School Compass

Find your bearings when choosing a school.

Start with your home postcode to map nearby schools and early years across South East England (including Dorset), shortlist a few, then compare published figures and inspection excerpts before you visit. A parental compass — not a league table.

Shortlist nearby schools and early years across South East England (including Dorset), compare DfE outcomes and Ofsted/ISI excerpts, then print a visit pack. Parental compare — not a league table.

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Browse by local authority

21 covered areas across South East England (including Dorset). Open an area page for school and early years counts, then jump into the postcode explorer.

See every covered area · Hampshire primary · Surrey secondary

Guides before you shortlist

Plain-language help for reading published figures and inspection excerpts — also available as a FAQ.

Browse all guides · How to read figures · Primary KS2 · Secondary KS4

How to read this as a parent

Published tables and inspection excerpts help you compare a shortlist. They do not choose a school for you. New here? Use How to use in the header for a short walkthrough, or open the parent guides. On each Side by side path, open What this tells you for path-specific guidance, and print a shortlist / visit pack when you are ready to go.

What the data can tell you

  • How nearby settings compare on the same published measures.
  • Whether outcomes sit near, above, or below local / England context.
  • Themes inspectors recently highlighted — strengths and next steps.
  • Travel distance as a practical filter, not a measure of school quality.

What this is not telling you

  • Whether your child will be happy, taught well, or make friends here.
  • Admissions chances, catchment, faith criteria, or waiting-list practice.
  • Day-to-day ethos, behaviour climate, or SEND support beyond short excerpts.
  • A ranked “best school” — tables and reports are one lens, not a verdict.

Fair conclusions you can draw

  • Which settings look similar enough to visit side by side.
  • Which questions the numbers raise for open days and phone calls.
  • Where coverage is thin (missing grades, new academies) so you dig deeper.

How to use this for decisions

  • Shortlist a few settings that look plausible on paper and on the map.
  • Treat gaps and older inspections as prompts to ask, not automatic rejects.
  • Visit (or watch a normal session), talk to staff, and weigh fit for your child.
  • Keep notes on what you saw — printed packs are for that, not for league ranks.

Expected standard means pupils met the level expected for the end of primary. Higher standard is a tougher bar. Scaled scores centre on 100. Inspection précis excerpts are verbatim from Ofsted/ISI PDFs — open the full report for context.

Where the numbers come from

School Compass harvests published figures from the DfE Explore Education Statistics API (KS2 and KS4), Ofsted independent-school management information, school coordinates from postcodes.io, and road distances from OSRM — so parents can compare like with like before they visit.

Early years: Ofsted childcare day-care inspections; Ofsted grades for state nursery / infant / primary settings with an early-years intake; consented childminder names/addresses (Ofsted quarterly file); plus EYFSP England and local-authority area context (provider-level EYFSP is not published — Ofsted grades and EYFSP area figures answer different questions). State schools: institution-level Key Stage 2 attainment plus local-authority phonics for KS1. Independents: Key Stage 4 tables plus Ofsted non-association inspections. Progress measures are sparse for 2024/25 because of missing KS1 baselines.

Official school pages: compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk.