Admissions to the Boys' Division (Senior School)

The admissions process for Bolton School Boys' Division is overseen and managed by the Assistant Headmaster (Admissions and Activities), Dr Fraser Mullins; Mr Stephen Martin, Admissions Tutor; and the Admissions Registrar, Mrs Susan Yates. They can all be contacted at School at any point should you wish to discuss any element of entry to the Boys' Senior School (telephone: 01204 840201).

All applicants to the Boys' Division must complete an application form. This can be obtained in one of three ways:

it is enclosed with the prospectus
it can be downloaded here
or it can be ordered by contacting the Headmaster's Secretary on 01204 840201 (e-mail: seniorboys@boltonschool.org).

The application form will provide us with your contact numbers and information about the applicant's current school. For older students, we shall also need to know which subjects he wishes to study.

Year 7 Entry

All applicants to Year 7 sit our Entrance Examination in the January before they wish to join the School. There are four components to the annual Year 7 Entrance Examination:

An English paper (a creative writing essay task only) set by the School (view examples of sample questions and view exemplar answers)

A set of three tests, newly set for us each year by GL Assessment, comprising:

A verbal reasoning test
A non-verbal reasoning test
A mathematical test

Each of these three tests is designed to test a child's 'innate' ability. Practice papers are available from any good bookshop (look for GL Assessment 11+ practice papers) or via the GL Assessment website.

As a rough indication of the required standard, we would normally expect your son's primary school teacher to be predicting him to reach Level 5 in the Key Stage 2 SATs tests.

A reference will also be requested from the applicant's current school, as Headteachers' reports form an important element of our decision making process. For this reason, it is vital that parents who wish to make an application should first discuss this with their son's current Headteacher.

Further details about the Entrance Examination for Year 7 entry in September can be found here.

Between 140 and 150 places are available for Year 7 each year. All applicants are called for interview following the Entrance Examination, with these interviews taking place early in February. The interviews are used, along with the Headteachers' reports and the Entrance Examination performance, as a means of assessing the applicants. Subsequent to the interviews, and in agreement with the Manchester Consortium of Schools, offers of places are then posted at the beginning of March.

Entry into Years 8-11

Applications for other year groups are considered at any time; however, the number of places available will vary according to student migration at the time. Applicants for entry into these year groups will be asked to sit a computer adaptive test which is designed to help measure an individual's ability and their aptitude for learning. Similar to the Entrance Examination, the test comprises of Vocabulary, Maths, Non-Verbal Reasoning and Skills sections. We aim to make a decision within a few days of the applicant sitting a test. The admissions process will also involve a series of interviews, most usually with the Assistant Headmaster or Admissions Tutor along with one of the language departments' Heads. Once again, a reference from the current Headteacher will be sought and we will also ask the applicant to provide us with their most recent school report.

Entry into the Sixth Form

Financial Support

Bolton School is a fee paying school, but financial support may be available through the 'Open Door' Bursary Scheme. The School has worked hard to raise funds for the scheme so as to enable talented youngsters whose parents may find it difficult to pay fees to attend the School; currently more than one in five of the pupils receive some form of fee assistance.

All bursaries are awarded on academic merit. They are means tested and available to a proportion of the entry at Years 7 and 12; some funding may also be available to applicants to other year groups. Financial support may also be found for current students whose parents suffer subsequent hardship. In addition, the Headmaster's Fund, supported by the Parents' Association, is used for existing pupils to ensure that such children can take part in school visits and extra-curricular activities.

Enquiries about financial support can be addressed at any time to the Bursary Officer, Miss Charlotte Nightingale, cnightingale@boltonschool.org or to Mr Philip Britton (pbritton@boltonschool.org), the Headmaster. Both can be contacted via the telephone number 01204 840201.

Tours of the School

Part of choosing the right school for your son is feeling comfortable within it on a normal working day; accordingly you are invited to take up the opportunity of visiting the School at various points of the School year on top of the annual Open Day (held on a Saturday in mid-October each year). In the Autumn and Summer Terms each year the 'Open Doors Day' provides an opportunity for families to be guided around classrooms by members of our sixth form whilst lessons are being delivered; equally, parents and their sons are encouraged to telephone Mrs Yates, the Admissions Registrar, to arrange a mutually convenient time to be given a private tour of the School and its facilities with the Assistant Headmaster (Admissions & Activities), Dr Fraser Mullins or Mr Stephen Martin our Admissions Tutor;