CANON Slade has been ranked 20th in the country for their sporting exploits.

The School Sport magazine graded state schools to compile a top 30.

Last year Canon Slade's inter and senior girls' teams reached the English Schools Swimming Association national final, their junior and inter girls teams reached the English Schools Cross Country Cup final and twins Amy and Emily Walton (Year 11) competed in the British Trampoline finals in London.

Amy has been selected by Great Britain for this year's European Championships.

Head of PE at the school, Carol Brooking has been managing the school cross country teams for more than 25 years and said she was “absolutely delighted” two get two teams to the national finals.

“This is the first time we have had two girls' teams in the final," she said.

The school last won the ESAA national final in 1999 when the junior girls were champions.

Canon Slade promote the playing of many sports that do not make the headlines so much at junior level.

The senior boys' team have reached the national golf final two years running.

Rob Edwards, Michael Tunstall and Alastair Carter have played against the top 30 schools in the country, many from independent schools.

Matthew Parkinson represented England Under-19s at cricket and been handed a professional contract with Lancashire, while his brother Callum and Bradley Yates are currently developing their cricket careers in Australia.

The boys’ and mixed teams reached the senior students' national tennis final, Canon Slade being the only state school represented.

The boys’ team was made up of Rob Edwards, Sam Muller, Phil Edwards and Jack Thomond. The mixed team saw Chris Keogh, Sam Muller, Anna Leatham and Robyn Platt-Lambert impress in the finals.

This season all three teams that took part – the boys’, girls’ and mixed team – qualified for the national knockout stages.

Athletics over the years has seen the school compete at national level in the combined events competition. At local level the school continues to do well at the Bolton Town championships.

In swimming the school won the Sutton Trophy at Manchester Grammar School against tough competition against independent and state schools, while Niamh Robinson represented the Isle of Man at the Commonwealth Games in 2014 and has continued to compete at top national level, and at football the sixth form won the under-19s County Cup final.

Every year the boys enter the national competitions for football, basketball, swimming, cricket, cross country, athletics, tennis and golf while the girls enter swimming, cross country, tennis, biathlon and athletics to name a few.

There is seldom a year when one of the teams does not make a national final.

Apart from these sports, there are pupils who cycle, wrestle, speed skate, ice dance, sail and climb up to national level or train with a national squad in a bid to get selected for their country.

The school is in the process of compiling a list of names of pupils who have represented their country which will be put onto an honours board which will hang in the sports complex to show the achievement of its pupils at the very highest level.