School admissions in Leigh
How heavily each school was applied to for September 2026 entry, from the applications and offers every admissions authority reports to the DfE. Sorted by first preferences per place. We don't invent rankings: the order is arithmetic on a published figure, not a view about which school is better.
Reception places, September 2026
15 schools. 7 received more first preferences than they had places.
| School | First preferences per place | Places | Cutoff distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leigh St John's CofE Primary | 2.14 | 28 | 0.058 miles |
| Bedford Hall Methodist Primary School | 1.27 | 30 | 0.39 miles |
| Gilded Hollins Community School | 1.27 | 30 | 0.776 miles |
| Leigh Central Primary School | 1.23 | 30 | 0.375 miles |
| Leigh St Peter's CofE Primary School | 1.13 | 30 | 0.301 miles |
| Christ Church CofE Primary School, Pennington | 1.03 | 30 | 0.237 miles |
| St Joseph's Catholic Primary School Leigh | 1.03 | 30 | 0.155 miles |
| St Gabriel's Catholic Primary School | 1.00 | 50 | not published |
| Leigh St Mary's CofE Primary School | 0.97 | 30 | 0.775 miles |
| Newton Westpark Primary School | 0.83 | 30 | 0.861 miles |
| Leigh CofE Primary School | 0.82 | 44 | not published |
| St Thomas' CofE Primary School, Leigh | 0.71 | 49 | 0.359 miles |
| Leigh Westleigh Methodist Primary School | 0.71 | 24 | 0.425 miles |
| Westleigh St Paul's CofE Primary School | 0.70 | 30 | not published |
| Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School Leigh | 0.49 | 43 | not published |
First preferences per place is the number of families naming the school first, divided by its published admission number. Above 1.00 means more first choices than places. It is not a ranking and not a measure of quality: a popular school can be easy to get into and a quiet one hard, because places are allocated by each school's own criteria, siblings and faith and banding first, with distance often the last tie-breaker. Applications and offers on national offer day, DfE.