BOLTON School really is first class.

The borough's top performing school has won Independent School Parent's magazine's inaugural Independent School of the Year Award.

In the same awards, the boys' division was named Independent Boys' School of the Year and the girls' division was highly commended in the Indepedent Girls' School of the Year category.

The school, in Chorley New Road, Heaton, was also highly commended in the Independent School of the Year for community outreach, in which the entry focused on the hosting and organising of the Bolton Children's Fiction Award.

The awards received nearly 250 entries.

Sue Hincks, girls' division headteacher, said: "We are delighted to receive this award. We are a large school and across both divisions there is so much to celebrate both in and out of the classroom. It is gratifying that our engagement with the local community has been recognised, including our enrichment lectures, educational and sporting festivals for local children, our SHINE Saturday morning programme, our Sixth Formers providing afternoon tea for local residents and our organising of the Bolton Children’s Fiction Award."

Philip Britton, Headmaster of the Boys’ Division said: "We strive to ensure that our pupils go out into the world capable of making a difference for good so for their volunteering work, including large numbers of pupils who undertake Duke of Edinburgh and National Citizen Service, to be acknowledged is particularly pleasing. The Award also recognises the part we play in the community, including recently becoming the Northern hub school for the Department for Education's drive to recruit more modern foreign language and maths and Physics teachers."

READ MORE: School first in the country to be awarded Queen's Voluntary Service Medal

Henry Barton of Independent School Parent said: "I would like to congratulate you for winning both the Independent School of the Year Award and the Boys' School of the Year Award. You were also highly commended in the Girls' School of the Year award which is just a fantastic achievement.

"We were overwhelmed by the response to our inaugural awards and it was a highly competitive category so an incredible achievement to have won."

Last year the school was the first in the country to be awarded The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service.