St James Church of England First School

Academy converter·First school Wimborne, Dorset·BH21 4JN

School type

First school

Ages 2–9

Key Stage 2 performance

St James Church of England First School is a first school for pupils aged 2–9. Pupils move on to a separate junior or middle school before Year 6, so the school does not enter pupils for the Key Stage 2 SATs and has no KS2 results to publish.

This applies to every first school in England — it does not mean data is missing. Ofsted judgements and school information are shown below.

Getting a place

Offered a place after putting it first

96%

25 first choices, 25 places

First choices per place

1.00

fewer first choices than places

Applications naming the school

any preference, for 25 places

Applications from another council area

15%

First preferences per place, last five years▼ 0.46

00.511.52

1 per place

1.0020221.0020230.9620241.4620251.002026

Red dashed line = one first choice per place. How to read this

We do not have a checked cut-off distance for St James Church of England First School yet. Dorset does publish allocation figures and we are working through them council by council — we only show a distance once we have found it in the council’s own document.

Application figures: DfE, school level applications and offers (2026 intake).

Ofsted judgements

Legacy framework · Read full report ↗

Quality of education

Good

Behaviour and attitudes

Good

Personal development

Good

Leadership and management

Good

Safeguarding effective?

Yes

Early years provision

Good

School profile

Age range: 2–9
Pupils on roll: 138
Gender: Mixed
Religious character: Church of England

Pupil background

% FSM ever-6

6.2%

Typical primary: 21.5%

% EAL

2.9%

Typical primary: 9.6%

Special educational needs

% SEN support

8.0%

Typical primary: 14.3%

% with an EHC plan

1.4%

Typical primary: 3.0%

Attendance

Overall absence

4.2%

Typical primary: 5.3%

Persistently absent

6.7%

Typical primary: 13.3%

Staffing & funding

Pupils per teacher

20.5

Typical primary: 20.7

Spend per pupil

£7,392

Typical primary: £6,960

“Typical” = the median primary school in England. What this means

Nearby primary schools

St Michael's Church of England Middle School, Colehill Wimborne · 2.5 mi 53.9 Allenbourn Middle School Wimborne · 3.1 mi 53.5 Emmanuel Church of England Middle School Verwood · 4.3 mi 53.9 Ferndown Middle School Ferndown · 4.3 mi 30.4 West Moors Middle School Ferndown · 4.5 mi 50.5 Lockyer's Middle School Wimborne · 5.1 mi 65.7 Cranborne Middle School Wimborne · 5.7 mi 51.6 St Ives Primary & Nursery School Ringwood · 6.5 mi 73.7

Location

Official sources

Latest Ofsted report reports.ofsted.gov.uk DfE Compare School Performance compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk GIAS school details get-information-schools.service.gov.uk

School overview

St James Church of England First School is a primary school serving Wimborne, Dorset, classified by the DfE as a converter academy with a Church of England religious character. It has 138 pupils aged 2 to 9 on roll.

96% of the families who made St James Church of England First School their first choice were offered a Reception place for September 2026, even though the school made at least as many offers as it had first choices - the rest withdrew, moved or fell outside a priority group. Overall pupil absence was 4.2%. There are about 20.5 pupils per teacher. Its intake is relatively advantaged, with around 6% of pupils eligible for free school meals in the last six years versus about 24% nationally. St James Church of England First School does not currently have a recent graded Ofsted judgement on record (often the case for newer or recently converted schools), so it is worth asking when its next inspection is expected. This overview is generated automatically from the latest published DfE performance tables and Ofsted data; figures are rounded, and you can check the originals via the official links above.