The Purbeck School

When there are more applications than places for 2027-28 (Year 7), places are offered in this order of priority. Meeting a higher criterion beats meeting a lower one.

1. 1Looked After Children / Previously Looked After Children — A child who is in the care of an LA or was in the care of an LA but immediately after being looked after became subject to an adoption, child arrangement, or special guardianship order. This includes those children who appear to the admission authority to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.
2. 2Vulnerable Children — A child is eligible in this category where the child has an identified social or medical need including those that have named the school in their EHCP.
3. 3Catchment Area with sibling at the school — A child living inside the Catchment Area is eligible for this category where they have a sibling attending the school on the date of application and the sibling will still be attending the school at the time of admission.
4. 4Catchment Area and attending a designated feeder school — A child attending the designated feeder schools as shown in section 2.1. The schools are designated feeder school on account of their geographical proximity to the school into which they feed.
5. 5Not living in Catchment Area but attending a designated feeder school — See criterion 4 definition of feeder schools.
6. 6Catchment Area and not attending a designated feeder school — Children living in the Catchment Area and not attending a designated feeder school.
7. 7Outside Catchment Area with a sibling at the school — A child living outside the Catchment Area is eligible for this category where they have a sibling attending the School on the date of application and the sibling will still be attending the School at the time of admission.
8. 8Outside Catchment Area meeting the faith criterion (CE Schools Only) — A child living outside the Catchment Area is eligible for this category where the child is a regular practising Christian at a Recognised Church or Religious Group. (CE Schools Only)
9. 9Children of staff — Priority given to children for whom staff members have parental responsibility, where the staff member has been employed by the school for two or more years at the time at which the application was made, and/or where the member of staff has been recruited to fill a vacant post where there is a demonstrable skill shortage.
10. 10All other children — All other children.
11. 11Tie-breaker — Where two applications cannot otherwise be separated, the trust will follow a fair, clear and effective ‘tie-breaker’ procedure by allocating the place to the pupil who lives closest to school.

If two applications tie: The school will adopt the measurement system of Dorset Council Local Authority to determine the distance from the school to the child’s home address. Where two or more applicants live an equal distance from the school and it is not possible to differentiate between them, priority will be determined by random allocation through the drawing of lots supervised by someone independent of the school.

Criterion 8 (faith criterion) is stated as applying to CE Schools Only; The Purbeck School is listed as a non-CE secondary school in section 2.1, so this criterion's applicability to Purbeck is unclear from the document. The oversubscription criteria (section 5.2) are published generically for all Trust schools, not customised per school.

Published by the admission authority. Meeting a criterion never guarantees a place — it sets the order places are offered in. Full detail, other entry points and previous years are on the Admissions tab.