Special school in Dover, Kent
Elms School
Elms Vale Road, Dover, Kent, CT17 9PS
Ofsted
Remained Good at its last ungraded inspection, on 14 March 2023.
Ofsted stopped awarding single-word overall grades in September 2024. This grade is 3 years old and will not be updated — the school keeps it until its next inspection, which will not produce a replacement grade.
- Current published outcome
- Good
- Last overall grade in this dataset
- Good
- Days since inspection
- 1,298 days
- Framework era
- Historic overall-grade framework (ended September 2024)
These four fields describe the latest published inspection on this record. The dataset does not keep a previous inspection row, so a school inspected under the current framework will usually have no overall grade to show as “prior”.
Exam results
Special schools serve pupils whose needs the standard measures were not designed to describe, so results are not shown or ranked here.
- Evidence found
- No phase-compatible comparable headline measure is published here.
- Source coverage
- DfE 2024/25 school performance files, checked by exact URN and establishment type.
- What this means
- The standard mainstream measure would not support a fair comparison for this establishment.
- What this does not mean
- The school achieved zero, has no outcomes, or should be read as performing below a mainstream school.
Pupils
- Pupils on roll
- 131
- Girls / boys
- 16 / 115
- Overall absence
- 22%
- Persistently absent
- 66%
England 5.8%
England 14.7% — pupils missing 10% or more of sessions
- Free school meals, last 6 years
- 88%
- English as an additional language
- 1%
- With an EHC plan
- 100%
- On SEN support
- 0%
England 25.7%
England 18.7%
England 3.5%
England 15%
School funding 2025-26 financial year
Not covered by this mainstream-school release.
- Evidence found
- Not covered by this mainstream-school release; this is not represented as £0.
- Source coverage
- DfE mainstream-school allocations for running costs for pupils aged 5-16, importer snapshot 23 August 2026.
- What this means
- The official mainstream allocation release does not provide a publishable row for this establishment.
- What this does not mean
- The school received no public funding or has no budget; other establishment types and funding streams use different publications.
Allocation is not expenditure. DfE says this release combines the schools block with several other revenue grants and excludes capital spending. Funding is shown for context and is never used in School Facts ordering, peer groups or quality claims. Source, licence and coverage.
Roads and getting there
Road casualties within 500m
- Child pedestrian casualties
- 0
- All reported collisions
- 2
- Of those, serious or fatal
- 1
England average 1.6 — pedestrians under 16, over five years
England average 24.2 over five years
Public transport
- Bus stops within 500m
- 0
- Nearest station
- Dover Priory Rail Station
England average 11.9
2 km away — railway station
Every collision reported to the police within 500m of the school over the five years to 2024, from the Department for Transport's road casualty statistics. A high count usually says the school sits on or near a busy road, not that the school is unsafe — counts rise with traffic and with how built up an area is, and a rural school on a fast road may have fewer collisions but a worse one. Distances are straight-line from the school's recorded position.
What pupils do next
After GCSEs
- In education, work or training
- 84%
- Stayed in education
- 79%
- Started an apprenticeship
- 0%
- Stayed at this school's sixth form
- 0%
- No sustained destination
- 0%
- Pupils in the cohort
- 19
England 91.4%
England 85.4%
England 3.5%
England 5.8%
A destination counts only if it lasted at least six months, which is why these figures lag the exam results by a year. Small cohorts move these percentages a long way — check the cohort size before reading much into a gap.
The area around the school
Among around the middle for England.
Among around the middle for England for children in low-income families.
Indices of Deprivation 2019, for the small area the school stands in. 1 means the most deprived tenth of England, 10 the least. The second measure counts only children living in low-income families, which is the one that describes the intake a school is likely to draw on.
What homes cost nearby
- Median sale price
- £218,000
- Typical range
- £180,000 to £260,000
- Detached
- £326,000
- Semi-detached
- £260,000
- Terraced
- £209,000
- Flat
- £121,500
postcode sector CT17 9 · 285 sales
middle half of sales
Homes around this school are cheaper than most of England.
Every residential sale registered in this postcode sector since January 2024, from HM Land Registry. A sector covers roughly 2,500 addresses. England's median over the same period was £293,000.
Who lives there
- Adults with a degree
- 23%
- Adults with no qualifications
- 17%
- In professional or managerial work
- 9%
- Households deprived in 2+ ways
- 17%
- Residents in very good health
- 44%
England 33.8%
England 18.3%
England 13.4%
England 17.8%
England 48.4%
Housing
- Owned by the occupier
- 75%
- Social housing
- 7%
- Privately rented
- 18%
- Detached homes
- 40%
- Four or more bedrooms
- 20%
- No car
- 15%
England 62.7%
England 17%
England 19.2%
England 38.2%
England 22.5%
England 21.9%
Census 2021, for Dover 014B and the wider neighbourhood around it. These figures describe the area, not the pupils — children may travel in from much further away, and for selective, faith and independent schools they usually do.
School details
- Type
- Foundation special school
- Phase
- Special
- Ages
- Ages 5–16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Religious character
- None
- Sixth form
- No
- Nursery
- No
- Boarding
- Day school
- Headteacher
- Head Teacher: John Dexter
- Register status
- Open
- Local authority
- Kent
- Ward
- Maxton & Elms Vale
- Constituency
- Dover and Deal
- URN
- 119046
The unique reference number used in all official school data.
The URN identifies this registered establishment. If a school converts or is replaced, DfE may issue a new URN; this page does not stitch different establishments together by a similar name.
Nearest special schools
| School | Ofsted | Attainment 8 | Progress 8 | Distance | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Sallygate SchoolOther independent special school | No overall grade | — | — | 1.7 mi | |
| Portal House SchoolCommunity special school | No overall grade | — | — | 4.6 mi | |
| The Beacon FolkestoneFoundation special school | Outstanding 2024 | — | — | 5.1 mi | |
| Compass Community School Coastal ParkOther independent special school | No overall grade | — | — | 5.3 mi | |
| Learning Opportunities Centre SecondaryOther independent special school | No overall grade | — | — | 6 mi | |
| Ripplevale SchoolOther independent special school | No overall grade | — | — | 6.3 mi | |
| Brewood Secondary SchoolOther independent special school | No overall grade | — | — | 8.3 mi |
Evidence ledger
Reference dates and join methods are kept separate because the figures do not all describe the same year or geography.
| Evidence | Publisher | Reference date | How it reaches this page |
|---|---|---|---|
| School identity | Get Information About Schools | 23 August 2026 | Exact URN 119046; unified importer snapshot |
| Inspection evidence | Ofsted management information | 31 July 2026 | Exact URN; inspection 14 March 2023 |
| Progress 8 | DfE performance tables | 2023/24 | Exact URN; confidence interval retained |
| Pupil intake | DfE school census | 2024/25 | Exact URN; suppressed values remain missing |
| Funding allocation | DfE school funding statistics | 2025-26 financial year | No row for this URN in the mainstream-school release; not represented as zero |
| Roads and transport | DfT road casualties, traffic and NaPTAN | Five-year road window; access-node snapshot | Coordinate join within the stated radius |
| Neighbourhood | ONS Census | 2021 | LSOA/MSOA containing the school, not pupil homes |
| Deprivation | English Indices of Deprivation | 2019 | LSOA containing the school |
| Home prices | HM Land Registry Price Paid Data | Sales since January 2024 | School postcode sector, not a catchment |
These sources are published for reuse under the Open Government Licence v3.0, including the Crown database-right notice that accompanies Price Paid Data. Definitions and source notes. If something here looks wrong, the school's own website is the authority on admissions and open days.