Secondary school offers in Dorset: offer day 2027

National Offer Day Monday 1 March 2027 · 16 secondary schools · first-choice odds, waiting lists and appeals

How likely is a first choice here?

For September 2026 entry, 97.9% of families living in Dorset were offered their first-choice secondary school, against 83.6% across England. 21 families (1.0%) were offered none of the schools they named. Dorset ranks 150 of 150 councils in England, hardest first (see every council).

2 of its 16 secondary schools had more first-choice applications than places.

The most sought-after, by first-choice applications per place offered: The Gryphon School (1.1 per place), Gillingham School (1.1 per place), All Saints' Church of England Academy (1.0 per place), Atlantic Academy Portland (1.0 per place), Budmouth Academy Weymouth (1.0 per place).

If you didn't get your first choice

1. Accept the place you were offered by the date in your offer letter. Accepting it does not affect a waiting list or an appeal, and a place that isn't accepted can be withdrawn.
2. Get on the waiting lists you want. Every school must keep one until at least 31 December of the year your child starts. It is ranked by the school's admission rules, not by when you joined, so a family moving closer can go above you. Some councils add you automatically for schools you ranked higher than the one offered; your offer letter says which.
3. Decide whether to appeal. You can appeal for every school that refused your child. You get at least 20 school days from the offer to lodge it, and on-time appeals must be heard within 40 school days of that deadline. The figures below show how often appeals succeed here.
4. Look at schools that took lower preferences. These are the likeliest to have room now.

Schools that took children who ranked them lower

For September 2026 entry these 9 schools offered more places than they had first-choice applications, so some went to families who put them second or lower. They are the likeliest to have room after offer day; ask Dorset or the school.

• Beaminster School Beaminster
• Budmouth Academy Weymouth Weymouth
• Lytchett Minster School Poole
• Shaftesbury School Shaftesbury
• Sturminster Newton High School Sturminster Newton
• The Blandford School Blandford Forum
• The Purbeck School Wareham
• The Swanage School Swanage
• The Woodroffe School Lyme Regis

Every secondary school: demand for 2026 entry

Sorted by first-choice applications per place, the most contested first.

Places offered is the number of offers made on national offer day, and first choices offered the share of families who put the school first and got it (Department for Education, September 2026 entry).

Appeals in Dorset

Secondary school appeals across all of Dorset, from the Department for Education. Appeals are not published school by school. Across England in 2025/26, 19.5% of 27,084 secondary appeals heard were upheld. How appeal odds differ between councils.

More for Dorset

• Every school in Dorset, with catchment areas and Ofsted
• Starting school in Dorset
• Map of schools near your home, with your chance of a place where we have the data