Dear parents and carers
Welcome back to the new term! Your children have made a wonderful start to life at Little Lever!
The school is moving from strength to strength. This year the school achieved its highest ever GCSE exam results.
57% of students achieved Grade 5+ in English and mathematics. With the national average at approximately 45%. Little Lever is now not simply one of the most improved schools in the country but is one of the top performing schools in Bolton and the Northwest.
This is a real testament to the hard work of our brilliant students, the wonderful parents and carers we have and the relentless work of our brilliant staff who will always go above and beyond to help.
In fact, across all subjects students’ GCSE grades are improving year on year. The Attainment 8 score, which measures the average grade from the best eight subjects a student studies, is the highest in the school’s history.
Little Lever has generated strong and improving GCSE outcomes for students now since 2019. This is indicated by the fact that the school has achieved a positive Progress 8 score every year since 2019. Progress 8 measures the difference between the attainment students are predicted to get at GCSE from their KS2 starting points (end of primary school) with the attainment they actually achieve at GCSE. If it’s positive it means students performed better than expected and if it’s negative they performed less well than expected.
Progress 8 is not recorded this year as students in Year 11 were not able to sit their KS2 Standard Assessment Tests (SATs) due to the pandemic. As a school we are incredibly proud of the resilience the ‘class of 2025’ has shown. To achieve the highest attainment 8 score in the school’s history would indicate that their progress would have been outstanding and this is a testament to the hard work, determination and resilience they have shown over their 5 years at Little Lever.
Things are getting bigger and better!
We are very excited about the school’s expansion plans. We are currently completing phase 1 of our expansion plans. This will extend the canteen area, so all our students have an enormous space in which to enjoy their social time at break and lunch. We will also be designing this space to have a variety of different offers for students so they can enjoy a range of different dining experiences and foods from across the world. We want our students to enjoy restaurant standard experiences and create a warm and relaxed environment where students can enjoy their social time. 
Phase 1 also involves the completion of a new Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Centre which will provide a state-of-the-art facility and experience for children with SEND so we fulfil our purpose of helping every person achieve things they never thought they could.
Phase 1 will be completed by January 2026.
Phase 2 will start as soon as Phase 1 has finished. This will be the construction of a new 9 classroom two storey block at the front of school. This will provide state-of-the-art learning facilities for our students. It will also provide better access and improved exit and entry points for students so their arrival and departure from school protects them from the busy main road outside of the school.
We will be able to offer 240 pupil places for each year group, and we have already welcomed 240 of our new Year 7 this year who have made an incredible start to life at Little Lever.
We need your help… Communication:
As part of our parent voice activities we are aware that many parents at times have mentioned communication has been difficult and it has not been easy to get to the information or the people you need to speak to quickly and efficiently.
We talked to parents approximately 12 months ago and in this time we have been working on developing a new Little Lever App which we will be launching with all parents after October half term.
In order for the Little Lever App to work at its best we wanted to demonstrate what we plan to do and to take feedback from parents and carers so we can give you what you want and what you need quickly and effectively.
We will be holding a parent forum on Wednesday 15th October at 6.00pm in our library. There will be refreshments available for parents and carers. The parent forum will give you an opportunity to let us know what is working well and what we need to continue to improve. We will not just focus on communication but a range of other areas which you can raise and talk to us about in the forum.
If you would like to attend the parent forum, please register your interest using the following link. https://forms.office.com/e/Gx23DfKPes
SEND parent forums
We will also be hosting three SEND parent forums throughout the year. These are specifically designed to give parents and carers of children with SEND a voice to share what they think is working well and what they would like to improve. Through the forum we hope the ideas and feedback parents and carers will provide will help us continue to adapt and modify our systems and infrastructure, so we are able to continually enhance the provision we provide. We recognise that parents and carers know their children best and we want to listen and learn and then act to provide the best facilities and experiences for children with SEND.
The first SEND parent forum will take place on Thursday 23rd October at 6.00pm.
If you would like to attend any of the SEND parent forums, please register your interest using the following link. https://forms.office.com/e/Gx23DfKPes
Make memories at school… Attendance:
Good attendance at school is critical to your child’s success and gives them the best opportunity to achieve their dreams and aspirations.
Good attendance means attendance that is 97% or higher. 97% equates to 5 days absence in the school year.
We understand that at times in our lives there are uncontrollable events that happen that can make this attendance figure challenging and our attendance team will work with you to help and support at these times.
However, when we can control the events that happen, as I know you all will, we need to work together to emphasise the importance of attendance at school. It will help build positive social networks for children that will help encourage strong mental health and allow them to see and realise they can overcome adversity with the help of others. At some point in their lives they will have to find a job and school as well as other experiences will give them the best chance to prepare for their future lives in employment.
We work really hard in our lessons but we also have a range of fun and engaging enrichment activities that will take place before school starts, at lunchtime, and after school. These activities have been designed based on what our students wanted and to bring together that sense of family and belonging. For example, we have opportunities for students to break a world record for the number of socks you can put on in 30 seconds, or engage in Karaoke Wednesday, or take part in football, pickleball or Just Dance on Fabulous Friday. On a daily basis, we have Uno, board games, cards, chess, Minecraft, dungeons and dragons, origami or if you simply want a quiet place to read or study you can do this every day in our magnificent library. The idea is that there is something for everyone and activities that create a sense of camaraderie, achievement and family. These are experiences when everyone can show we are human and get behind each other to support each other, build new relationships or simply to have fun and bring a smile to someone’s face.
Finally, all your children have made a wonderful start to life at Little Lever. They have demonstrated the schools’ values of being kind, working hard and taking responsibility and I see the ambition they have to be the best they can be and to fulfil their dreams and aspirations. Our job is to help them reach their dreams and aspirations, but we cannot do this without you!
There are exciting times ahead for Little Lever and the students that attend our school!
I wanted to thank you for all your support and feedback. Together we can continue to keep improving our school to give your children the best experiences possible so they achieve things they never thought they could!
Take care
Kind regards
Mr Mckeon