St Mary's Church of England First School, Charminster

Academy converter·First school Dorchester, Dorset·DT2 9RD

School type

First school

Ages 4–9

Key Stage 2 performance

St Mary's Church of England First School, Charminster is a first school for pupils aged 4–9. 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

91%

33 first choices, 30 places

First choices per place

1.10

more first choices than places

Applications naming the school

any preference, for 30 places

We do not have a checked cut-off distance for St Mary's Church of England First School, Charminster 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).

School profile

Age range: 4–9
Pupils on roll: 149
Gender: Mixed
Religious character: Church of England

Pupil background

% FSM ever-6

6.7%

Typical primary: 21.5%

% EAL

1.3%

Typical primary: 9.6%

Special educational needs

% SEN support

16.8%

Typical primary: 14.3%

% with an EHC plan

4.7%

Typical primary: 3.0%

Staffing & funding

Spend per pupil

£4,295

Typical primary: £6,960

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

Nearby primary schools

Dorchester Middle School Dorchester · 1.7 mi 37.7 St Osmund's Church of England Middle School Dorchester · 2.2 mi 51.7 St Mary's Church of England Middle School, Puddletown Dorchester · 4.8 mi 52.5 Bincombe Valley Primary School Weymouth · 6.0 mi 45.0 St Nicholas and St Laurence Church of England Primary School Weymouth · 6.1 mi 55.2 Maiden Newton, Greenford Church of England Primary School Dorchester · 6.1 mi 41.0 St Andrew's Church of England Primary School Weymouth · 6.2 mi 39.9 Portesham Church of England Primary School Weymouth · 6.3 mi 39.9

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 Mary's Church of England First School, Charminster is a primary school serving Dorchester, Dorset, classified by the DfE as a converter academy with a Church of England religious character. It has 149 pupils aged 4 to 9 on roll.

Competition for places is real here - 91% of first-choice applicants were offered a Reception place for September 2026 (33 first choices for 30 places). Its intake is relatively advantaged, with around 7% of pupils eligible for free school meals in the last six years versus about 24% nationally. St Mary's Church of England First School, Charminster 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.