Important advice for Sale residents

This advice is for Trafford residents in M33 and M23 post code areas.

High schools

High schools in Sale are significantly oversubscribed and each year some catchment area children do not get a place at their preferred schools. To give yourself the best chance of getting a local place, we strongly advise you to include all your catchment schools on your application.

In the Sale area, 43 families in 2022 and 37 families in 2023 did not follow this advice and were allocated a school in another area of Trafford.

Sale High School gives priority to children that live in the Sale area, closest to the school in a straight-line distance. Ashton-on-Mersey School does not have a catchment area. Instead, each year it allocates places to children that live closest to the school in a straight-line distance. This results in a circle around the school that varies each year but it is usually less than 1 mile:

  • 2023 - 0.85 miles
  • 2022 - 0.82 miles
  • 2021 - 0.92 miles
  • 2020 - 0.87 miles
  • 2019 - 1.03 miles
  • 2018 - 0.92 miles

Altrincham College also includes Sale postcodes in its catchment area.

Parents applying for high school places are advised to include all 3 of these schools somewhere in their list of 5 preferences.

Blessed Thomas Holford Catholic College (BTHCC) gives priority to baptised Catholic children that attend a Catholic primary school in Trafford and then to other baptised Catholic children. In the 2023 transfer process most baptised Catholic children, regardless of the primary school they attended, were allocated a place at BTHCC where they had listed the school as a preference.

Therefore, parents of baptised Catholic children are advised to include BTHCC as one of their 5 preferences. To be considered as a baptised Catholic you must provide a copy of the child’s baptismal certificate directly to the school.

To have the best chance of achieving a place locally, you are advised to list all your catchment schools as preferences. We will accommodate your preference wherever possible but there is no guarantee of a place at any of your preferred schools. Given the level of demand for places, you must consider what will happen if you do not achieve a place at your preferred schools.

If you choose not to follow the advice, we are unable to provide travel assistance if you are allocated a school further away, unless you are a low income family that meet the criteria.

Grammar schools

Sale Grammar School, Altrincham Grammar School for Boys and Altrincham Grammar School for Girls are not oversubscribed from children living in the catchment area. This means that all children in the Sale area that pass the entrance examination, and apply on time, have achieved places at these schools on national offer day in all recent years.