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| Shaftesbury School | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
 | |
Salisbury Road , , SP7 8ER | |
| Information | |
| Type | Academy |
| Motto | Aspiration, Action, Achievement |
| Religious affiliation | Church of England |
| Established | 1718 |
| Department for Education URN | 140898 Tables |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Headteacher | Donna London-Hill [1] |
| Gender | Coeducational |
| Age | 11to 18 [1] |
| Enrolment | 960 as of February 2021 [update] [1] |
| Capacity | 1283 [1] |
| Houses | Duncliffe, Gold, Hambledon, Melbury |
| Colours | Green Blue Red Yellow |
| Website | http://www.shaftesburyschool.co.uk/ |
Shaftesbury School is a coeducational secondary day school located in Shaftesbury in the English county of Dorset. [2]
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Previously a voluntary controlled Church of England school administered by the Diocese of Salisbury and Dorset County Council, [3] The school converted to academy status under the Diocese of Salisbury in June 2014. The origins of the school date back to 1718 when the original ‘Blue Coat School’ was founded in Shaftesbury, [4] and the school offered boarding from 1898 until 2023. Before its closure, it was one of only thirty-nine state boarding schools in England. [5]
The school currently has around a thousand students who each belong to one of four houses. Melbury (Green), Duncliffe (Red), Hambledon (Blue) and Gold (Yellow). The boarding house underwent a £3 million refurbishment and expansion in 2012 and now[ when? ] has over one hundred students from around the world.
Shaftesbury School offers GCSEs, and BTECs as programmes of study for pupils. Shaftesbury School's sixth form provision has links to Sturminster Newton High School in Sturminster Newton, and students in the sixth form have the option to study from a range of A Levels and further BTECs on two sites. [6]
In the July of 2025, a large number of teachers at the school went on strike over restructuring plans due to financial mismanagement from their parent academy trust SAST. [7] This also included the termination of Head of English R. Sammons, a move met with opposition which only grew after Sammons made comments on the matter on the platform TikTok. Sammons had worked at Shaftesbury School for 25 years and described the experience as “traumatic” [8]
