They have the power to make or break head teachers’ careers, send local house prices spiralling, or spell the end for struggling “inadequate” schools.
Ofsted Chief Inspector Sir Martyn Oliver announced that the old grades will be going from November, when a whole new inspection framework is introduced using “report cards”.
Teachers hand in a petition at the Department for Education calling for urgent reform of the school inspection system in 2023 (Photo: Mark Kerrison/Getty)
But the changes are coming anyway, giving parents just weeks to get to grips with them. This is what they need to know.
No more ‘good’ schools
The Government scrapped the use of these “single-word judgements” following a campaign by teachers and others to reform this high-stakes, “punitive” element of the accountability system.
Teachers outside the gates to John Rankin Schools in Newbury, Berkshire, where headteacher Flora Cooper was planning to refuse entry to Ofsted inspectors following the death of fellow head Ruth Perry (Photo: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire)
But the words themselves had lived on – used for grades awarded to specific parts of a school’s work – until now.
But the regulator also said that because 90 per cent of schools were graded either good or outstanding the grade descriptors had become “unhelpful” to parents trying to distinguish between schools, and “unfair” to the schools themselves.
From November, a new, five-point grading scale will be introduced for inspectors to rate particular elements of a school’s work. The new grades are:
Urgent improvement Needs attention Expected standard Strong standard ExceptionalChanges to the specific areas looked at in school inspections are also being made.
Under the new framework, inspectors will look at six: inclusion, curriculum and teaching, achievement, attendance and behaviour, personal development and well-being, and leadership and governance.
Each of these areas will be given a separate grade from the new, five-point grading scale.
New report cards
Ofsted is introducing new “report cards” designed to give parents an at-a-glance, summary of a school.
Ofsted states that the report card has been designed to give parents “more nuance”, while also identifying “more precisely the areas for improvement”.
Report cards will use a colour-coded table for easier understanding (Photo: Ofsted)A mock-up of a report card using a fake school (Photo: Ofsted) Parents can click on each section to get a detailed report (Photo: Ofsted)Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), warned that the new system will not provide an accurate reflection of a school’s performance, while still adding pressure to staff.
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“Even with the number of evaluation areas slightly streamlined, this exercise requires inspectors to make a large number of finely-balanced judgements in a very short space of time.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) echoed these concerns, saying: “Grading might appear clear for parents, but to try and judge schools definitively across so many areas during what is simply a two-day snapshot, seriously risks them being given unfair and misleading judgements.”
Ofsted added in its report on the responses to the consultation that focus groups YouGov held with parents heard “similarly strong support”.
She is calling on Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson to “halt the rollout of these confusing and potentially dangerous proposals”.
Will there be enough inspectors?
Under the new framework, an extra inspector will be added to each school inspection, and the frequency of inspections for early years providers will increase from every six years to every four.
Heads’ unions wrote to Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson asking for changes to be made to Ofsted inspections (Photo: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Getty)
It comes after ASCL and NAHT wrote to Phillipson in June threatening to carry out this action during the autumn term if changes were not made.
He added that Ofsted received one of its highest ever spending review settlements, with the budget rising from just under £140 million in 2025-26, to nearly £159.4 million in 2026-27.
Asked how much of this was additional money to carry out the reforms, Sir Martyn said: “We’ve received one of the largest spending review settlements ever, and we’re directing all of that on the systems and processes that will support high-quality inspection, which is fair and rigorous.”
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