The Thomas Hardye School A GSG School
- The Thomas Hardye School
Queen's Avenue
Dorchester
Dorset
DT1 2ET - Head: Nick Rutherford
- T 01305 266064
- F 01305 250510
- E [email protected]
- W www.thomas-hardye.net
- A state school for boys and girls aged from 13 to 18.
- Read about the best schools in Dorset
- Boarding: No
- Local authority: Dorset
- Pupils: 2,092; sixth formers: 705
- Religion: Non-denominational
- Review: View The Good Schools Guide Review
-
Ofsted:
- Latest Overall effectiveness Outstanding 1
- 16-19 study programmes Outstanding 1
- Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding 1
- 1 Full inspection 19th March 2015
- Ofsted report: View the Ofsted report
What The Good Schools Guide says..
A well-run, purposeful comprehensive. School has a real ‘can-do’ approach. Prospective parents often worry about the sheer size of the place but it doesn’t seem to be an issue once pupils start. ‘And we get maps to help us find our way round,’ said a year 10 girl appreciatively. ‘It’s quite a grown-up sort of place,’ agreed one of our young guides. ‘We don’t have a lot of rules,’ the head told us. ‘We give pupils a…
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Curricula
International Baccalaureate: diploma - the diploma is the familiar A-level equivalent.
What The Good Schools Guide says
Headteacher
Since April 2021, Nick Rutherford. Previously principal at Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy. Degree in English language and literature from St Mary's University, Twickenham.
Entrance
At 13, most pupils come from three middle schools, two in Dorchester and one in nearby Puddletown, plus a few from Weymouth and a handful from Sunninghill, a Dorchester prep. At 16 the catchment area widens considerably, with pupils travelling from as far afield as Bridport, Lyme Regis, Axminster, Sherborne, Poole and Bournemouth. Most arrive by bus (there’s a 16-19 bursary fund for students who struggle with the cost of transport, trips and equipment) but a few drive (there’s plenty of parking). School asks for at least five 6s at GCSE but says ‘everything is case specific.’
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Overall school performance (for comparison or review only)
Results by exam and subject
Subject results
Entry/Exit
Special Education Needs
The school uses the title Education Extra for its special needs provision, believing this does not label the relevant students. The SENCO and Flexible Learning Coordinator (also with SENCO experience) work with two other full-time teachers and a number of teaching assistants. The school has a number of young people with physical disabilities. It also has a learning support teacher and Unit for students with speech and language difficulties. Students are not withdrawn from class unless this is linked to a requirement of a statement. Students work with Teaching Assistants and their peers in the classroom. Our students in Education Extra achieve exceptional results and many of them enter the sixth form. The school became one of only four schools nationally to be designated a Special Needs Specialist School in 2007. This has provided extra resources, expertise and further national profile, 10-09
| Condition | Provision for in school |
|---|---|
| ASD - Autistic Spectrum Disorder | Y |
| Aspergers | Y |
| Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders | Y |
| CReSTeD registered for Dyslexia | |
| Dyscalculia | |
| Dysgraphia | |
| Dyslexia | |
| Dyspraxia | |
| English as an additional language (EAL) | |
| Genetic | |
| Has an entry in the Autism Services Directory | |
| Has SEN unit or class | Y |
| HI - Hearing Impairment | |
| Hospital School | |
| Mental health | |
| MLD - Moderate Learning Difficulty | |
| MSI - Multi-Sensory Impairment | |
| Natspec Specialist Colleges | |
| OTH - Other Difficulty/Disability | |
| Other SpLD - Specific Learning Difficulty | |
| PD - Physical Disability | |
| PMLD - Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulty | |
| SEMH - Social, Emotional and Mental Health | |
| SLCN - Speech, Language and Communication | |
| SLD - Severe Learning Difficulty | |
| Special facilities for Visually Impaired | |
| SpLD - Specific Learning Difficulty | |
| VI - Visual Impairment |
Interpreting catchment maps
The maps show in colour where the pupils at a school came from*. Red = most pupils to Blue = fewest.
Where the map is not coloured we have no record in the previous three years of any pupils being admitted from that location based on the options chosen.
For help and explanation of our catchment maps see: Catchment maps explained
Further reading
If there are more applicants to a school than it has places for, who gets in is determined by which applicants best fulfil the admissions criteria.
Admissions criteria are often complicated, and may change from year to year. The best source of information is usually the relevant local authority website, but once you have set your sights on a school it is a good idea to ask them how they see things panning out for the year that you are interested in.
Many schools admit children based on distance from the school or a fixed catchment area. For such schools, the cut-off distance will vary from year to year, especially if the school give priority to siblings, and the pattern will be of a central core with outliers (who will mostly be siblings). Schools that admit on the basis of academic or religious selection will have a much more scattered pattern.
*The coloured areas outlined in black are Census Output Areas. These are made up of a group of neighbouring postcodes, which accounts for their odd shapes. These provide an indication, but not a precise map, of the school’s catchment: always refer to local authority and school websites for precise information.
The 'hotter' the colour the more children have been admitted.
Children get into the school from here:
regularly
most years
quite often
infrequently
sometimes, but not in this year
Who came from where
| School | Year | Places |
|---|---|---|
| Castle Court | 2024 | 1 |
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