Cranborne Middle School
Middle deemed secondary · Wimborne · BH21 5RP
Ungraded inspection: no current grade
Ofsted's most recent visit was an ungraded inspection; its outcome was “Some aspects not as strong”. Since September 2024 these outcomes no longer confirm a named grade. This school does hold an older grade, but that outcome says the school has weakened since, so showing the old grade here would flatter it. It is in the inspection history below, with its date.
Inspected 15 January 2025
Read the Ofsted report ↗At a glance
265 pupils · 104% of 256 capacity (over capacity)
- School type
- Community school
- Age range
- 9–13
- Gender
- Mixed
- Free school meals
- 18.5% of pupils
- English as additional language
- 0.3% of pupils
- SEN support
- 4.9% of pupils
- EHC plan
- 3.6% of pupils
- URN
- 113853
Admissions cutoff distance: Year 5
Last child offered a place under the distance criterion (2026 entry) lived within 4.266 miles
measurement method not stated by the council.
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Cutoff distances as published by the local authority. Siblings and other priority groups are offered places first; cutoffs move year to year.
Compare admissions across the area: Wimborne school admissions · Dorset school admissions
Key stage 2 results (2024/2025)
74 pupils at the end of key stage 2 in 2024/2025
Source: DfE performance tables 2024/2025. “Suppressed” means the DfE withholds figures for very small cohorts.
Attendance (2025/26 autumn term)
Autumn-term absence, DfE pupil absence data. Lower is better.
Staffing
Full-time-equivalent, 2025/26.
Teacher retention (2024/25)
77% of teachers stayed at the school the following year · 23% left the state-funded sector
School Workforce Census, DfE. The ratio counts full-time-equivalent qualified teachers; retention follows teachers in post one November to the next. Open Government Licence v3.0.
Spending per pupil
Total expenditure ÷ pupils, council-maintained school finance return (DfE Schools Financial Benchmarking, latest year). Higher spending is not a measure of quality. It often reflects greater pupil need or a smaller school. Open Government Licence v3.0.
Inspection history since 2015
- 14 January 2025: Some aspects not as strong
- 11 June 2019: Good
- 15 November 2016: Requires improvement
Ofsted management information. Ungraded and monitoring visits do not award a new grade. How the two inspection systems work.
The area around the school
- Child poverty (IDACI)
- 7/10less deprived than most of England
- Overall deprivation (IMD)
- 4/10more deprived than most of England
English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (MHCLG), decile of the small area the school stands in: 1 is the most deprived tenth of England, 10 the least. IDACI counts only children in low-income families, which is the measure closest to the intake a school is likely to draw on.
| Census 2021 | This area | England |
|---|---|---|
| Adults with a degree or higher | 31.6% | 33.9% |
| Adults with no qualifications | 16.1% | 18.1% |
| In managerial or professional work | 34.1% | 33.2% |
| Households deprived in two or more ways | 14% | 18.1% |
| Residents in very good health | 46.6% | 48.5% |
| Homes owned by the occupier | 56.4% | 62.3% |
| Social housing | 12.9% | 17.1% |
| Privately rented | 30.7% | 20.5% |
| Detached houses | 47.7% | 22.9% |
| Flats | 4.8% | 22.2% |
| Homes with four or more bedrooms | 31.9% | 21.1% |
| Households with no car or van | 6.1% | 23.5% |
Census 2021 (ONS) for statistical area E01020389 (a lower layer super output area), the neighbourhood of roughly 1,811 adults that the school stands in. These figures describe the area, not the pupils. Children travel in from further away, and for selective, faith and some other schools usually much further. Open Government Licence v3.0.
What homes cost nearby
- Median sale price
- £455,00011 sales within 1 km, January 2024 to July 2026
- Typical range
- £403,500–£507,500the middle half of sales
- England median
- £300,000all sales over the same period
Homes around this school are dearer than three quarters of school neighbourhoods in England, comparing the median within 1 km across every state school.
Every residential sale registered with HM Land Registry within 1 km of the school (straight line) since January 2024, market sales of houses and flats only. A sale is dated by completion and registered weeks later, so the most recent months are incomplete. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. This data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Postcodes located with OS Code-Point Open: contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026; contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right 2026; contains National Statistics data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.
Roads around the school
- Child pedestrian casualties
- 0a rural school averages 0.3
- Collisions at school-run times
- 0a rural school averages 0.7
- All reported collisions
- 2a rural school averages 3.4
- Of those, serious or fatal
- 0a rural school averages 0.9
Every collision reported to the police within 500 m of the school in 2021–2025, from the Department for Transport's road casualty statistics (STATS19). "Child pedestrians" counts casualties aged under 16 on foot; "school-run times" means weekdays 07:30–09:00 and 15:00–16:30 outside August. A high count usually says the school sits on or near a busy road, not that the school is unsafe: counts rise with traffic and with how built-up an area is, which is why the comparison is with other rural schools. Distances are straight-line from the school's recorded position. Open Government Licence v3.0.
Nearby schools
- Cranborne Church of England First School
- Wimborne St Giles Church of England First School and Nursery
- Trinity Church of England First School
- Hillside Community First School
- Emmanuel Church of England Middle School
- Verwood Church of England First School
- St James' Church of England First School and Nursery, Alderholt
- Sixpenny Handley First School and Nursery