Ofsted inspection changes

Ofsted have published a series of changes to school inspections that will take effect from September 2026, these include:

• A new statistical tool for grouping similar schools to help inspectors form a more rounded view of the school’s performance over time, the similar schools model for attainment will provide additional information to help leaders and inspectors understand how well pupils in one school are achieving compared to schools with a similar context
• Governance incorporated into whether leaders take an ‘effective, whole-school approach’ to safeguarding
• Additional information about ‘learning walks’, including who can accompany inspectors
• A new concept of ‘leaders who have an inclusion role’ beyond the SENCo
• A clear inclusion strategy.

See the Ofsted Toolkit for more information.