The hardest secondary schools in Bolton to get into have been named based on the numbers of  parents who apply for a place for their child.

Government figures  have been released showing the number of applications submitted for school places in the borough in September 2023  and how many the schools took in. 

Eden Boys' School in Halliwell was the most popular in the secondary school sector, with almost double the amount of parents applying for the places available. 

Bolton's most popular primary schools named

The school offered 123 places, but 243 first choice applications were made, meaning it could only offer places to 51 per cent of them at the start of the academic year. 

The Bolton News: Bolton Muslim Girls SchoolBolton Muslim Girls School

This comes after the school was rated outstanding by Ofsted in September last year

Bolton Muslim Girls School was the second most popular, being put as first preference for 264 pupils, but only able to offer places to 149 of them, 56 per cent. 

The school is among the highest performing in Bolton.

Read more: Nursery school's new inspection grade after huge turnaround wins praise

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In all, 10 secondary schools had more first preference applications than places to give, half of those in the borough. 

See our table below for all primary schools in the borough. 

The Department for Education says, for secondary schools, parents who got their first preference for their child is 82.6 per cent, places given out at one of the top three preference rate is 94.1 per cent and the non preferred offer rate is 4.2 per cent. 

For Bolton secondaries, the first preference rate offer is 81.7 per cent, the top three preference rate offer is 94.8 per cent and the non preferred offer rate is five per cent. 

A spokesperson for Bolton Council said: “Bolton is lucky to have many excellent schools where dedicated staff go above and beyond to help children reach their full potential.

“For a variety of reasons, certain schools are particularly popular when parents come to list their preferred choices.

“While every effort is made to offer children one of their three preferred places, in a small proportion of cases this is not always possible.

“In these cases, an alternative place is always offered at a school within the borough.”