St Mary's Church of England Middle School, Puddletown
Middle deemed secondary · Dorchester · DT2 8SA
Graded inspection under the pre-November 2025 system
This is an overall-effectiveness grade from the previous inspection framework. The school has not yet had a report-card inspection. Ofsted's most recent visit, an ungraded inspection on 22 January 2025, found “Some aspects not as strong”. The grade stands until a graded inspection replaces it, but weigh that finding against it.
Inspected 18 September 2019
Read the Ofsted report ↗At a glance
441 pupils · 92% of 480 capacity
- School type
- Academy converter
- Age range
- 9–13
- Gender
- Mixed
- Religious character
- Church of England
- Free school meals
- 20.9% of pupils
- English as additional language
- 2.2% of pupils
- SEN support
- 21.4% of pupils
- EHC plan
- 5.8% of pupils
- Website
- www.stmarys.wessex.ac
- URN
- 138189
Key stage 2 results (2024/2025)
109 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.
Special educational needs
Needs this school records that it caters for, in the order it lists them.
- Other Difficulty/Disability
- Speech, Language and Communication Needs
- Autistic Spectrum Disorder
Provision type: Resourced provision.
- Resourced provision
- 10 of 10 places taken full, or over capacity
Unit places come from the school census and describe the position when it was taken, not today. Confirm with the local authority before relying on them.
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)
86% of teachers stayed at the school the following year · 3% moved to another state school · 12% 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, academy 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
- 21 January 2025: Some aspects not as strong
- 18 September 2019: Good
- 23 March 2017: 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)
- 7/10less 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 | 37.9% | 33.9% |
| Adults with no qualifications | 13% | 18.1% |
| In managerial or professional work | 40% | 33.2% |
| Households deprived in two or more ways | 12.5% | 18.1% |
| Residents in very good health | 47.4% | 48.5% |
| Homes owned by the occupier | 73.1% | 62.3% |
| Social housing | 9.9% | 17.1% |
| Privately rented | 17% | 20.5% |
| Detached houses | 37.2% | 22.9% |
| Flats | 4.8% | 22.2% |
| Homes with four or more bedrooms | 27.8% | 21.1% |
| Households with no car or van | 9.2% | 23.5% |
Census 2021 (ONS) for statistical area E01020540 (a lower layer super output area), the neighbourhood of roughly 2,189 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
- £350,00062 sales within 1 km, January 2024 to July 2026
- Typical range
- £285,000–£477,500the middle half of sales
- England median
- £300,000all sales over the same period
Homes around this school are dearer than most 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
- 1a 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.