New Ofsted Framework

The Education Inspection Framework (EIF) and accompanying inspection toolkits have now been published by Ofsted and will apply from 1^st November 2025.

The key changes to note:

The wording of the new grades schools will be given has changed in some cases, the five grades are:

• Urgent improvement (was causing concern)
• Needs attention (was attention needed)
• Expected standard (was secure)
• Strong Standard (was strong)
• Exceptional (was exemplary)

The core inspection areas have been reduced through combining some areas and are now:

• Inclusion
• Curriculum and teaching
• Achievement
• Attendance and behaviour
• Personal development and wellbeing
• Leadership and governance
• Early years setting within schools (if applicable)

Safeguarding will be judged separately as either ‘met’ or ‘not met’.

Ofsted report cards will now combine a five point scale with a narrative explanation for each grade across all evaluation areas. Contextual information such as pupil numbers, numbers of SEND pupils and deprivation will also be shown compared to national averages.

Governance is more prominent in this framework and within this section inspectors will consider the extent to which governors/trustees:

• Are knowledgeable about their statutory duties and carry them out effectively
• Support and challenge the school’s leaders effectively
• Understand their role in considering and addressing leaders’ workload and wellbeing
• Assure themselves that leaders have an accurate understanding of the school’s context and are prioritising the right actions for improvement
• Ensure that systems for monitoring and quality assurance are fair, valid and constructive, and inform continuous improvement
• Hold leaders to account for the impact of the school’s professional learning programme for staff
• Hold leaders to account for the school’s support and provision for disadvantaged pupils who may face barriers to their learning and/or wellbeing.