The Purbeck School
Secondary · Wareham · BH20 4PF
Ungraded inspection: no current grade
Ofsted's most recent visit was an ungraded inspection; its outcome was “Improved significantly”. Since September 2024 these outcomes no longer confirm a named grade, and the school's last graded inspection is too old to appear in Ofsted's current data file, so SchoolFacts shows no grade rather than guessing. Earlier grades are on the school's Ofsted report page.
Inspected 30 April 2025
Read the Ofsted report ↗At a glance
1,022 pupils · 87% of 1,180 capacity
- School type
- Academy converter
- Age range
- 11–18
- Gender
- Mixed
- Admissions
- Non-selective
- Free school meals
- 22.7% of pupils
- English as additional language
- 4.8% of pupils
- SEN support
- 12.1% of pupils
- EHC plan
- 4.1% of pupils
- Sixth form
- Yes
- Website
- http://www.purbeck.wessex.ac
- URN
- 148737
Admissions demand: Year 7 entry, September 2026
0.97 first-choice applications per place160 places offered · 156 first-choice applications · roughly balanced
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.
GCSE results (2024/2025)
164 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.
A-level results (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)
89% of teachers stayed at the school the following year · 4% moved to another state school · 8% 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
Where students go after sixth form
Destinations measured the year after leaving, latest DfE destination measures release.
Inspection history since 2015
- 29 April 2025: Improved significantly
Ofsted management information. Ungraded and monitoring visits do not award a new grade. How the two inspection systems work.