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Dorset Studio School

Free school · ages 11–16 · no sixth form

Below average on 3 of the four headline measures — 18th of 19 for average grade in Dorset.

Dorchester · Dorset · one of 19 state secondaries

How we read the data

Summary

Dorset Studio School sits 18th of 19 state secondaries in Dorset for average GCSE grade. 40.6% of its pupils passed both English and maths, against 62% across Dorset. 14.5% reached the stronger grade 5 in both. Subject by subject only maths and geography sits measurably behind Dorset. Ofsted: Good in March 2024.

It is a free school of 332 pupils, taking ages 11 to 16. 31.6% of its pupils are eligible for free school meals, a high share by national standards, and 46.4% are on SEN support with a further 8.7% holding an education, health and care plan. 0% were entered for the full EBacc, fewer than the 38.4% entered across Dorset, which is a choice about how broad a curriculum to push. 36.2% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, worse than the 24.1% across Dorset, and 63.6% of its leavers went on to further education.

Subject comparisons are measured at grade 4 or above against Dorset, and count as ahead or behind only where the gap is wider than the year-to-year swing that entry group would produce.

The school·Dorset

Inspection

Good

Inspected March 2024

Behaviour and attitudes
Good
Leadership and management
Good
Personal development
Good
Quality of education
Good
  • March 2024 Full inspection Good

That grade was given under the framework that ran from September 2019 to 2024, when Ofsted still issued one overall grade.

Read the Ofsted report

Attendance

36% of pupils missed a tenth of school or more, against 24% across Dorset and 21% nationally. The comparators are the median secondary school, not an average.

GCSE · Key stage 4·2024/25

Attainment

41%

Passed English & maths grade 4+, an old grade C

below average

Dorset 62% · England 65%

15%

Strong pass in both grade 5+, a strong pass

well below average

Dorset 41% · England 45%

34.1

Average grade across 8 Attainment 8, out of 90

in line with average

Dorset 43.2 · England 46.1

0%

Entered for the EBacc the academic core of subjects

well below average

Dorset 38% · England 41%

After Year 11

64% stayed in education, 12% started an apprenticeship (2022/23 leavers)

GCSE results by subject

2024/25 · share reaching grade 4 or above · a standard pass, the old grade C

this school Dorset England

Every bar is on the same 0–100% scale, so subjects can be read against each other as well as against the county and England. A dash means the figure does not exist rather than being zero. The county and England lines cover state-funded schools only, the same schools you can browse here, because independent schools sit outside the Department for Education's subject release and outside this site.

Compare these subjects against another school, side by side.

English Language is the subject most of this year group sat. English Language tutors on Tutorperch.

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What these mean

Attainment 8
The average pupil's total score across eight GCSE-equivalent subjects, with English and maths counting double. It is scored out of 90. A score of 50 is roughly equivalent to achieving a grade 5 across eight subjects.
Grades 4 and 5
GCSEs are graded from 9 down to 1. Grade 4 is a standard pass and broadly corresponds to the old grade C; grade 5 is what the government calls a strong pass. Grade 7 is broadly equivalent to an old grade A.
The EBacc
A combination of subjects rather than a qualification in its own right: English, Maths, the Sciences, a Language, and History or Geography. The figure shows the share of pupils entered for all the EBacc subject areas, so it gives an indication of how widely a school enters pupils for this particular combination of subjects.
Progress 8
A measure of how much progress pupils make between the end of primary school and the end of GCSE, rather than simply what grades they achieve. It takes pupils' prior attainment into account, making it useful for comparing schools with different intakes. Progress 8 is not published for 2024/25 because the pupils concerned did not have Key Stage 2 tests that can be used as the normal starting point.
Percentage points
The gap between two percentages. A subject going from 30% to 36% has risen six percentage points, though it has risen by a fifth. We write "pp" to keep the two apart.
Why some subjects say nothing
A year group is small. Where a gap is no bigger than the swing a different intake would produce, we say the subjects are level rather than dressing chance as a finding. Two kinds of subject carry no share at all: a vocational award has no 9-to-1 grade to report, and some qualifications are not published on the 9-to-1 scale for a given year group, most often community languages sat outside the school's own timetable.
Persistent absence
The share of pupils who miss at least 10% of their possible sessions during the school year. This includes both authorised and unauthorised absence, so illness and other authorised reasons are included. Persistent absence has remained substantially higher than its pre-pandemic level.
Spare places
The amount of available capacity a school has compared with the number of pupils on roll. This is different from oversubscription: spare places measure whether a school has capacity, whereas oversubscription describes demand for places exceeding the number available. A school with no spare places may be popular, but a small school can also be full without receiving a large number of applications.

School details

Kingston Maurward
Dorchester
Dorset
DT2 8PX

01305 443600 dorsetstudioschool.co.uk
Head
Mr Jason Malone
Trust
Kingston Maurward Studio School Limited
Pupils
332 of 325 places
Spare places
None
Free school meals
32%
SEND
46% on SEN support, 9% with an EHC plan
Progress 8
Not published · last -0.5 in 2023/24

Other schools in Dorset

18 schools. Distances are straight-line from this school.

Tutorperch School report by Tutorperch
Covers state-funded schools in England; independent schools are not included. The four figures at the top compare against the Department for Education's national release, which counts special schools and alternative provision as well, so it sits slightly below the average of the schools listed on this site. Subject comparisons are pooled from those schools directly.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Key stage 4 performance, school characteristics, absence and destinations: Department for Education, 2024/25. Inspection outcomes: Ofsted. Persistent absence comparators are the median secondary school.