Bolton Muslim Girls’ School Achieves IQM Inclusive School Award with Centre of Excellence

August 14, 2026

---

Congratulations to Bolton Muslim Girls’ School on achieving the IQM Inclusive School Award with Centre of Excellence status. A wonderful recognition of its outstanding commitment to inclusion, achievement and opportunity for all.

Inclusive Excellence

Bolton Muslim Girls’ School (BMGS) is a faith school serving a multicultural and significantly deprived area of Bolton. BMGS is remarkable in the way that it succeeds in integrating its clear identity as a Muslim faith school with the development of wider societal values, and the way in which this leads to a highly inclusive culture for staff and students from a very wide range of ethnic backgrounds. Attendance at the school is remarkably high for all groups of students in a national and local context of persistent attendance issues.

Personalised Support

The level of academic challenge is high with scaffolding being provided to enable achievement by all. The school has clear structures for the provision of support, for example, by circulating the room correcting individual misconceptions. The level of engagement by students ensures that teachers have the capacity to pick up individual misconceptions during the lesson through effective individual questioning. Intelligent use is made of technology to support individual needs, for example, the teacher’s screen replicated on a device and a robot being used to support access to a science lesson from a separate room.

Student Leadership

Student involvement in the development of the school is very evident with a wide range of student groups, including the student shura, being involved in shaping the provision at BMGS. The development of leadership and independence is clearly something that the school takes very seriously and the young women spoken with were consistently impressive in this regard, holding intelligent and well thought-through views on their education and the nature of their school community.

Extracurricular Access for All

An example of excellent inclusive practice is the way in which time has been allocated to extracurricular activities within the school timetable. Many girls will attend madrasah after school, which means that they cannot attend extracurricular activities after normal school hours. With this in mind the school has allocated a lesson of extracurricular activity within the school timetable. The students highly value this.

Sustaining Excellence

Staff development and wellbeing is a priority for BMGS and the continued success of the school at a time of rapid expansion will rely upon the consistent quality of teaching, learning, and assessment. An excellent programme of professional development is being implemented, informed by national research and best practice, and there is considerable investment in giving staff time to reflect on their professional practice through a well-defined coaching programme. This will support the school’s continued development of exceptional inclusive practice.

Find Out More About IQM

The Inclusion Quality Mark provides schools with a nationally recognised framework for developing and celebrating inclusive practice.

If your school is interested in achieving the IQM Inclusive School Award, contact the IQM team on 028 7127 7857 or email admin@iqmaward.com.

To find out more about IQM and request a free information pack, visit www.iqmaward.com.