Ofsted report cards, toolkit and renewed framework (England)

Ofsted inspects schools in England, and everything on this page applies to state-funded schools in England only.

The renewed education inspection framework has applied to inspections of state-funded schools since 10 November 2025. The toolkit, operating guides and inspection information that sit under it were updated for inspections from 7 September 2026.

What changed

There is no overall effectiveness grade. Ofsted stopped giving one in September 2024. Report cards replaced the separate judgements that remained from 10 November 2025.
Each evaluation area gets its own grade on a five-point scale. Safeguarding is separate and is either ‘met’ or ‘not met’.
The school inspection handbook has been withdrawn. The toolkit, operating guides and inspection information replaced it from 10 November 2025.
What used to be called a graded or section 5 inspection is now a full inspection. Full inspections normally last 2 days.
Ofsted will usually monitor a school afterwards if any evaluation area is graded ‘needs attention’.
Ofsted says the new grades cannot be compared with the old ones.

The five grades

The framework defines the scale for each evaluation area other than safeguarding. From the top:

Exceptional. All the strong standards are met, and so are all the additional standards in the ‘exceptional’ section of the toolkit.
Strong standard. All the expected standards and all the strong standards are met.
Expected standard. All the standards are met. That includes the legal requirements, the expectations in statutory guidance and any professional standards that apply.
Needs attention. The expected standard is not met because some aspects of provision are inconsistent, limited in scope or impact, or not fully meeting the legal requirements.
Urgent improvement. The area needs urgent action to provide a suitable standard of education or care.

Inspectors start at the expected standard. The operating guide tells them to check whether every expected standard is reached, then every strong standard, and only then to consider ‘exceptional’. If one standard for a grade is not met, that grade cannot be given. Minor inconsistencies can lead to next steps without lowering the grade, so a report card may set out next steps even where an area is at ‘expected standard’ or above.

In its guide for parents and carers, Ofsted says ‘needs attention’ is “not a ‘fail’”, and that a report card may show a mix of grades.

What is graded

For schools, the framework lists these evaluation areas:

safeguarding (‘met’ or ‘not met’)
inclusion
curriculum and teaching
achievement
attendance and behaviour
personal development and wellbeing
early years, where applicable
post-16 provision, where applicable
leadership and governance

The school inspection toolkit has a section for each area. It sets out the evidence inspectors gather and the standards or indicators for each grade.

What a report card is, and when it is published

The report card is the written outcome of an inspection, published on the Ofsted reports website. It shows a colour-coded grade for each area, a description of what inspectors found and some contextual data about the school. Inspectors are told that the text must explain the grade given for each evaluation area and make clear what the school should improve.

Ofsted’s inspection information for state-funded schools gives these timings:

Ofsted sends the report card to the school, in most circumstances, within 18 working days of the end of the inspection.
The school has 5 working days to comment on the draft.
Where the school raises only minor points of clarity or factual accuracy, the final report card normally follows within 30 working days of the end of the inspection.
Once the school has the final report card, it must make sure the parents and carers of each registered pupil receive a copy within 5 working days.
Ofsted normally publishes the final report card 5 working days after sending it to the school.

Leaders should share the findings with all governors or trustees. The findings should not be made public or shared with parents and carers until the school has the final report card. Ofsted does not normally send or publish report cards during school holidays.

Who it applies to

The framework covers registered early years settings, maintained schools, academies, non-association independent schools and further education and skills provision in England.

This page deals with the documents for state-funded schools. Ofsted’s inspection information lists them as maintained schools; academies, including free schools, university technical colleges and studio schools; special schools; pupil referral units and alternative provision academies; and maintained nursery schools.

Two points for leaders of groups of schools. A school with its own unique reference number (URN) is inspected in its own right, even where it works through a federation or chain. Schools on different sites that share one URN are inspected as one body and receive one report card.

16 to 19 academies come under the further education and skills inspection information instead. Non-association independent schools have their own toolkit and guides, which replaced the independent school handbooks from January 2026.

When inspections happen

Ofsted’s inspection information says:

Schools are inspected approximately once every 4 years, unless they are in a monitoring programme. The statutory limit is 5 school years from the end of the school year of the previous inspection.
Some schools should expect their first full inspection under the renewed framework sooner, around 2.5 years after their most recent report was published. They are schools judged requires improvement under the previous arrangements, and schools judged good or outstanding whose most recent ungraded inspection suggested the grade might not hold or that aspects of their work might not be as strong.
An inspection can take place from 5 school days after the first day pupils attend in the autumn term.
For a full inspection, the lead inspector usually phones between 9.30am and 10am on a Monday. After a bank holiday, or in the first week after the Christmas, Easter or summer holidays, the call may come on a Tuesday. A previously deferred inspection can be notified on any day of the working week.
A new school usually has a full inspection in its third year of operation.
Ofsted might inspect a school at any time if it has concerns.

After a ‘needs attention’ or ‘urgent improvement’ grade

Ofsted will usually monitor a school if any evaluation area is graded ‘needs attention’, or if the school is placed in a category of concern. The detail is in the school monitoring operating guide.

Needs attention. Monitoring starts with an introductory call, typically within 3 months of the report card being published. There is normally one on-site monitoring inspection within 24 months of publication. Leaders can ask in writing for it to happen earlier if they feel they have compelling evidence that a grade is likely to improve. The Ofsted regional director decides.
Category of concern. The two categories are ‘requires significant improvement’ and ‘special measures’. A school requiring significant improvement may have up to 5 on-site monitoring inspections within 18 months of the report card being published. A school in special measures may have up to 6 within 24 months.
Moderation. A provisional decision to place a school in a category of concern is reviewed by Ofsted’s Enhanced Consistency and Moderation Hub, which can confirm it, recommend changes to one or more grades, or decide that more evidence is needed.
Grades at monitoring. An improvement monitoring inspection can provisionally improve a grade, usually no higher than ‘expected standard’. It cannot lower one: for that, the inspection has to be deemed a full inspection. The guide gives one exception, for safeguarding at a school already in a category of concern.

A school placed in a category of concern is eligible for support and intervention, which the DfE sets out in Support and intervention in schools.

What Ofsted says it does not expect

Ofsted’s inspection information has a section on potential misconceptions. Among them:

Leaders are not expected to produce written evidence for each standard in each evaluation area of the toolkit.
Schools are not expected to have completed a formal self-evaluation using the toolkit. Leaders are not at a disadvantage if they have no written self-evaluation.
Schools are not expected to prepare a presentation or any additional documents about their school or context.
Ofsted does not grade individual teachers or lessons, and does not prefer any particular method of planning, teaching or assessment.
There is no expectation that a school uses artificial intelligence in a certain way, or at all.

The toolkit says leaders can also use it to support self-evaluation and continuous improvement. That is an option, not something Ofsted expects to see written down.

Having a nominee is not compulsory, and a school is not at any disadvantage if it does not nominate someone. The same page lists the documents a school must make available by 8am on the first day of the inspection, and says schools do not need to provide anything beyond what Ofsted asks for.

What changed for September 2026

Ofsted added new versions of the toolkit, both operating guides and the inspection information on 12 June 2026, to come into force in September 2026. It updated the page again on 28 August 2026.

Ofsted’s summary of changes describes the June update to the toolkit as additional or updated wording to provide clarity. The list includes:

leaders’ and governors’ responsibilities to have an effective, whole-school approach to safeguarding
the requirement for an inclusion strategy
the role of the SENCO, and of the designated teacher in maintained schools and academies
arrangements to support pupils with medical conditions, and allergy safety policies
mobile phone policies
pupils’ attainment and progress compared with similar schools, and for disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND

The August update clarified the reasons for placing a school in a category of concern, and that inspectors will need access to information about DBS records for volunteers in regulated activity.

The toolkit says Ofsted will update it as required, usually once a year. The framework page itself was last updated on 18 September 2026, to include inspection of education, skills and work in prisons and young offender institutions.

Old grades and logos

A school judged outstanding or good for overall effectiveness before September 2024 can keep using that Ofsted logo until its next full inspection. After that inspection it must remove the logo, because overall effectiveness is no longer graded.

Ofsted’s logo guidance says schools are free to highlight their inspection results as they wish. It asks that printed content from a report card is shown alongside the official QR code badge, which a school can download from its page on the Ofsted reports website.

Keeping track

These documents change during the year. The Roundup tracks all three, along with the other official documents HeadteacherChat watches, and shows when each last changed. The official source is always linked. Detailed guidance on what to do next is for paid members.