Living in Dorchester with children
Dorchester, Dorset. What the published figures say about its schools, its homes and daily life, each with its source and date. 21,358 people in 10,019 households; 23.3% of households have dependent children (Census 2021 (ONS, via NOMIS), summed over the town's output areas).
Schools
22 schools: 16 state primary, 5 state secondary, 1 privateDorchester on the schools map →Every school in Dorchester, with inspection, league band and the last place offered
State primary schools (16)
State secondary schools (5)
| School | Inspection | League rank | Last place offered |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Thomas Hardye School | Good | Top 22% (4/19) in Dorset | — |
| Dorset Studio School | Good | (19/19) in Dorset | — |
| Dorchester Middle School | Ofsted report card | — | — |
| St Mary's Church of England Middle School, Puddletown | Good | — | — |
| St Osmund's Church of England Middle School | Good | — | — |
Private schools (1)
| School | Inspection | League rank | Last place offered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunninghill Preparatory School | Independent Schools Inspectorate: standards met | — | — |
Rank: the school's place among its council's schools of the same phase, from three years of DfE results (kinplace's league table, how it is worked out); schools with hidden or no results get none. Inspections: Ofsted and ISI. Last place offered: the council's offer-day figures. School register: DfE Get Information about Schools, updated 17 October 2026.
Homes and prices
Typical sale, last 12 months (Land Registry)The middle sale of each type, September 2025 to August 2026: half sold for more, half for less (49 detached, 50 semi-detached, 111 terraced, 113 flat or maisonette sales). Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, standard sales inside the ONS built-up area outline of Dorchester. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. This data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Look up a home in Dorchester →Getting around
Stops and stations (NaPTAN), and broadband (Ofcom)Source: DfT, NaPTAN (National Public Transport Access Nodes). Straight-line distances.
Gigabit broadband can be ordered at 66% of premises, and superfast (30 Mbit/s) at 94%, on average across the 1,760 postcodes in DT2, DT1. Check the postcode you are looking at: it can differ street by street.
Source: Ofcom Connected Nations, July 2025, fixed broadband coverage by postcode (an average of postcodes, not of homes).
Safety and environment
The town centre; addresses varyChildcare
Ofsted early years register; published pricesWhat Ofsted found: 2 outstanding; 10 good, or expected standard; 1 requires improvement. A typical nursery place in this region costs about £6.66 an hour for a two-year-old.
All of them: 13 in Dorset.
Sources: Ofsted, Childcare providers and inspections; each nursery's own fees page, read by 19 October 2026; Coram Family and Childcare, Childcare Survey 2026: average nursery price for 50 hours a week after the working-parent entitlement (paying for 20 hours), by region.
Childcare costs near you →Key dates, Dorset
The next dates for families applyingApplication deadlines and offer days: Dorset.
Every date, and reminders →Nearby towns
Keep Dorchester in your plan beside the other towns you are weighing up, and see each school here worked out for your address and your children.Add Dorchester to your plan
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Sources are named beside each figure. How we know · All sources.