.76-0.97 to -0.55 | |
| The Stourport High School and Sixth Form CollegeAcademy converter | Stourport-on-Severn | Good 2022 | 39.7 | -0.70-0.89 to -0.50 | |
| Lift New RickstonesAcademy sponsor led | Witham | Good 2023 | 40.6 | -0.43-0.64 to -0.21 | |
| King Charles I SchoolAcademy converter | Kidderminster | Good 2023 | 44 | -0.33-0.54 to -0.12 | |
| Harrow Way Community SchoolCommunity school | Andover | Good 2022 | 44.4 | 0.04-0.17 to 0.25 · not a win | |
| Admiral Lord Nelson SchoolAcademy converter | Portsmouth | Report card 2026 | 40.4 | -0.35-0.54 to -0.16 | |
| Retford Oaks AcademyAcademy sponsor led | Retford | Good 2022 | 40.1 | -0.52-0.72 to -0.32 | |
| Outwood Academy FreestonAcademy converter | Normanton | No overall grade | 44.6 | -0.18-0.38 to 0.03 · not a win | |
| St Benedict's Catholic High SchoolVoluntary aided school | Whitehaven | No overall grade | 41.2 | -0.29-0.51 to -0.07 | |
| Brixham CollegeAcademy converter | Brixham | Report card 2026 | 36.7 | -0.74-0.94 to -0.53 | |
| Stockport SchoolCommunity school | Stockport | No overall grade | 45.7 | 0.250.07 to 0.42 |
Matching uses only characteristics a school does not choose. It is not a ranking, and a close match on intake does not make two schools interchangeable — sixth form, faith character, admissions rules and simple geography all matter and are not in the calculation.
Evidence ledger
Reference dates and join methods are kept separate because the figures do not all describe the same year or geography.
| Evidence | Publisher | Reference date | How it reaches this page |
|---|---|---|---|
| School identity | Get Information About Schools | 23 August 2026 | Exact URN 142296; unified importer snapshot |
| Inspection evidence | Ofsted management information | 31 July 2026 | Exact URN; inspection 19 May 2026 |
| Attainment | DfE performance tables | 2024/25 | Exact URN; phase-specific definitions |
| Progress 8 | DfE performance tables | 2023/24 | Exact URN; confidence interval retained |
| Admissions | DfE school applications and offers | 2026/27 plus history to 2014/15 | Exact URN and entry point; national offer day |
| Pupil intake | DfE school census | 2024/25 | Exact URN; suppressed values remain missing |
| Funding allocation | DfE school funding statistics | 2025-26 financial year | No row for this URN in the mainstream-school release; not represented as zero |
| Roads and transport | DfT road casualties, traffic and NaPTAN | Five-year road window; access-node snapshot | Coordinate join within the stated radius |
| Neighbourhood | ONS Census | 2021 | LSOA/MSOA containing the school, not pupil homes |
| Deprivation | English Indices of Deprivation | 2019 | LSOA containing the school |
| Home prices | HM Land Registry Price Paid Data | Sales since January 2024 | School postcode sector, not a catchment |
These sources are published for reuse under the Open Government Licence v3.0, including the Crown database-right notice that accompanies Price Paid Data. Definitions and source notes. If something here looks wrong, the school's own website is the authority on admissions and open days.