Ofsted inspection: what you need to know

What does Ofsted stand for?

Ofsted stands for the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills.

Is Ofsted a government body?

Ofsted is a non-ministerial government department and independent inspectorate. It operates independently while remaining accountable through Parliament and its statutory governance arrangements.

What is the role of Ofsted?

Ofsted inspects and regulates education, childcare and social care services across England. Its responsibilities include:

• Inspecting schools, colleges and other education and skills providers

• Inspecting and regulating early years and childcare providers

• Inspecting children’s social care services, including fostering and adoption agencies

• Inspecting other services for children and young people

• Reporting its findings to inform parents, carers, providers and government

What is an Ofsted rating?

Ofsted inspections assess the quality of education and provision using evidence gathered during an inspection.

For state-funded schools, the inspection system changed in November 2025. Schools no longer receive one overall Ofsted grade. Instead, Ofsted publishes a report card containing grades for individual areas of the school.

What are the new Ofsted ratings?

Under the current framework, evaluation areas are graded using five levels:

• Exceptional

• Strong standard

• Expected standard

• Needs attention

• Urgent improvement

Safeguarding is assessed separately as met or not met.

The main areas assessed in state-funded schools are:

• Inclusion

• Curriculum and teaching

• Achievement

• Attendance and behaviour

• Personal development and wellbeing

• Leadership and governance

Early years and post-16 provision are also evaluated where applicable.

What happened to outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate?

The previous four-point grading system still appears on older Ofsted reports, so parents may continue to see these terms when looking at a school’s inspection history.

However, they are not the current grading system for new state-funded school inspections. The new grades are based on a different framework and should not be treated as direct equivalents to the old grades.

Does Ofsted still give schools an overall grade?

No.

The new system does not combine individual grades to create an overall Ofsted judgement.

Instead, schools receive a report card showing the grades and findings for the relevant areas. This is designed to give parents a more detailed picture of a school’s strengths and areas for improvement.

How often are schools inspected?

Full inspections normally last two days.

Schools are generally inspected approximately every four years, although there are exceptions. Schools requiring monitoring or those with particular concerns may be inspected sooner.

What happens after an Ofsted inspection?

Ofsted normally sends the draft report card to the school within 18 working days of the inspection ending.

The school has five working days to comment on minor points such as factual accuracy or clarity.

The final report card is normally issued within 30 working days. Ofsted normally publishes the final report online five working days after sending it to the school.

What does “urgent improvement” mean?

Urgent improvement is the lowest grade on the new scale. It means urgent action is needed to provide a suitable standard of education or care in that particular area.

A school can receive different grades across different areas, so an individual “Urgent improvement” judgement does not automatically mean the whole school has been given an overall grade.

Ofsted inspections in 2026

The biggest change to remember is that Ofsted has moved away from giving state-funded schools a single overall grade.

The new report cards provide individual evaluations across key areas including inclusion, curriculum and teaching, achievement, attendance and behaviour, personal development and wellbeing, and leadership and governance.

For parents, the best way to understand a school’s current Ofsted position is to look at its latest report card and the detailed findings behind each grade, rather than relying on an old Outstanding or Good judgement.

Looking for more useful tips, resources and guidance? Register with Engage and discover more.