Our School is a Voluntary aided Church of England school – St. Stephen & All Martyrs Church of England Primary School, Lever Bridge, Bolton is a voluntary aided school. The Governing Body is the admission authority for the school, and the school is required to act in accordance with the School Admissions Code. The admissions process is co-ordinated by Bolton Council (the Local Authority) and the school liaises with the Local Authority and with Manchester Diocese on admissions issues. The admission criteria for admission to our Reception Class is below. We have further information about our curriculum, school policies, activities, special educational needs (SEN) and many other items of interest about the school within this website.
If you would like your child to attend our school, please see full details of our admission arrangements below.
Applications for our school must be made on the common preference form and you should also complete the additional form to show how you meet our individual schools admission criteria in respect of church attendance, if applicable.
The school’s published admission number (PAN) for the admission of children to the Reception Year in September 2025 is 30. If no more than 30 applications are received for admission to the Reception Year, all applicants will be offered places.
In line with the School Admissions Code of December 2014, the school will admit all children having an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) where the school is named on the EHCP.
When the number of applications received is greater than the number of remaining places available (after the admission of any children with an EHCP naming the school), the decision on which children to be admitted will be based on the following criteria, which will be applied in the order of priority shown:
| 1. | Looked After Children (LAC) and children who were previously looked after, but ceased to be so because they were adopted (or became subject to a child arrangements order or special guardianship order). (See note 1) |
| 2. | Children whose medical or social circumstances mean that their needs can only be met at this school. (See note 2). |
| 3. | Children who will have an older brother or sister attending the school at the time of admission. (See note 3) |
| 4. | 20% of the remaining places (rounded to the nearest whole number) will be allocated to any children based on geographical proximity to the school. |
| 5. | Children who regularly attend or whose parent-carer is in regular attendance at St Stephen & All Martyrs Church. (A supplementary form is available from school and must be completed and returned to the school by the closing date in order for an application to be considered under this criterion) (See note 4) |
| 6. | Children who regularly attend or whose parent/carer is in regular attendance at a local church which is a member of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland. (A supplementary form must be completed as above)(See note 5) |
| 7. | Children who regularly attend or whose parent/carer is in regular attendance at another Faith place of worship. (A supplementary form must be completed as above) (See note 6) |
| 8. | Any other children, with those living closest to the school having priority. (See note 7) |
PLEASE NOTE:
In the event that during the period specified for attendance at worship the church/other faith place of worship has been closed for public worship and has not provided alternative premises for that worship, the requirements of these admissions arrangements in relation to attendance will only apply to the period when the church or alternative premises have been available for worship.
Question: What if, although my church has reopened for public worship, I was unable or considered that it is too high a risk to attend public worship, because someone in my household is clinically vulnerable or shielding.
Answer: If you have a previous pattern of church attendance and if you feel you may have a significant and well-evidenced reason for being unable to meet the criterion in specified circumstances, you should submit a letter from your vicar (or appropriate church officer) indicating the level of previous attendance, and professional supporting evidence (for example, confirmation from the person’s GP or consultant) of the reason for being unable to attend.
7. The distance from home to school will be determined using the Local Authority’s measuring system, (as the ‘crow flies’ from home to school gate). Where a child lives with parents with shared responsibility, each for part of the week, the ‘home address’ will be determined as being where the child resides for the majority of the school week.
Where there are more applicants for the available places within a category, the distance from the child’s normal home address to the school will be measured on a map, as the ‘crow flies’, nearer addresses having priority. The child’s normal home address is taken to mean the address where the child sleeps overnight for the majority of the week between Sunday evening and Friday morning.
If the distance from home to school does not distinguish between two or more applicants with equal priority for the remaining place, random allocation will be used as the final tie-breaker. This will be supervised by someone independent of the school.
Children who have not been offered a place will have their name placed on a waiting list. The names on this waiting list will be in the order resulting from the application of the admissions oversubscription criteria. Since the date of application cannot be a criterion for the order of names on the waiting list, late applicants for the school will be slotted into the order according to the extent to which they meet the criteria. Thus, it is possible that a child who moves into the area later to have a higher priority than one who has been on the waiting list for some time. If a place becomes available within the admission number, the child whose name is at the top of the list will be offered a place. This is not dependent on whether an appeal has been submitted. The waiting list will operate until 31 December at the end of the Autumn Term only.
Where the governors are unable to offer a place because the school is oversubscribed, parents will be informed of the reason why admission was refused and of their right to appeal to an Independent Appeal Panel. Parents wishing to appeal should set out their grounds for appeal in writing and must send the appeal to the clerk to the governors at the school.
All applications for a place in Reception in September 2025 must be made on the local authority’s common application form which should be completed and returned to the local authority by the closing date. Details of all the applications made will be forwarded to the school by the local authority.
Applicants seeking admission under criteria 5 or 6 will also need to complete and return the Supplementary Form to the school by the closing date for applications.
Applicants seeking places under criterion 2 must provide professional supporting evidence (e.g. from a doctor, psychologist or social worker) setting out the particular reasons why the school is the most suitable for the child and the difficulties that would be caused if the child had to attend another school.
Children are entitled to a full time place in school in the September following their fourth birthday. Once they have been offered a place at the school, the child’s parents can defer the date their child is admitted to the school but not beyond the point at which they reach compulsory school age and not beyond the beginning of the final term of the school year for which the application was made. Where parents wish, children may attend part-time until later in the school year but not beyond the point at which the child reaches compulsory school age.
Requests for admission outside a child’s normal age group
Parents may seek a place for their child outside of their normal age group, for example, if the child is gifted and talented or has experienced problems such as ill health. In addition, the parents of a summer born child may choose not to send that child to school until the September following their fifth birthday and may request that they are admitted out of their normal age group – to reception rather than year 1.
Parents requesting admission out of the normal age group must put their request in writing, addressed to the Headteacher at the school, together with any supporting evidence that the parent wishes to be taken into account. The governing body will make decisions on requests for admission outside the normal age group on the basis of the circumstances of each case and in the best interests of the child concerned. This will include taking account of the parent’s views; any information provided about the child’s academic, social and emotional development; where relevant, their medical history and the views of a medical professional; whether they have previously been educated out of their normal age group; and whether they may naturally have fallen into a lower age group if it were not for being born prematurely. The governing body will also take into account the views of the Headteacher. When informing a parent of their decision on the year group the child should be admitted to, the governing body will set out clearly the reasons for their decision.
Where the governing body agrees to a parent’s request for their child to be admitted out of their normal age group and, as a consequence of that decision, the child will be admitted to a relevant age group (i.e. the age group to which pupils are normally admitted to the school) the local authority and governing body must process the application as part of the main admissions round, unless the parental request is made too late for this to be possible, and on the basis of their determined admission arrangements only, including the application of oversubscription criteria where applicable. The governing body must not give the application lower priority on the basis that the child is being admitted out of their normal age group.
As noted above, parents have a statutory right to appeal against the refusal of a place at a school for which they have applied. This right does not apply if they are offered a place at the school but it is not in their preferred age group.
It sometimes happens that a child needs to change school other than at the “normal” time; such admissions are known as non-routine admissions. Parents wishing their child to attend this school must contact Pupil and Student Services, Bolton Council on 01204 332134 or by email at admissions.bolton.gov.uk If there is a place Pupil and Student Services will make a formal offer in writing and the parent/carer will have two weeks to accept the place and start school. If there is no place available in our school then the applicant will be informed in writing and information about how to appeal against the refusal will be provided.
Supplementary application form SSAM 2026
School Admission Policy 2027-2028