Ofsted exists to raise standards of education and care for children. Our inspections shine a light on where schools need to make improvements, but we also celebrate the very best practice we find across the country so that other schools can learn from it. Importantly, we report back to you, the parents and carers we serve, to help you make informed decisions about your child’s education and care.
At the end of last year, we began inspecting schools in a different way – looking at a wider range of areas and awarding grades on a five-point scale, without one overall judgement. And we now publish the findings in new report cards, which have been designed with you in mind – to provide you with better and more detailed information about the school your child attends. The colour-coded 5-tier grading system gives you an at-a-glance view of a school’s performance across the different inspection areas, while the narrative provides more detail about what it is doing well and where it can improve. And all report cards are fully accessible on mobile phones and tablets.
It’s important to say that our previous inspection grades (outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate) cannot be compared to the new grades (exceptional, strong standard, expected standard, needs attention and urgent improvement). We’re reporting on more of the issues that matter to you, for instance – how the curriculum and teaching are being delivered, what attendance and behaviour are like at the school, and whether children are being kept safe. And our new way of grading means that schools could achieve highly in some areas and do less well in others. This is completely normal and it’s the real beauty of our new report cards. They offer a richer and deeper level of information about your child’s school that will help you understand all of its strengths as well as what it needs to improve. Our recent YouTube video explains the changes we’ve made to the way we report to you.
A crucial element of our new approach to inspection is its focus on inclusion, which is both a standalone evaluation area schools are graded against, and also a thread woven through each of the other evaluation areas. We want to make sure that every single child is seen, heard and encouraged in their aspirations, no matter their starting point in life. So, inspectors look at whether schools are providing high-quality support to help all children achieve, belong and thrive, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and those known to children’s social care. Because we know that if schools are getting it right for these children, then they will also be getting it right for all other children.
Now that schools aren’t being awarded an overall, single word judgement, there are more ways they can share their inspection outcomes. Schools are free to promote and celebrate their successes however they wish – and I’m sure you’ll have seen many do this on banners at the school gates, quoting from their Ofsted report. But we also want to make sure that parents have easy access to the full report card, so you can understand those findings in context. That’s why we recently launched new QR code badges for schools, which link directly to their Ofsted report. We’ve asked schools to display these badges wherever they are promoting their inspection outcome.
We’re confident that our new inspections are fair on school leaders and staff, because they are designed to offer a collaborative experience and a balanced evaluation of their work, which takes their unique circumstances into account. And I’m pleased to say we’ve had some really great feedback from headteachers across the country who have found our new approach to be a welcome and positive change.
We hope that you, the parents, will also see how our new approach reflects the feedback we heard from you. As always, we will keep working with both parents and educational professionals to continually improve the way we go about our work.