Dorking Nursery School
Dorking Nursery School is a local authority nursery school in Dorking for boys and girls aged 2 to 5. It has 94 pupils. About 7 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, far fewer than at most schools in England. Ofsted visited in April 2026 and gave it a report card, which is below.
West Street, Dorking, RH4 1BY01306 882397dorkingnurseryschool.co.ukMrs Donna Harwood-Duffy headteacherAll details
What Ofsted found
Ofsted visited on 14 April 2026. Instead of one overall word, it now gives a grade for each part of school life. Read the full report on Ofsted's website.
Ofsted says these new grades can't be lined up against the old one-word grades.
Earlier inspections (1)
| Date | Type | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| 4 November 2021 | Ungraded | School remains Outstanding |
Getting a place
Admissions policy not published.
Each council publishes its own figures on how many families applied and how far away the last child to get a place lived. We are adding councils one at a time. If you have a link to Surrey council's admissions booklet, send it to us.
Who goes here
Who the school teaches, from the latest school census.
The most common needs among pupils getting extra support: language and communications needs (20), emotional and mental health (7), Autistic spectrum disorder (5), Multi-sensory impairment (1), Other difficulty or disability (1).
How the mix of pupils has changed
| Census | 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils on roll | 94 | 112 | 101 | 106 | 100 | 98 |
| Pupils from low-income familiesFree school meals | 30% | 17% | 18% | 22% | 21% | 4% |
| Pupils learning EnglishEnglish as an additional language | 14% | 16% | 20% | 19% | 11% | 20% |
| Pupils getting extra supportSEN support | – | 21% | 23% | 26% | 20% | 15% |
| Pupils with an EHC planEducation, health and care plans | – | 12% | 11% | 9% | 12% | 6% |
Staff and money
From the government's count of school staff in November 2025 and the school's published accounts.
Money
From the council school accounts, year to March 2025. The per-pupil figures are compared with other primary schools in England that report their accounts the same way.
Reserves are the money left over at the end of the year, kept back for emergencies and big projects. Being in the red year after year is a warning sign. Very large reserves can mean money sitting in the bank instead of being spent on today's pupils. Academy figures are rounded to the nearest £1,000 and include a share of any money the trust holds centrally.
The area around the school
Crime figures come from police.uk. The police record each crime at the nearest of a fixed set of map points rather than the exact spot, so “within 500 m” is only rough. House prices are from HM Land Registry sales nearby over the last two years.
Nearby schools
The closest schools, nearest first. Hover over a row to see it on the map.
| School | Type | Distance | Pupils | Ofsted | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St Joseph's Catholic Primary School | Academy | 270 m | – | Good 2023 | – | Compare |
| The Priory Church of England School | Academy | 590 m | 598 | Not inspected | 6 | Compare |
| St Paul's CofE Primary School | Academy | 660 m | 397 | Good 2024 | 61 | Compare |
| St Martin's CofE Primary School | Academy | 680 m | 364 | Not inspected | 92 | Compare |
| Powell Corderoy Primary School | Academy | 830 m | 196 | Good 2022 | 64 | Compare |
| The Ashcombe School | Academy | 970 m | 1,533 | Good 2024 | 82 | Compare |
| Unified Academy | Academy | 1.0 miles | 82 | No overall grade 2025 | – | Compare |
| St John's Church of England Primary School | Academy | 1.1 miles | 210 | Good 2021 | 6 | Compare |
Questions parents ask
Is Dorking Nursery School a good school?
Dorking Nursery School doesn't have a score yet. Ofsted's report card from April 2026 rated its teaching as as expected.
What is Dorking Nursery School's Ofsted rating?
Ofsted no longer gives schools one overall grade. When it visited on 14 April 2026 it rated teaching as as expected, achievement as strong, behaviour and attendance as strong, leadership as strong.
How many pupils does Dorking Nursery School have?
94 pupils aged 2 to 5 were on the roll in January 2026.
These answers come straight from the figures on this page and update when new data comes out.
Contact and details
- Address
- West Street, Dorking, RH4 1BY
- Telephone
- 01306 882397
- Website
- www.dorkingnurseryschool.co.uk
- Headteacher
- Mrs Donna Harwood-Duffy
- Type of school
- Local authority nursery school (Local authority nursery school, local authority maintained schools)
- Phase
- Nursery school, ages 2-5, with nursery
- Gender
- Mixed
- Local authority
- Surrey
- Ward
- Dorking North
- Constituency
- Dorking and Horley
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- URN
- 124912 · LAESTAB 9361004
Where these figures come from
- School details: Department for Education, Get Information About Schools, refreshed daily (this page rebuilt 13 September 2026).
- Inspections: Ofsted management information, monthly; latest publication in our data 27 August 2026.
- Pupil characteristics: DfE school census, January 2026.
- Staff: DfE school workforce census, November 2025.
- Money: DfE financial benchmarking and insights tool, consistent financial reporting 2024/25.
- Neighbourhood: police.uk street-level crime, HM Land Registry price paid data, NaPTAN bus stops, English Indices of Deprivation 2025.
- All under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Full list and update calendar.