Merley First School
Primary · Wimborne · BH21 1SD
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.
Inspected 29 November 2023
Read the Ofsted report ↗At a glance
292 pupils · 97% of 300 capacity
- School type
- Academy converter
- Age range
- 5–9
- Gender
- Mixed
- Free school meals
- 9.9% of pupils
- English as additional language
- 1.7% of pupils
- SEN support
- 11.5% of pupils
- EHC plan
- 0.7% of pupils
- Website
- www.merleyfirstschool.com/
- URN
- 141794
Admissions demand: Reception entry, September 2026
1.13 first-choice applications per place60 places offered · 68 first-choice applications · oversubscribed
First-choice applications per place, by entry year
Applications and offers on national offer day, DfE. A ratio above 1.00 means more families named this school first choice than there were places.
Admissions cutoff distance: Reception
Last child offered a place under the distance criterion (2026 entry) lived within 2.043 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 · Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole school admissions
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)
90% of teachers stayed at the school the following year · 7% moved to another state school · 3% 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
- 29 November 2023: Good
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)
- 6/10around the middle for England
- Overall deprivation (IMD)
- 8/10less 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 | 34.7% | 33.9% |
| Adults with no qualifications | 11.8% | 18.1% |
| In managerial or professional work | 39.9% | 33.2% |
| Households deprived in two or more ways | 13.1% | 18.1% |
| Residents in very good health | 48.6% | 48.5% |
| Homes owned by the occupier | 77.3% | 62.3% |
| Social housing | 10.2% | 17.1% |
| Privately rented | 12.5% | 20.5% |
| Detached houses | 49.9% | 22.9% |
| Flats | 13.9% | 22.2% |
| Homes with four or more bedrooms | 29.6% | 21.1% |
| Households with no car or van | 9.2% | 23.5% |
Census 2021 (ONS) for statistical area E01015432 (a lower layer super output area), the neighbourhood of roughly 1,422 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
- £435,000183 sales within 1 km, January 2024 to July 2026
- Typical range
- £360,000–£520,000the 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
- 6a rural school averages 0.7
- All reported collisions
- 23a rural school averages 3.4
- Of those, serious or fatal
- 3a 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.