Applemore College Review 2026: A Community-Rooted 11–16 Secondary on Roman Road

On Roman Road in Dibden Purlieu, the school’s floodlit 4G pitch doubles as an evening and weekend hub for community sport, used by groups including Hythe and Dibden Youth Football Club and the Royal Logistics Corps from Marchwood. It is a practical clue to Applemore College’s identity: outward-facing, local, and keen to keep students involved after the last bell.

Applemore College is a state secondary school for boys and girls aged 11 to 16 in Southampton, Hampshire. With a published capacity of 775 and no sixth form, it is focused on the five-year sprint from Year 7 foundations to Year 11 destinations, with careers guidance and personal development doing a lot of the heavy lifting as students approach post-16 choices.

The most recent Ofsted inspection rated the school Good across the key judgements.

“Believe, Respect, Determination” is not presented as decorative wallpaper here. It appears repeatedly across the school’s public messaging and, crucially, it is matched by the way the week is structured: tutor time and assemblies are clearly part of the rhythm, not an afterthought squeezed between lessons. When a school sets aside time for pastoral routines, it usually signals a preference for consistency, clear expectations, and adults who want to keep a close eye on how students are travelling.

There is also a noticeable emphasis on change that has been made recently, rather than nostalgia. The school’s improvement strategy for 2025–2027 reads like a tight set of priorities: attendance, behaviour, adaptive teaching (especially for students with additional needs), and a push for staff to use assessment information more consistently. It is not an easy list, but it is the right one for families who want to understand what leaders are working on day to day.

Support for additional needs is prominent in the way Applemore describes itself. Alongside being a mainstream secondary, the school sets out a dyslexia-focused resource base and describes a resource provision for students with autism that opened in September 2025. For families, that combination matters. It usually brings more specialist knowledge into classrooms, and it can shape how confident teachers feel about adapting tasks without lowering expectations.

GCSE results

Start with the headline context. Ranked 3,413rd in England and 20th in Southampton for GCSE outcomes (FindMySchool ranking based on official data), Applemore sits below England average overall, in the lower 40% of schools in England on this measure. That is a useful reality check for parents comparing local options.

The most recent published GCSE performance data also points to a challenging picture. Attainment 8 is 35.8, and Progress 8 is -0.74, which indicates students have, on average, made less progress than pupils with similar starting points nationally. EBacc performance is another indicator: 7.1% of pupils achieved grade 5 or above in the English Baccalaureate measure.

None of this means good learning is absent. It does mean families should look closely at how the school is tackling outcomes, particularly for students who need a tight academic structure and rapid catch-up when gaps appear. If you are shortlisting locally, the FindMySchool comparison tools are useful here, because they let you set these figures alongside nearby schools rather than relying on a single headline.

Life Skills is a strong clue to how Applemore wants students to develop, not only what it wants them to know. The programme covers themes such as consent, online privacy and digital life, vaping and substance misuse, first aid, and critical thinking around topics like fake news and media representation. For many families, that breadth is reassuring: it suggests the school is deliberately teaching the “how to live” parts of adolescence, rather than leaving them to chance or one-off talks.

In subjects, the curriculum information published by the school is detailed and concrete, with clear sequencing through Key Stage 3 and into GCSE pathways. In science, for example, the department outlines a strong emphasis on retrieval and interleaving, practical demonstrations, and explicit vocabulary support for students who benefit from adapted approaches. The school also offers routes such as triple science, and frames some of its challenge as being for the most able.

What will matter most to families is how consistently that approach shows up across classrooms. The school’s own priorities point to that question too: improving the reliability of assessment use, and strengthening adaptive teaching so that students who need additional scaffolding still gain the knowledge they will be examined on later.

Because Applemore finishes at 16, the “next step” conversation starts earlier and needs to be handled carefully. The school calendar points to structured preparation, including events such as mock interviews and an apprenticeship fair. That balance is important. It sends a message that sixth form is one strong route, but not the only respected one.

The careers information published by the school signposts a range of local post-16 providers across sixth form and further education, including Barton Peveril Sixth Form College, Brockenhurst College, City College Southampton, Itchen Sixth Form College, Peter Symonds College, Richard Taunton Sixth Form College, and Totton College. For families, the practical implication is simple: you will want to start exploring travel time and course fit well before Year 11, because the right option may not be the closest one.

For students who thrive with a clear goal, this can work well. A school that takes apprenticeships seriously, and not just as a footnote, tends to do better at helping a wider range of young people land somewhere that feels purposeful on results day.

Routes and criteria

Applemore is oversubscribed in the admissions demand data provided: 155 applications for 64 offers, which works out at about 2.42 applications per place. In a school that serves a defined local area, that level of competition tends to make the small details feel big: which address is used, how “catchment” is defined, and whether siblings are already on roll.

The school’s published admissions policy sets out a typical priority order for a community-focused school: looked-after and previously looked-after children first, then specific medical or psychological grounds (with evidence), then catchment with siblings, then other catchment children, and then out-of-catchment categories. Where applications are tied within a category, the tie-break is straight-line distance calculated using the local authority’s geographic system.

Timeline and practicalities

For families applying for a Year 7 place for September 2026 through Hampshire, the key dates are clear: applications opened in early September 2025 and closed at the end of October 2025, with the national notification date in early March 2026. If you are trying to judge the realism of an application from a particular address, it can help to use FindMySchool’s map-based distance tools alongside the school’s distance tie-break method, so you are modelling the same kind of measurement logic.

Open events appear to follow a familiar pattern too, with the school advertising open days and open mornings in the September to October window. For families new to the area, that timing matters: it is early enough to influence the application list, but late enough that Year 6 feels suddenly short.

Student wellbeing is described in practical terms rather than vague reassurance. Applemore sets out a Student Support team focused on social, emotional and behavioural needs, managed by a senior safeguarding lead, and it names specific pastoral roles including Pastoral Support Managers and a Mental Health and Wellbeing Lead. The offer is framed as both responsive support and structured sessions around anxiety, emotional regulation and social confidence, which is often what parents want to hear: not simply that support exists, but that it has a shape.

Life Skills also plays a role here, particularly around relationships education, consent, online safety and mental health. The best versions of this approach feel preventative. Students are taught the language for what is happening to them, and the routes for getting help, before a crisis forces the issue.

Families of students with additional needs should also pay attention to how closely pastoral and SEND teams work together. Applemore describes that link explicitly, and with a dyslexia resource base alongside an autism provision, the school is positioning itself as a place that wants students with different profiles to stay ambitious.

Clubs & enrichment

The clearest sign that extra-curricular time is taken seriously is the timetable itself. Applemore publishes a weekly enrichment programme that includes options such as Code Club, Logic Tech Club, chess at lunchtime, Film Club, Textiles Club, knitting and crochet, choir, and a Rock and Pop Band. There is also a breakfast club, which quietly helps some students start the day more settled, especially when mornings at home are rushed.

Duke of Edinburgh appears in the mix too, with Bronze and Silver groups running after school. For students who learn best by doing, that kind of sustained programme can become a backbone. It builds confidence, routine, and a sense of belonging that does not depend on being top of the class.

Sport and facilities

That community 4G pitch is not just a nice-to-have. A full-size, floodlit artificial grass facility expands what a school can run after 3pm, particularly when evenings are dark and winter weather is unreliable. The school’s published enrichment offer includes rugby, netball and badminton, and the wider calendar points to competitions and tournaments across the year.

The more interesting point for families is what this says about time. Applemore has a built-in after-school block, and students who join in will be finishing later than the headline end of the day. That can be a genuine positive, but it needs to work with transport, childcare for younger siblings, and family routines.

The school day

The day begins at 08:30 with tutor time, followed by five lessons across the day, with a morning break and lunch. The scheduled finish for tutor time in the afternoon is 15:00, with a further 15:00 to 16:00 block used for clubs and an additional lesson period for Year 11. If your child is likely to join regular after-school activities, plan the week around that later finish rather than treating it as occasional.

Getting there

Applemore is based on Roman Road in Dibden Purlieu. Because the school serves local communities across this part of Hampshire, day-to-day logistics can matter as much as the admissions criteria. The 08:30 start and the regular after-school enrichment block make it worth sanity-checking travel time at peak hours, and not only for the standard 15:00 finish.

Academic outcomes: The published GCSE indicators are below England average, with a Progress 8 score of -0.74 and Attainment 8 of 35.8. Families of high-attaining students may want to ask detailed questions about stretching the most able, while families of students with gaps should ask how quickly support is put in place and how progress is tracked.

EBacc direction: Only 7.1% of pupils achieved grade 5 or above in the EBacc measure. That may reflect entry patterns and option choices, but it is still a useful prompt: if a language pathway matters to your child’s future plans, ask how languages are encouraged and supported through Key Stage 4.

Admissions pressure: Demand in the provided data runs at about 2.42 applicants per place (155 applications for 64 offers). With catchment and distance acting as key levers, a strong preference for the school does not remove the need for a realistic Plan B.

The 11–16 finish: With no sixth form, the post-16 decision is compulsory rather than optional. The school does publish guidance on local colleges and apprenticeships routes, but families should still treat Year 10 as the moment to start visiting and comparing, not Year 11.

Applemore College feels like a school trying to be very clear about what it is working on: attendance, consistency in classroom practice, and a wider personal development programme that prepares students for adult choices as well as exams. The community-facing facilities and a busy enrichment timetable give many students a second place to belong after lessons.

Best suited to families who want a local, mixed 11–16 with structured pastoral routines and a serious approach to post-16 guidance, and who will engage early with support and subject choices where academic outcomes need strengthening. Competition for places, and the need to plan the 16+ step well ahead of time, are the main hurdles.