Thornford CofE Primary School
In 2026 offers reached 3.2 miles. Enter your postcode to see where your home falls.
Bars: how far the last place offered reached each year. Check your postcode and each year turns green where a place reached your home. Source: Dorset Council offer-day figures, 2026.
Summary
The key facts, in one place- Inspection
- Good, November 2024
- Getting in
- Oversubscribed; last offer 3.2 mi (2026)
- Results
- 53% expected standard; 7% higher standard
- Size
- 104 pupils; 15 places a year; classes of 26
- Faith
- Church of England
- Run by
- Sherborne Area Schools' Trust
- Type
- Academy converter
- Ages
- 4 to 11 · Mixed
- Sessions missed: 3.5%, against 5.2% in Dorset.
- Persistently absent: 3.4%, against 11.6% in Dorset.
- Expected standard: 53%, against 57% in Dorset.
- Oversubscribed: 1.1 first choices for each place (Reception 2026).
At a glance
Against Dorset and EnglandOverview
Getting in
- A Church of England school: its admissions policy may give priority by faith.
- 17 families put it first for 15 places; 14 of them got in
- We hold a catchment map for this school.
Quality
- Good
- Reading, writing and maths: expected standard: 53% (England 62%) (county 57%)
- Reading, writing and maths: higher standard: 7% (England 8%) (county 7%)
Daily life
- Absence: 3.5% of sessions missed; 3.4% of pupils miss 1 in 10 or more. Schools with a similar intake: 4.0% and 6.6%
- Suspensions: 0 per 100 pupils (schools with a similar intake: 0); 0 permanent exclusions
- Classes average 26.0 pupils; 30% of classes have more than 30
- 21.8 pupils for each teacher
- 1 police-reported road collisions within 500 m (0 fatal, 0 serious)
- Air: nitrogen dioxide 4.0 µg/m³, PM2.5 5.6 (1 km square, background level)
- We hold no bus or rail stop data near this school.
Who runs it
- Sherborne Area Schools' Trust, with 18 schools
- Opened as an academy (converter) on 1 June 2017
- Replaced Thornford Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School (URN 113816)
- We can't compare results before and after it converted: we hold results for only one side of the date, because DfE publishes a few years at a time.
Getting in
How far offers reached
How far away the last child offered a place under the distance rule lived, as the council measures it. It changes every year with who applies: a record, not a promise. Children with a higher priority can be offered places from further away.Reception. Distance of the last child offered a place on offer day. What the last distance means →
Offer day, year by year
| Entry | Year | Places | Applications | Offered | Refused | Last distance (miles) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reception | 2026 | 15 | — | 15 | — | 3.2 |
Source: Council offer-day figures: Dorset Council, 2026 to 2026. A dash is a figure the council does not publish, not nought. Distances are straight lines from the school.
Applications and offers, DfE
| Entry | Year | Places | First choices | Any choice | First choices offered |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reception | 2026 | 15 | 17 | 36 | 14 |
| Reception | 2025 | 14 | 14 | 35 | 12 |
| Reception | 2024 | 12 | 12 | 30 | 12 |
| Reception | 2023 | 14 | 14 | 31 | 14 |
| Reception | 2022 | 13 | 10 | 38 | 10 |
| Reception | 2021 | 15 | 15 | 32 | 15 |
| Reception | 2020 | 10 | 10 | 32 | 10 |
| Reception | 2019 | 14 | 13 | 38 | 13 |
| Reception | 2018 | 15 | 18 | 41 | 15 |
| Reception | 2017 | 13 | 11 | 43 | 11 |
Source: DfE, Primary and secondary school applications and offers (school level, Open Government Licence), 2017 to 2026. Families name up to three schools, so most applications are somebody's second or third choice.
Feeder school rules
Priority at secondary schools
Results
Results
| Measure | This school | England | Council | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading, writing and maths: expected standard | 53% | 62% | 57% | 2024/2025 |
| Reading, writing and maths: higher standard | 7% | 8% | 7% | 2024/2025 |
Source: DfE school performance tables, 2024/2025.
League table place
| Table | League rank |
|---|---|
| Primary (key stage 2) | (45/79) |
Source: DfE school performance tables: the newest year's results, place among the council's schools of the same phase.
Inspections
| Date | Kind | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| 26 November 2024 | Graded inspection | Quality of education: Good |
Source: Ofsted, 2024.
Daily life
Absence
| Year | Sessions missed | Authorised | Unauthorised | Pupils missing 1 in 10 | Pupils missing 1 in 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024/25 | 3.5% | 3.0% | 0.5% | 3.4% | 0.0% |
| 2023/24 | 4.0% | 3.4% | 0.6% | 5.8% | 2.3% |
| 2022/23 | 3.4% | 2.7% | 0.7% | 3.4% | 0.0% |
| Schools with a similar intake | 4.0% | 6.6% |
Source: DfE, Pupil absence in schools in England: absence rates by school level, 2024-25. Similar intake: state schools of the same phase with free school meals in the same band (under 10%), the median of 3115 schools.
Suspensions and exclusions
| Year | Suspensions per 100 pupils | Pupils suspended | Suspensions | Permanent exclusions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024/25 | 0.0 | 0.0% | 0 | 0 |
| 2023/24 | 0.0 | 0.0% | 0 | 0 |
| 2022/23 | 0.0 | 0.0% | 0 | 0 |
| Schools with a similar intake | 0.2 |
Source: DfE, Suspensions and permanent exclusions in England: school level, 2024-25.
Class sizes and staff
| Measure | Figure | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Average class size | 26.0 | 2025/26 |
| Classes over 30 pupils | 30% | 2025/26 |
| Pupils for each teacher | 21.8 | November 2025 |
Source: DfE, school workforce; school census, 2025/26.
Road collisions within 500 m
| Year | Collisions |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1 |
| 2024 | 0 |
| 2023 | 0 |
| 2022 | 0 |
| 2021 | 0 |
Source: DfT, Road safety data (STATS19): collisions and casualties, last five years, 2021 to 2025. 0 serious and 0 fatal in all; 0 involved a pedestrian, 0 a cyclist. Only collisions with an injury reported to police are counted.
Air quality
| Pollutant | Annual mean (µg/m³) | Year |
|---|---|---|
| NO2 | 4.0 | 2024 |
| PM10 | 10.3 | 2024 |
| PM25 | 5.6 | 2024 |
Source: DEFRA, Pollution Climate Mapping (PCM) 1 km background maps. A 1 km background figure: not the air at the school gate beside a busy road.
Pupils
Who goes there
| Measure | Share of pupils | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Eligible for free school meals | 7.7% | 2025/26 |
| First language other than English | 1.9% | 2025/26 |
| SEN support | 9.6% | 2025/26 |
| Education, health and care plan | 6.7% | 2025/26 |
| Girls | 43% | 2025/26 |
Source: DfE, schools, pupils and their characteristics; special educational needs, 2025/26.
Who runs it
Who runs it
- Sherborne Area Schools' Trust, with 18 schools
- Opened as an academy (converter) on 1 June 2017
- Replaced Thornford Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School (URN 113816)
- We can't compare results before and after it converted: we hold results for only one side of the date, because DfE publishes a few years at a time.
Area
Homes in reach of this schoolLook up any home near here: its sales, an open-data valuation, and which schools it keeps in reach.Search homes →Sources
- Council offer-day figures: Dorset Council
- DEFRA, Pollution Climate Mapping (PCM) 1 km background maps
- DfE school performance tables
- DfE school performance tables: the newest year's results, place among the council's schools of the same phase
- DfE, Primary and secondary school applications and offers (school level, Open Government Licence)
- DfE, Pupil absence in schools in England: absence rates by school level
- DfE, Suspensions and permanent exclusions in England: school level
- DfE, school workforce; school census
- DfE, schools, pupils and their characteristics; special educational needs
- DfT, Road safety data (STATS19): collisions and casualties, last five years
- Ofsted
- School register: DfE Get Information about Schools (this school)
- How we check these figures: How we know
More in schools in Sherborne and the Dorset league table. School register: DfE Get Information about Schools, updated 17 October 2026.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Sources are named beside each figure. How we know · All sources.