Ofsted reports explained

Ofsted has changed how it grades schools twice in quick succession: first in September 2024, when it dropped the overall single-word grade it used to judge schools (ranging from Outstanding to Inadequate), and again in November 2025, when it scrapped these grades from use within the body of the report in favour of a new-style ‘report card’. Because schools are now inspected roughly every four years (it was six until 2026), reports written under all three systems are still in circulation on Ofsted’s website, so it’s worth knowing how to read each.

Ofsted reports before September 2024

Reports from before September 2024 have four single-word grades plus a headline:

• Outstanding (grade 1)

• Good (grade 2)

• Requires Improvement (grade 3)

• Inadequate (grade 4) (sometimes classed as Special Measures or Serious Weaknesses)

These grades were applied to each of the following areas of school life:

• The quality of education

• Behaviour and attitudes

• Personal development

• Leadership and management

• 16-19 study programmes (if relevant)

• Early years provision (if relevant)

Reports published before September 2024 also carry an overall headline grade on top of these – essentially a summation of the grades above – giving an at-a-glance sense of the school’s overall quality.

Ofsted reports from September 2024 to November 2025

From September 2024, Ofsted stopped awarding the single word grade for overall effectiveness. The then-new Labour government judged them ‘reductive’ and unable to give ‘a fair and accurate assessment of overall school performance’. Single-word judgements awarded before the change will remain visible on a school’s Ofsted page until the school is next inspected which, on the current four-year cycle, may still be some way off for many schools.

Between September 2024 and November 2025, reports continued to use the same four grades – Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement and Inadequate – for each individual area; they simply stopped using them to grade the school as a whole.

Ofsted report cards from November 2025

In November 2025, Ofsted replaced the old four-point scale entirely with a ‘report card’ – a longer, more detailed document that grades several areas of school life individually, with no overall summary grade at all.

The old categories no longer appear on new reports. Instead, each area is graded on a new five-point scale, from best to worst:

• Exceptional

• Strong standard

• Expected standard

• Needs attention

• Urgent improvement

‘Expected standard’ is the new benchmark for a high-performing school – Ofsted’s a very rough equivalent of Ofsted’s old ‘Good’ – while ‘Exceptional’ is reserved for practice judged among the best nationally. Safeguarding isn’t graded on this scale at all; it’s simply marked ‘met’ or ‘not met’.

The areas graded have changed too. The old ‘quality of education’ judgement has been split into two – ‘curriculum and teaching’ and ‘achievement’, and ‘leadership and management’ has been renamed ‘leadership and governance’. A full report card for a mainstream school now typically covers:

• Leadership and governance

• Curriculum and teaching

• Achievement

• Attendance and behaviour

• Personal development and wellbeing

• Inclusion

• Early years provision (if relevant)

• Sixth form provision (if relevant)

• Safeguarding (met or not met)

Ofsted itself is at pains to point out that the new grades ‘can’t be compared’ to the old ones. This is reasonable enough, given how differently they’re calculated, but it does mean parents comparing a school inspected in 2026 with one last inspected in 2022 have to compare two different kinds of report. However, a school’s older reports stay listed on its Ofsted page even after a new report card is published, so it’s worth reading both if you’re weighing up somewhere that hasn’t been inspected recently.

Schools are now inspected roughly every four years, down from six, so Ofsted pages should update more frequently than in the past, although it will take until every school has been through at least one full report-card inspection before the old-style grades disappear from view altogether.

Whichever system produced the report in front of you, don’t stop at the grade. Typically, more than 90 per cent of mainstream state schools have historically been summed up as ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ overall and yet there is clearly plenty to distinguish these schools from each other.

Further levels of information are to be found in the grades given for the individual areas of assessment, but a ‘Good’ in ‘The quality of education’ can only tell you a fraction of the story. Even a ‘Requires Improvement’ can belie positives that can only be found if you delve into the full text. Read reports with care – inspectors have seen many schools and tend to think everyone knows what’s meant by terms like ‘low-level disruption’. Nothing much then? No. They actually mean the most annoying kind, the sort that’s ongoing and actually much worse for other pupils than the occasional spectacular blow-out followed by a quick expulsion.

What should you look for in an Ofsted report?[h3]

Other things to look out for include:

• Does the teaching meet the needs of all abilities, from the very bright to those with special needs or disabilities?

• Do teachers provide engaging tasks and resources?

• Do they encourage deep thinking?

• Does the school promote wide reading well?

• How effectively is bullying dealt with?

• Is there good provision for mental health and wellbeing?

• Does the school encourage pupils’ opinions to be heard and how well does it respond to them?

• Is there good provision of extra-curricular activities, trips, visits and clubs?

Parents are consulted via an online questionnaire, but the numerical data is no longer included with the report – a pity, as it was very informative, and knowing the percentage of parents that had responded was also revealing. You can, however, view responses online on the Ofsted Parent View site.

On the whole, despite improvements, we have our doubts about the current system. Mechanistic (relying on statistical analysis), not getting under the skin of a school, and unsupportive are some of the complaints we’ve heard.

Many schools complain that Ofsted has already made up its mind before visiting, basing its judgement on raw results rather than teaching. Some also suspect political pressure to come up with judgements that conform to government views, with allegations that some ‘superheads’ get advance warning of inspections.

Some headteachers have expressed concerns about the inconsistency of inspections and the difficulty in navigating the complaints procedure, which deters challenges when it is felt that mistakes have been made. It is also felt by many schools that the focus rests on test and exam results in a limited range of subjects at the expense of – for example – arts and technology. There have been concerns about how many schools with outstanding grades have been left to their own devices and had an inspection for over a decade.

The new report cards were meant to address some of this but haven’t entirely won sceptics over. Surveys of school leaders since the November 2025 rollout have found a majority still don’t rate the new system as an improvement. Whether they prove a genuine change of culture or, as some heads have put it, a rebrand of the same high-stakes process, will only become clear once enough schools have been through one.

Other questions you might want to consider are: is a one or two-day visit really enough to make an accurate judgement of a school? Are 20-30 minutes’ observation really enough to make an accurate judgement of a teacher?

At The Good Schools Guide, we don’t visit a school just because it has a top rating – though it may form part of our judgement. Equally, we have been known to review schools rated as Requires Improvement. We find out what current parents think, talk to the head about their plans, and form a judgement: which may be that the highly-rated school has got its grade by ticking boxes, whilst the one marked down has a talented head, great parental support, and is a school where we wouldn’t mind sending our children.

In England, the schools that most impress inspectors will see this reflected across the board. Under the old system, that meant ‘Outstanding’ ratings in every area, framed certificates, and banners around the school; under the new report cards, it means a run of ‘Exceptional’ and ‘Strong standard’ grades. An overall summary grade is now a thing of the past either way, but a glowing set of results can still prompt something of a virtuous cycle. Top grades beget top grades; ambitious, well-educated parents are attracted to the area and corner the market for places at the school. Providing there is no implosion in the school’s leadership, its reputation and success endure.

At the other end of the scale, only a small minority of schools have historically been graded ‘Inadequate’ overall, or now receive ‘Urgent improvement’ against one or more areas. Under the new system, a school which has been given an ‘Urgent improvement’, or with safeguarding judged ‘not met’, is placed in one of Ofsted’s two statutory categories of concern – ‘requires significant improvement’ or ‘requires special measures’ – and enters a monitoring programme. In reality, this situation may result in a change of school leadership or the school, if not already, becoming part of a multi-academy trust.

Schools receiving ‘Needs attention’ in any area are also monitored. The shortened four-year inspection cycle is partly designed to stop schools coasting unchecked for years on an old top grade, as had happened under the previous six-year cycle.

Further information

ISI – www.isi.net (for independent schools)

Education Scotland – www.hmie.gov.uk (for Scottish schools)

ETI – www.deni.gov.uk (in Northern Irish schools)

Estyn – www.estyn.gov.uk (for Welsh schools)

Alongside our own reviews of more than 13,000 schools, The Good Schools Guide carries links to the Ofsted or ISI report of every school in England. Use our school search to find schools that interest you.