School admissions in Sherborne
How heavily each school was applied to for September 2026 entry, from the applications and offers every admissions authority reports to the DfE. Sorted by first preferences per place. We don't invent rankings: the order is arithmetic on a published figure, not a view about which school is better.
Reception places, September 2026
9 schools. 3 received more first preferences than they had places.
| School | First preferences per place | Places | Cutoff distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trent Young's CofE Primary School | 1.25 | 20 | 1.89 miles |
| Thornford CofE Primary School | 1.13 | 15 | 3.196 miles |
| Sherborne Primary School | 1.02 | 47 | 5.239 miles |
| All Saints Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School | 1.00 | 13 | not published |
| Charlton Horethorne Church of England Primary School | 1.00 | 5 | not published |
| St Mary's Church of England Primary School, Bradford Abbas | 1.00 | 7 | not published |
| Milborne Port Primary School | 0.95 | 20 | not published |
| St Andrew's Church of England Primary School | 0.94 | 16 | not published |
| Sherborne Abbey Church of England Primary School | 0.93 | 46 | not published |
First preferences per place is the number of families naming the school first, divided by its published admission number. Above 1.00 means more first choices than places. It is not a ranking and not a measure of quality: a popular school can be easy to get into and a quiet one hard, because places are allocated by each school's own criteria, siblings and faith and banding first, with distance often the last tie-breaker. Applications and offers on national offer day, DfE.