Ofsted and its new grading system explained

What is Ofsted and what does it do? Ofsted is the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills. It inspects services providing education and skills for learners of all ages – such as nurseries, pre-schools, primary and secondary schools and colleges. It also inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people, such as childminders and childrens’ homes.

What are its responsibilities? On its Gov.uk website, Ofsted says its responsibilities include: inspecting maintained schools and academies, some independent schools, colleges, apprenticeship providers, prison education and many other educational institutions and programmes outside of higher education, childcare, local authorities, adoption and fostering agencies, initial teacher training and teacher development; regulating a range of early years and children’s social care services, making sure they are suitable for children and potentially vulnerable young people and publishing reports of its findings so they can be used to improve the overall quality of education and training.

What are schools assessed on? The website says the evaluation areas for all schools Ofsted inspects, including non-association independent schools, are: safeguarding; inclusion; curriculum and teaching; achievement; attendance and behaviour; personal development and wellbeing; early years (where applicable); post-16 provision (where applicable) and leadership and governance.

When does Ofsted inspect schools? Ofsted can inspect a school at any point from five school days after the first day that pupils attend in the autumn term. The website says: “For example, if pupils return to school on a Tuesday, an inspection can take place as early as the following Tuesday, and we would notify the school on the Monday. Full inspections normally last two days.

“Schools are inspected approximately once every four years, except if they are in one of our monitoring programmes. The statutory timeframe requires all schools to be inspected within five school years from the end of the school year in which the previous inspection took place.

“We might inspect a school at any time if we have any concerns.”

When are report cards published? Ofsted says: “We send report cards to the school after moderation, quality assurance and consistency checking. In most circumstances, this will be within 18 working days of the end of the inspection.

“Schools have five working days to comment on the draft report card. A school can highlight minor points relating to clarity and/or factual accuracy.

“If a school submits only minor points of clarity or factual accuracy, we consider these and respond to them when we share the final report card. This is normally within 30 working days of the end of the inspection. We may also send the draft report card to the DfE and other bodies.

“A school can also submit a complaint seeking a review of the inspection process, including grades given or concerns about inspectors’ conduct.

“Leaders should share the inspection findings with all governors/trustees, and whoever else they consider appropriate, which may include colleagues, family members, and/or their wider support group; however, the information should not be made public or shared with parents until the school receives the final report card.

“Once a school receives its final report card, it must make sure the parents of each registered pupil at the school receive a copy within five working days.

“We normally publish the final report card on our reports website five working days after sending it to the school.”

How does the updated grading system work? Ofsted has changed how it reports the findings of education inspections. The main difference is that it no longer give one overall judgement, such as ‘good’, ‘outstanding’ or ‘requires improvement’.

Now, the report cards show colour-coded grades for different areas, such as ‘attendance and behaviour’, ‘achievement’, ‘personal development and wellbeing’, and ‘inclusion’. These areas are graded on a new scale: ‘exceptional’, ‘strong standard’, ‘expected standard’, ‘needs attention’ and ‘urgent improvement’. The report card also states where safeguarding responsibilities are ‘met’ or ‘not met’.

Ofsted says it is important to understand that the new grades cannot be compared to the old ones and that this is ‘a different approach to inspection and a new way of reporting’.

What do the new grades mean?

Ofsted says: “The ‘expected standard’ is just that – it means the school or other provider is doing everything that it should be doing, so you’ll see the green colour coding on the report card. It’s a high standard, to make sure your children are receiving everything they need and deserve.

“Moving up the scale, ‘strong standard’ marks out excellent, consistent work that’s making a real difference for children and learners.

“And finally, there’s ‘exceptional’. We only award this grade when we see practice that is among the very best nationally, which should be shared with other schools or providers to help them improve. ‘Needs attention’ is an indication that there is work to be done to reach the ‘expected standard’. It’s not a ‘fail’ but it highlights where issues can be addressed before they become bigger problems that need ‘urgent improvement’.

“You may see a mix of grades across a report card: it’s perfectly possible to achieve highly in some areas, and require a little more focus in others.”

Can Ofsted reports be viewed online?

Yes, visit www.gov.uk/find-ofsted-inspection-report