Dolton Church of England Primary School
Primary school · Devon
The Square, Winkleigh, EX19 8QF
This school became an academy on 1 October 2018. Before that it was a voluntary aided school, under its earlier school number, URN 113450.
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Offers made, 2026
5
Places given out on offer day. Not the number of places the school had, which is not published per year group.
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Latest Ofsted
Good
Ofsted graded inspection (previous framework), July 2024. 2 inspections held.
About the school
- Type of school
- Academy
- Academy trust
- Alumnis Multi-Academy Trust
- Became an academy
- 1 October 2018. Before that it was a voluntary aided school, under its earlier school number, URN 113450.
- Ages
- 2 to 11
- Boys or girls
- Boys and girls
- Religious character
- Church of England, Diocese of Exeter
- Nursery classes
- Yes
- Website
- https://www.dolton-sch.org
- Telephone
- 01805 804315
- School number (URN)
- 145770
Other schools run by Alumnis Multi-Academy Trust
Alumnis Multi-Academy Trust runs 8 other schools with a page here.
- The Clinton Church of England Primary School, Okehampton (2.7 miles away)
- St Helen's Church of England School, Bideford (12.7 miles away)
- Clawton Primary School, Holsworthy (15.7 miles away)
- Woolacombe School, Woolacombe (20.8 miles away)
- Combe Martin Primary School, Ilfracombe (21.9 miles away)
- Bampton Church of England Primary School, Tiverton (24.6 miles away)
- Webber's Church of England Primary School, Wellington (30.6 miles away)
- Burlescombe Church of England Primary School, Tiverton (31.2 miles away)
From Get Information about Schools, retrieved 2 September 2026. Schools update their own entries, so these can be out of date.
How big the school is
In 2024 this school had 70 places and 26 children on roll.
44 places were unfilled, which is 63% of the school.
In 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 the school had 32 children on roll on average, against 26 in 2024.
Places are the whole school added up, every year group together. That is not the number of places a school offers to new children in one year.
Source: Department for Education school capacity collection.
Children in each year group
As counted on one day in January 2026, the most recent school census. These are children, not places.
Children in each year group at Dolton Church of England Primary School
| Year group | Children |
|---|---|
| Early 2 | 1 |
| Nursery 2 | 4 |
| Reception | 2 |
| Year 1 | 5 |
| Year 2 | 1 |
| Year 3 | 3 |
| Year 4 | 5 |
| Year 5 | 5 |
| Year 6 | 5 |
This is not a list of spare places. Places per year group are not published, and the count is from January. Children join and leave all year, so a year group that looked two under in January can be full by March.
If you are moving into the area and need a place during the school year, ask Devon. Councils handle applications made during the school year, including for schools that set their own admission rules. They hold the up-to-date position, which this page does not.
Who decides who gets a place
This school sets its own admission rules, through its academy trust, rather than Devon setting them.
Look on the school's own website for its admission arrangements. An admission authority has to agree its rules every year and publish them. The council still takes the application.
Taken from the kind of school this is, as recorded by the Department for Education. We do not hold this school's rules themselves: a summary of an admission rule is not the rule, and only the admission authority's own published arrangements are binding.
How to apply
Applications for a place starting in September 2027 close on 15 January 2027, the date the School Admissions Code sets for every council in England.
Councils send every offer for primary school places on the same day, 16 April 2027 or the next working day.
You apply through the council where you live, even for a school in another area. You do not apply to the school. Find your council's primary school application on GOV.UK.
If you live in Devon, the council's own page explains how to apply there. Devon school admissions.
To ask about visiting the school, or anything else about it, contact the school. Website: https://www.dolton-sch.org. Telephone: 01805 804315.
Links and dates can change. Your council's own website has the final word. The dates are set nationally by the School Admissions Code 2021. GOV.UK link checked 23 September 2026. Devon's page checked 23 September 2026. Contact details from Get Information about Schools.
How many families applied
Preferences expressed and offers made at Reception, as published by the Department for Education. These describe demand, not whether a particular child would be offered a place.
In the 2026 intake, 5 families named Dolton Church of England Primary School as their first preference, and the school made 5 offers.
No per-place figure is published for this year: the school offered 5 places, too few for a ratio to mean anything.
Compared with its own past
More families than its recent average put this school first.
In 2026, 5 families put this school first. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 3 a year.
In 2026, 7 families named this school somewhere on their list. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 5 a year.
In 2026, every family who put this school first was offered a place here (5 of 5). In 2021 to 2025 it was every family, every year.
In 2026, 0 of the 5 offers went to children living outside Devon. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 0 a year.
Each figure is compared only with the same figure at this school. "About the same" means within 10 in every 100 of the average.
First preferences and offers at Reception
Families naming Dolton Church of England Primary School first, against the offers it made, for every intake year held.
Figures before 2019 are from this school's earlier record, under its old school number (URN 113450), before it became an academy. The government's school register links the two, and they are the same school.
| Intake | 1st preferences1st choice | All preferencesAny choice | Offers madeOffers | 1st prefs per placePer place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 5 | 7 | 5 | - |
| 2025 | 3 | 5 | 3 | - |
| 2024 | 5 | 8 | 5 | - |
| 2023 | 2 | 3 | 2 | - |
| 2022 | 5 | 7 | 5 | - |
| 2021 | 1 | 2 | 1 | - |
| 2020 | 6 | 8 | 6 | - |
| 2019 | 3 | 5 | 3 | - |
| 2018 old school number |
2 | 5 | 2 | - |
| 2017 old school number |
3 | 6 | 3 | - |
| 2016 old school number |
1 | 5 | 1 | - |
| 2015 old school number |
2 | 5 | 2 | - |
| 2014 old school number |
5 | 5 | 5 | - |
“Offers made” is the number of offers on offer day, not the number of places the school has.
Source: Department for Education: school-level applications and offers, checked 14 September 2026. All sources.
Where families put this school on their list
In 2026 this school made 5 offers, and every one of them went to a family who had named it first.
A school is not allowed to treat a family differently because of where it sat on their list. The School Admissions Code says an admission authority must not give extra priority to children whose parents rank preferred schools in a particular order.
The order is used at the end, by the council, and not by the school. Where more than one school could take a child, the council offers the one the family put highest.
Leaving the other boxes empty does not change how this school considers an application. If none of the schools a family names can offer a place, the council has to offer one at a school that has room, and that school may be further away.
Source: Department for Education school level applications and offers, and the School Admissions Code 2021, paragraphs 1.9 and 2.11.
Ofsted
Ofsted changed its inspection framework: the current one publishes several graded areas and no single overall grade, while the previous one published an overall effectiveness grade. Each inspection below states which framework produced it.
Ofsted graded inspection (previous framework), 2 July 2024
- Overall effectiveness
- Good
- Quality of education
- Good
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Good
- Personal development
- Outstanding
- Leadership and management
- Good
- Early years
- Outstanding
Ofsted's report for this school
Ofsted ungraded inspection, 10 January 2023
School remains Good (Concerns) - S5 Next
Ofsted's report for this school
Source: Ofsted: state-funded school inspections management information, checked 14 September 2026. All sources.
If you are refused a place
In 2026, families in Devon lodged 46 appeals about a primary school place.
22 of them were heard by a panel and 5 succeeded, which is about 23 in every 100 heard.
The other 24 did not reach a panel. Most appeals that do not are withdrawn because a place comes up first.
Reception is an infant class, and the law caps an infant class at 30 children. A panel hearing an appeal about an infant class can only agree in three situations: the place was refused by mistake, the admission rules were not applied properly, or the decision was one no reasonable council would have made. It cannot simply decide that the child should have the place.
Of the 13 infant class appeals heard in Devon in 2026, 3 succeeded.
This is a record of decisions already made. A panel hears one case at a time and decides it on what that family sets out, so these figures do not indicate what would happen in any particular appeal.
These count appeals about every school in Devon, not this school. Nobody publishes appeal figures school by school.
Source: Department for Education, admission appeals in England, reporting year 2026.
Waiting lists
Being refused a place does not end the application. Every admission authority has to keep a waiting list until at least 31 December of the school year the child would have started, and some keep them for longer.
A waiting list is not a queue. The rules say a child cannot be given priority for having joined it earlier, or for having applied earlier. The list is put back in order against the school's own admission rules every time a child is added, so a place can move further away as well as nearer.
Councils differ on whether a refused child goes onto the list automatically. The council that sent the refusal is the only place that can say which it does.
From the School Admissions Code 2021, paragraph 2.15.
Children with special educational needs
In January 2026, 1 of the 31 children here had an education, health and care plan. That is 3 in every 100. That is close to the middle for schools in England, where the middle figure is 4 in every 100.
A further 4 were on SEN support, which is help arranged by the school without a plan. That is 13 in every 100, against a middle figure of 15 in every 100 across England.
A school named in a child's education, health and care plan has to admit that child. That duty holds even when the school is full, and it sits outside the rules that decide who gets a place when there are more children than places. Which school is named is decided with the council while the plan is being written, not through the normal application.
Source: Department for Education, special educational needs in England, January 2026 census.
Who goes to this school
In January 2026, 11 of the 31 children here were known to be eligible for free school meals. That is 36 in every 100.
More children are eligible here than at half of primary schools in England, where the middle figure is 20 in every 100.
English was the first language for nearly every child here. Across primary schools the middle figure is 10 in every 100.
This describes the children who go to this school. It is not a measure of the school. Most children go to a school near home, so it is mostly a fact about the streets around it.
This matters when reading results. Across the 15,153 schools we hold 2024 key stage 2 results for, the fifth with the fewest eligible children averaged 70% reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths. The fifth with the most averaged 48%.
Those are averages of many schools all over the country. This school's own results are further down this page exactly as published.
Source: Department for Education school census, January 2026. Free school meal eligibility is counted for every pupil on roll.
Exam results
Published by the Department for Education for the whole year group. Figures for smaller cohorts are withheld by DfE to protect pupil privacy and appear here as a dash, not a zero.
| Year | Expected standard in reading, writing & maths | Higher standard | Average reading score | Average maths score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024/25 | - | - | - | - |
| 2023/24 | - | - | - | - |
| 2022/23 | - | - | - | - |
Teachers staying and leaving
These come from the School Workforce Census, which follows each teacher into the next year. The numbers count full-time jobs, so a teacher who works half the week counts as half. They are not a count of people.
The share of teachers who left, each year
Counted as full-time jobs rather than people, and counting a move to another state school as leaving this one.
| Census year | Teachers (FTE) | Still there a year later | Moved to another state school | Left state schools | Left in total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024/25 | 3.2 | 2.2 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 31.2% |
| 2023/24 | 4.6 | 3.2 | 0.0 | 1.4 | 30.4% |
| 2022/23 | 2.7 | 2.2 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 18.5% |
| 2021/22 | 3.7 | 2.1 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 43.2% |
| 2020/21 | 3.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 66.7% |
| 2019/20 | 3.2 | 3.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 6.2% |
This is turnover among teachers. It says nothing about the headteacher or the senior leadership team: DfE publishes leadership retention separately and we do not hold it by school.
Catchment area
Devon publishes an admission zone for this school (Dolton Church of England Primary School).
Covers: 38 live postcodes across 15.263 km².
Where it is, and schools nearby
The shaded shape is the area the council published for Dolton Church of England Primary School. Living inside it is not the same as being offered a place. Councils use these areas in different ways. Some use them to help decide who gets a place when a school is full. Some use them to decide who gets free school transport. Many use them for both. Check with the council which it is here. The edge is drawn to about 20 metres, so do not use it to judge a single house.
The 6 nearest primary schools we hold figures for, by straight-line distance from Dolton Church of England Primary School.
- Beaford Community Primary & Nursery School: 3.2 km (2.0 miles) north-west, Winkleigh
- The Clinton Church of England Primary School: 4.3 km (2.7 miles) west, Okehampton
- Winkleigh Primary School: 7.5 km (4.6 miles) south-east, Winkleigh
- Hatherleigh Community Primary School: 8.3 km (5.2 miles) south, Okehampton
- High Bickington Church of England Primary Academy: 9.0 km (5.6 miles) north, Umberleigh
- Great Torrington Bluecoat Church of England Primary School: 9.9 km (6.2 miles) north-west, Torrington
Nearby and related
- Other schools near Dolton Church of England Primary School
- All schools in Devon
- Schools in the EX19 postcode district
- What data we hold
- This page as JSON: the same figures, for software that would rather not read a web page
Where these figures come from
- Department for Education: Get Information about Schools. School identity, type, phase, address, contact details and how it is run
Retrieved 2 September 2026 - GOV.UK: apply for a school place. Where to find your council's primary school application. Link checked 23 September 2026
- Ofsted: state-funded school inspections management information. Inspection outcomes, published monthly
Retrieved 14 September 2026 - Department for Education: school-level applications and offers. Preferences and offers, 2014 to 2026 intakes
Retrieved 14 September 2026 - Department for Education: school pupils and their characteristics. Children in each year group, January 2026 census
- Department for Education: school capacity. Places and pupils on roll, 2009 to 2024
- Department for Education: key stage 2 attainment. Reading, writing and maths outcomes, by school
Retrieved 4 September 2026 - Department for Education: school workforce in England. Teacher turnover, by school, from the School Workforce Census
Retrieved 4 September 2026 - Devon: school admission zones. arcgis fetch 2026-09-14
Retrieved 14 September 2026
Using this information
This is information only, not advice. It may have mistakes in it, or be out of date. Check with the school and the council before you decide anything. We collect these figures from official publications and check them, but mistakes can get through. If you find one, tell us.
Figures current as of 14 September 2026.
This page was updated on 5 November 2026. "Retrieved" is the date of our copy of each source, not the year its figures describe. How we compare schools.