Ofsted Consultation Outcome

The consultation response sets out that Ofsted will introduce the five-point grading scale.  It plans to introduce the new grading scale in November 2025 but will use volunteer schools to participate in the first wave of report-card inspections.

Inspection areas

Since proposing the new report card system, Ofsted has in response to the consultation reduced the number of areas which will be judged, with 6 areas subject to judgement, instead of the 8 which were originally proposed. This does not, however, mean that there are 2 fewer areas for schools to consider. Instead, curriculum and teaching, and attendance and behaviour, have been combined into one category, as have attendance and behaviour.

This means that the inspection areas are:

• Inclusion

• Curriculum, teaching and training

• Achievement

• Professional behaviours, personal development and well-being

• Leadership

Safeguarding will also be subject to a ‘met’ or ‘not met’ judgement.

Assessment

Ofsted has also overhauled the toolkits that inspectors will use to assess schools. Familiarising themselves with the toolkit will help schools to be best prepared for inspections, and understanding what inspectors will be seeking to identify.

For example, when reviewing safeguarding, inspectors will consider whether the school establishes an open and positive safeguarding culture that puts pupils’ interests first and whether leaders take an effective, whole-school approach to safeguarding.

Schools should be particularly conscious that, when inspectors evaluate safeguarding for pupils with SEND in either specialist or mainstream settings, they will want to see that the school:

• Seeks to understand the needs of individual pupils and their particular challenges and barriers so that they are fully aware of these pupils’ specific safeguarding vulnerabilities and needs

• Works with leaders to draw on their insights into individual pupils and any additional support needed to keep them safe

• Has a rationale for their approaches to teaching pupils to stay safe, for example by exploring how pupils learn about online safety, to make sure these approaches are reflective of the school’s context and the needs of pupil.

New grades

As well revising its proposed inspection areas, in response to the consultation Ofsted has revised the new grades which will be applied to the inspection areas. Each of the 6 areas will be judged on the following 5-point scale:

• Urgent improvement

• Needs attention

• Expected standard

• Strong standard

• Exceptional

With the new report-card system, schools will no longer receive an overall single-phrase judgement, but they will receive recommendations on what they need to improve – although Ofsted has made it clear that they will not set out how schools should make those improvements.

Monitoring inspections

To encourage school improvement and ensure that improvements are recognised at an early stage, schools subject to certain grades will receives monitoring inspections.

Where a school receives a grade of ‘urgent improvement’ in any evaluation area it will receive a monitoring inspection on a termly basis focused on the areas for improvement identified at the full inspection. The number of monitoring inspections will be tailored to the school.

If the school requires significant improvement it will receive up to 5 inspections within 18 months - this occurs either when a school: (i) receives a grade of ‘urgent improvement’ in the area of leadership and governance only; or (ii) receives a grade of ‘urgent improvement’ in an area which is not leadership and governance, or a grade of ‘not met’ in respect of safeguarding.

If a school requires special measures it will receive up to 6 inspections within 24 months– this occurs when a school receives a grade of ‘urgent improvement’ in leadership and governance and any other inspection area, and a grade of ‘not met’ in safeguarding.

Schools receiving a grade of ‘needs attention’ in any area will also be subject to monitoring. This will consist of an initial call to the headteacher to discuss the progress the school has made towards reaching the ‘expected standard’ since their full inspection. The monitoring inspections will only consider areas graded below ‘expected standard’., the monitoring programme will end when the school is graded at least ‘expected standard’ in all areas.

Next steps

Schools should ensure that they are familiar with the new inspection toolkit to ensure that they understand precisely what Ofsted inspectors will be looking for when grading the school in each of the new areas. To be best prepared for inspection, we recommend that schools review their statutory policies to ensure that they align with the most up to date requirements.

Given that potential ramifications of receiving a low grade in respect of leadership and governance, we also recommend that schools take the opportunity to conduct a governance audit to audit both areas for improvement and strengths.

If you require support with either reviewing your schools statutory policies or conducting an external governance audit, please get in touch to discuss our package options.