The Mendip School
Special / other · Shepton Mallet · BA4 4FZ
Earlier grade, confirmed by a later ungraded inspection
Ofsted's most recent (ungraded) visit confirmed the school remains Good. Ungraded inspections do not award a new grade.
Inspected 5 October 2023
Read the Ofsted report ↗At a glance
151 pupils · 99% of 152 capacity
- School type
- Free schools special
- Age range
- 4–19
- Gender
- Mixed
- Free school meals
- 38.3% of pupils
- English as additional language
- 5.6% of pupils
- SEN support
- 1.4% of pupils
- EHC plan
- 98.6% of pupils
- Sixth form
- Yes
- URN
- 142118
Key stage 2 results (2024/2025)
16 pupils at the end of key stage 2 in 2024/2025
No pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (0%). Key stage 2 tests measure the age-11 curriculum; most pupils at special schools are assessed under other frameworks, so 97% of special schools publish 0% here.
GCSE results (2024/2025)
11 pupils at the end of key stage 4 in 2024/2025
Progress 8 is suspended nationally for 2024/25 and 2025/26. These cohorts sat no key stage 2 tests (COVID), so there is no baseline to measure progress from.
Source: DfE performance tables 2024/2025. “Suppressed” means the DfE withholds figures for very small cohorts. National averages are not shown here. The England figures are dominated by mainstream schools, and pupils at a special school are working towards outcomes those measures were not designed to capture, so the comparison would mislead more than it tells you.
Special educational needs
Needs this school records that it caters for, in the order it lists them.
- Speech, Language and Communication Needs
- Autistic Spectrum Disorder
Provision type: Resourced provision and SEN unit.
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)
85% of teachers stayed at the school the following year · 6% moved to another state school · 9% 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.
Where pupils go after GCSEs
Destinations measured the year after leaving, latest DfE destination measures release.
Inspection history since 2015
- 4 October 2023: School remains Good (Improving) - S5 Next
- 12 July 2018: 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)
- 8/10less deprived than most of England
- Overall deprivation (IMD)
- 6/10around the middle for 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 | 32.9% | 33.9% |
| Adults with no qualifications | 16.9% | 18.1% |
| In managerial or professional work | 35% | 33.2% |
| Households deprived in two or more ways | 12.3% | 18.1% |
| Residents in very good health | 48.9% | 48.5% |
| Homes owned by the occupier | 82.4% | 62.3% |
| Social housing | 4.1% | 17.1% |
| Privately rented | 13.5% | 20.5% |
| Detached houses | 59.8% | 22.9% |
| Flats | 0.6% | 22.2% |
| Homes with four or more bedrooms | 36.4% | 21.1% |
| Households with no car or van | 3.7% | 23.5% |
Census 2021 (ONS) for statistical area E01029021 (a lower layer super output area), the neighbourhood of roughly 1,051 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
- £285,00074 sales within 2 km, January 2024 to July 2026
- Typical range
- £227,000–£345,000the middle half of sales
- England median
- £300,000all sales over the same period
Homes around this school are cheaper than most school neighbourhoods in England, comparing the median within 2 km across every state school.
Fewer than ten homes sold within 1 km, so the figures use 2 km.
Every residential sale registered with HM Land Registry within 2 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
- 5a rural school averages 3.4
- Of those, serious or fatal
- 1a 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.