St Catherine's CofE Primary School

St Catherine's CofE Primary School is a welcoming church primary school within The Bishop Fraser Trust. Inspectors judged the school to be meeting the expected standard in achievement, attendance and behaviour, curriculum and teaching, early years, leadership and governance, and personal development and wellbeing. Safeguarding standards are met. Inclusion is the one area identified as needing attention. The school has a caring Christian ethos, high attendance, positive behaviour, an ambitious curriculum, strong early reading, and a rich personal development offer. Pupils are generally well prepared for the next stage of their education, with particularly strong outcomes in grammar, punctuation and spelling.

Strengths

• Welcoming, caring Church of England school at the heart of its community with a visible Christian ethos
• High attendance and low persistent absence, including for disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND
• Pupils are courteous, respectful and typically behave well in lessons and around school
• Ambitious and broad curriculum with clear step-by-step knowledge building
• Strong early reading and phonics provision, including in the early years
• Pupils achieve particularly well in grammar, punctuation and spelling
• Rich personal development programme with music, Latin, trips, residentials and cultural visits
• Pupils take on meaningful responsibilities such as prefects and eco-committee members
• Effective leadership and governance, with governors gathering first-hand evidence
• Staff value professional development and leaders consider wellbeing and workload
• Safeguarding standards are met, with an open culture and pupils feeling safe
• Support for disadvantaged pupils is improving outcomes over time

Areas for Improvement

• Inclusion is judged as needing attention
• Assessment, target-setting and review for pupils with SEND are not precise enough
• Learning plans for pupils with SEND have targets that are too broad and reviewed too infrequently
• Some pupils with SEND and pupils facing additional challenges do not make the progress they should
• Higher-attaining pupils are not consistently challenged to achieve as highly as they could
• Opportunities to apply and deepen learning are inconsistent across subjects
• Too few pupils develop deeper knowledge across the curriculum
• Leaders do not evaluate the impact of support for some pupils with sufficient precision
• Pupils' understanding of fundamental British values is less secure and not recalled as well as other personal development learning
• A small number of pupils, particularly in older year groups, find it harder to manage behaviour and can occasionally affect others' learning and wellbeing
• Published data shows disadvantaged pupils' attainment in combined reading, writing and mathematics, and in writing, remains below national averages despite improvement over time

Admissions: local authority offers data from the Department for Education. A school is oversubscribed when at least 5% of the families who put it first were not offered a place, and undersubscribed when everyone who put it first got in but 10% or more of its places were unfilled in the Department's school capacity survey (the latest survey is used for entry years it does not cover). Places: Department for Education, School capacity, from local authorities' annual survey as at 1 May. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024–25); the survey was not run in 2020. Places include sixth form places. Forecasts are the local authority's own for the school's planning area, an area it uses to plan places that is not the school's catchment area. The forecast starts from a head count in 2025; the dashed line is the Department's estimate of places in that area, including those the authority has firm plans for. Planned places are cumulative, and only those with firm plans are counted.

In 2024–25 pupils at St Catherine's CofE Primary School attended 96.2% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 6.1% of pupils were persistently absent, missing at least one session in ten (nationally 13.0%).

Sessions missed

Pupils persistently absent

Source: Department for Education, Pupil absence in schools in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Persistent absence means missing 10% or more of sessions; severe absence means 50% or more. No figures were published for 2019/20.

In 2024–25, 1.3% of pupils at St Catherine's CofE Primary School were suspended at least once (nationally 1.1%). No pupils were permanently excluded.

Pupils suspended at least once

Source: Department for Education, Suspensions and permanent exclusions in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). A pupil can be suspended more than once, so suspensions per 100 pupils can be higher than the share of pupils suspended. Very small numbers are hidden by the DfE. Exclusion figures dropped in 2020 and 2021 because of school closures.

In 2025–26 St Catherine's CofE Primary School had 24.3 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 10.2% were no longer at the school a year later (nationally 15.7%).

Pupils per teacher

Teachers who left the school within a year

Source: Department for Education, School workforce in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Pupils per teacher counts full-time-equivalent pupils and teachers. Turnover is the share of a year's teachers (full-time equivalent) who were not at the school the following year, whether they moved to another school or left state-funded teaching. Turnover and sickness figures run one year behind the ratios. Sick leave is the share of teachers who took at least one day in the year, so it swings widely at small schools, where a few teachers can make it 0% or 100%. The national figures are for all state schools of the same type.

In 2025–26, 13.1% of pupils at St Catherine's CofE Primary School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 2.5% had an education, health and care (EHC) plan (nationally 4.1%).

Pupils by main type of need

Source: Department for Education, Special educational needs in England (the 2025–26 school census). SEN support is extra help in school without an EHC plan. National figures are for all state-funded primary schools. Counts are as published, with small numbers not hidden.

In 2024–25 St Catherine's CofE Primary School received £6,694 and spent £6,678 for each of its 232 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £275,000 (£1,187 per pupil).

Across all 5 schools of The Bishop Fraser Trust, income was £7,941 and spending £7,851 per pupil.

Income per pupil

Spending per pupil

Source: Department for Education, Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool. Each year is the one the financial year ends in (2024 is 2023–24). Academy figures include a share of the trust's central services, shared out by pupil numbers, and are rounded to the nearest £1,000. Premises costs were defined differently from 2024, so compare them across that gap with care.

• Primary Schools
• Secondary Schools

All schools in Bolton · Bolton local authority: places and applications

St Catherine's CofE Primary School is part of The Bishop Fraser Trust, which runs 8 schools. The nearest others:

• Walmsley CofE Primary School Bolton
• Canon Slade School Bolton
• St James's Church of England High School Bolton
• Bolton St Catherine's Academy Bolton
• Turton and Edgworth CofE/Methodist Primary School Bolton
• Bury Church of England High School Bury
• St Margaret's Church of England Primary School Heywood

What is St Catherine's CofE Primary School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for St Catherine's CofE Primary School is Needs attention, from an inspection in September 2026.

When was St Catherine's CofE Primary School last inspected by Ofsted?

St Catherine's CofE Primary School was last inspected in September 2026.

How many pupils does St Catherine's CofE Primary School have?

St Catherine's CofE Primary School has 237 pupils on roll.

What age range does St Catherine's CofE Primary School cover?

St Catherine's CofE Primary School for pupils aged 3 to 11.

What are St Catherine's CofE Primary School's SATs (KS2) results?

In 2025, 62% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is St Catherine's CofE Primary School?

St Catherine's CofE Primary School is at Greenstone Avenue, Horwich, Bolton, Lancashire, BL6 5SJ.