South West
Special 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.
Special 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arbour House SchoolOther independent special school | Dorset | No grade | — |
| Aurora Beeches SchoolOther independent special school | Wimborne | No grade | — |
| Beaucroft Foundation SchoolFoundation special school | Wimborne | Good 2023 | — |
| Graduately Developing FuturesOther independent special school | Dorset | No grade | — |
| Kingfisher SchoolOther independent special school | Weymouth | No grade | — |
| Mountjoy SchoolCommunity special school | Beaminster | Good 2022 | — |
| Sheiling SchoolOther independent special school | Ringwood | No grade | — |
| The Forum SchoolOther independent special school | Blandford Forum | No grade | — |
| The Luccombe HubOther independent special school | Blandford Forum | No grade | — |
| Westfield Arts CollegeFoundation special school | Weymouth | Outstanding 2023 | — |
| Yewstock SchoolCommunity special school | Sturminster Newton | Outstanding 2023 | — |