Schools in Dorset
173 open schools · Ofsted ratings, catchment areas and admission criteria · best primary schools · best secondary schools
Dorset has 159 state schools: 119 primary, 18 secondary, 1 all-through. Between them they teach around 44,528 pupils. 98 have enough published data for a score, averaging 4.0 out of 10, and 1 score 8 or above.
25 have a sixth form. 50 take children from age three or under. 88 have a religious character, which usually means the school sets its own admissions criteria rather than the council's. How the score works.
Undersubscribed schools rated Good or Outstanding
These schools didn't fill on first preference in the latest admissions year, despite an Ofsted rating of Good or Outstanding — worth a look if you're chasing the same handful of famous names everyone else applies to.
How places are allocated in Dorset
Primary schools: Catchment area is an explicit high-priority criterion, ranked before out-of-catchment sibling applications. (source)
Most schools use the local authority's default scheme rather than a school-specific catchment map — see each school's page for its own designated/catchment area where one is published.
Browse by town
Dorset covers several towns — jump straight to the schools in yours.
Key dates
| Entry year | Event | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Sept 2028 | Application deadline | 31 October 2027 |
| Sept 2028 | Primary application deadline | 15 January 2028 |
| Sept 2028 | Offer day | 1 March 2028 |
| Sept 2028 | Primary offer day | 17 April 2028 |
| Sept 2027 | Application deadline | 31 October 2026 |
| Sept 2027 | Primary application deadline | 15 January 2027 |
| Sept 2027 | Offer day | 1 March 2027 |
| Sept 2027 | Primary offer day | 16 April 2027 |
| Sept 2026 | Application deadline | 31 October 2025 (passed) |
| Sept 2026 | Primary application deadline | 15 January 2026 (passed) |
| Sept 2026 | Offer day | 2 March 2026 (passed) |
| Sept 2026 | Primary offer day | 16 April 2026 (passed) |
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