South West
Independent schools in Dorset
174 schools, 50,950 pupils. Average Attainment 8 across the authority's state secondaries is 36.6.
Ofsted across Dorset
Good84
Requires improvement14
Outstanding4
No overall grade72
102 of these schools carry a one-word grade from before September 2024, when Ofsted stopped awarding them. The remaining 72 either have no published outcome or were inspected under the current framework, which does not give an overall grade. What changed.
Independent schools in Dorset
Sorted by name. A gap of a point or two is noise, not a ranking — read the school pages for the intake-adjusted comparison.
| School | Area | Ofsted | Attainment 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bryanston SchoolOther independent school | Blandford Forum | No grade | — |
| Castle Court SchoolOther independent school | Dorset | No grade | — |
| Clayesmore SchoolOther independent school | Blandford Forum | No grade | — |
| Dumpton SchoolOther independent school | Wimborne | No grade | — |
| Hanford SchoolOther independent school | Blandford Forum | No grade | — |
| Leweston SchoolOther independent school | Sherborne | No grade | — |
| Milton Abbey SchoolOther independent school | Blandford Forum | No grade | — |
| Port Regis Preparatory SchoolOther independent school | Shaftesbury | No grade | — |
| Ringwood Waldorf SchoolOther independent school | Ringwood | No grade | — |
| Sherborne Preparatory SchoolOther independent school | Sherborne | No grade | — |
| Sherborne SchoolOther independent school | Sherborne | No grade | — |
| Sherborne School for GirlsOther independent school | Sherborne | No grade | — |
| Sunninghill Preparatory SchoolOther independent school | Dorchester | No grade | — |
| Yarrells Preparatory SchoolOther independent school | Poole | No grade | — |