Essential cookies keep you signed in. May we also set optional analytics cookies (Google Analytics 4, US-based)?
Rejecting is just as easy, and nothing else changes. Cookie details
Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement and Inadequate are gone. In their place: a report card with grades across six areas, using five grades. Here is what actually changed, what the new grades mean, and how to read your school’s card.
Before
One headline judgement for the whole school, four levels.
Now
Five grades, awarded separately in each of 6 evaluation areas.
Decoder
Pick the grade your school received in each area. We will translate the combination into a plain-English summary with the right questions to raise at an open day.
Achievement
Curriculum & Teaching
Attendance & Behaviour
Personal Development
Leadership & Governance
Inclusion
Plain-English summary
Select the grade your school received in each area to see the plain-English summary.
Summaries are heuristic — they are not an Ofsted judgement. Always read the school’s full published report alongside this tool.
Every area is graded independently. A school can be Strong in Achievement and Needs Attention in Inclusion — the card shows the full shape, not a single average.
Attainment and progress across KS1, KS2, GCSE, A-level — whatever applies to the age range inspected. The 'what did they learn' area.
How lessons are planned and delivered, whether the curriculum is broad and balanced, teacher subject knowledge, and how pupils' work is marked.
Day-to-day conduct, bullying response, suspensions/exclusions, low-level disruption, and absence rates. A frequent differentiator between otherwise similar schools.
Character education, spiritual-moral-social-cultural development, extracurriculars, mental-health provision, and how the school prepares pupils for the outside world.
Head teacher leadership, senior team, governors/trustees, staff wellbeing, financial stewardship, and safeguarding oversight — the accountability line.
SEND and disadvantaged pupil outcomes, EAL support, attendance for vulnerable groups. The area where 'value-add' for struggling learners shows up most clearly.
The reforms aren’t just for schools. Early Years settings — nurseries, pre-schools and childminders on the Early Years Register — now get the same five-point report card (Exceptional, Strong standard, Expected standard, Needs attention, Urgent improvement), but graded across early-years areas rather than school ones:
How well children develop and learn across the early-years curriculum.
Whether children settle, form routines and behave well.
Safety, health, emotional security and how children are cared for.
The quality and ambition of what children are taught, and how.
How well the setting meets the needs of every child, including SEND.
Vision, staff support, and how the setting is run.
Breakfast clubs, after-school and holiday provision (and childminders registered only on the Childcare Register) aren’t graded on the report-card scale at all. Ofsted instead checks whether they meet the Childcare Register requirements and records the outcome as Met or Not met. A “Not met” outcome means Ofsted set actions — or, in serious cases, took enforcement; always read the report for what was found.
Settings inspected before the new framework still show a legacy Early Years grade (Outstanding / Good / Requires Improvement / Inadequate) until their next inspection.
Ofsted is explicit that the new grades are not a one-for-one swap, but the following table shows the rough correspondence — useful for comparing a school inspected under the new framework against one still holding a legacy grade.
| New report card | Legacy equivalent | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Exceptional | Outstanding | Roughly equivalent |
| Strong standard | Good | Roughly equivalent |
| Expected standard | — | New — no direct equivalent |
| Needs Attention | Requires Improvement | Roughly equivalent |
| Urgent Improvement | Inadequate | Roughly equivalent |
A school inspected pre-Nov 2025 retains its legacy grade until the next inspection. Expect a mix of old and new grades across schools for several years.
Start with Leadership & Governance.
Covers safeguarding, staff wellbeing, and financial management. Any red flag here is structural and worth addressing first.
Check Achievement against catchment demographics.
A Strong grade in a selective or advantaged area is table stakes; a Strong grade in a deprived catchment is a genuine signal of teaching quality.
Look at Inclusion for the story that matters most to your child.
This is where SEND, EAL, and pupil-premium outcomes live. Crucial if your child has additional needs — or a strong signal of culture if they do not.
Read the lowest grade on the card.
Schools change most at their weakest area. Ask the head what the improvement plan looks like and whether it is already on track.
Compare against the school’s legacy grade.
A school that was Outstanding but is now Expected has genuinely slipped somewhere. A school that was Requires Improvement and is now Strong has made real ground.
From November 2025. Inspections carried out from that date produce a report card with grades across six areas — not a single headline judgement. Schools inspected before November 2025 keep their legacy grade (Outstanding/Good/Requires Improvement/Inadequate) until their next inspection.
Yes — as overall headline judgements. Schools no longer receive one-word grades on their latest report. Legacy grades remain on file for schools not yet re-inspected, so parents will see a mix for the next few years.
Roughly. Exceptional is reserved for schools going well beyond the national standard — a deliberately narrow grade. Strong corresponds to what you'd previously have recognised as Good or early-Outstanding. Expected — the new middle grade — has no direct legacy equivalent.
After the 2023 coroner-led review into a head teacher death connected to inspection stress, the government consulted widely and agreed single-word judgements were too reductive and too high-stakes. The new format gives parents a richer picture and schools a more actionable report.
These are below-standard grades and trigger a monitoring visit. Needs Attention is a yellow flag; Urgent Improvement is a serious concern that typically leads to structural support (often an academy order for state schools). In either case, ask the school for their improvement plan — every inspected school has one.
Yes. Early Years settings on the Early Years Register — nurseries, pre-schools and childminders — now get the same five-point scale (Exceptional, Strong standard, Expected standard, Needs attention, Urgent improvement), graded across early-years areas such as achievement, children’s welfare & wellbeing, curriculum & teaching, inclusion and leadership. Out-of-school clubs and childminders registered only on the Childcare Register are different: they’re judged “Met” or “Not met” rather than graded. Settings inspected before the new framework keep their legacy Early Years grade until re-inspected.
Safeguarding is assessed under Leadership & Governance and is graded separately as Met / Not Met. A school can be Strong overall while still having a safeguarding concern — always check that line specifically.
Only state-funded schools in England fall under Ofsted's new framework. Independent schools continue to be inspected by ISI on the Met / Not Met basis introduced in 2023. In Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, Estyn / Education Scotland / ETI use their own scales, unchanged by the Ofsted reform.
Every inspected school in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland — with the full report, historical data, and parent reviews in one place.