Ofsted report cards are the inspection reports that state-funded schools in England have received since 10 November 2025, replacing the single-word judgement with a grade for each of several evaluation areas. This guide explains the scale, the areas, how inspections are notified and published, what triggers a category of concern and what the first statistics show, using Ofsted’s guidance as updated in August and September 2026.
Why Ofsted report cards replaced single-word grades
On 2 September 2024 the Department for Education announced that single headline grades for schools were scrapped with immediate effect. Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, said: “Single headline grades are low information for parents and high stakes for schools.” For the rest of that academic year, parents saw four sub-grades instead: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management.
Ofsted then consulted for 12 weeks from February 2025, receiving more than 6,500 responses online. It confirmed the final design on 9 September 2025. The new Ofsted report cards combine “at-a-glance grades with narrative summaries of strengths and areas for improvement”, and were redesigned after user testing to work better on mobile devices. Ofsted cited YouGov polling in which almost seven in 10 parents preferred them to the old reports. It also said school inspections would be led by full-time His Majesty’s Inspectors.
The five-point scale used in Ofsted report cards
The Ofsted inspection framework for use from November 2025, last updated on 18 September 2026, sets one scale for every evaluation area except safeguarding. There is no overall effectiveness grade.
| Grade | Meaning in the framework |
|---|---|
| Exceptional | All strong standards met, plus the additional exceptional standards in the toolkit |
| Strong standard | All expected and strong standards met |
| Expected standard | All standards met, including legal requirements, statutory guidance and applicable professional standards |
| Needs attention | Expected standard not met, because aspects of provision are inconsistent, limited in scope or impact, or do not fully meet legal requirements |
| Urgent improvement | Urgent action needed to provide a suitable standard of education and/or care |
Safeguarding is graded only as “met” or “not met”. Ofsted said in September 2025 that providers would not have to submit case studies to be considered for the exceptional grade; inspectors assess it against the toolkit.
For trust boards and governors, the practical change is that a school report card now shows a profile rather than a single label, so strengths in one area no longer average out weaknesses in another.
What Ofsted report cards evaluate
For state-funded schools and non-association independent schools, the framework lists these evaluation areas:
- safeguarding;
- inclusion;
- curriculum and teaching;
- achievement;
- attendance and behaviour;
- personal development and wellbeing;
- early years, where applicable;
- post-16 provision, where applicable;
- leadership and governance.
Inclusion is new. Ofsted said it covers support for disadvantaged children, children with special educational needs and disabilities, and those known to children’s social care, a group also targeted by the Department for Education’s new SEND inclusion factor in school funding. Leadership and governance now includes the wellbeing of staff and leaders. Independent schools are also inspected against the independent school standards.
Some content in Ofsted report cards is set by the operating guide rather than the grades. Inspectors must record a school’s religious character and, for those schools, when the next section 48 inspection is due. If no trustees were available to meet inspectors, that must be recorded too. Where a mainstream school is graded below expected standard for curriculum and teaching or achievement and pupils spend less than 32.5 hours a week in school, inspectors consider whether more time could improve the grade and say so if it could.
The detailed standards sit in the state-funded schools inspection toolkit. Ofsted’s summary of changes shows a revised toolkit, published in June 2026 for use from September 2026, with clarified wording on matters including the inclusion strategy, the role of the SENCo, mobile phone policies and comparisons of attainment with similar schools.
How inspections behind Ofsted report cards are notified
Ofsted’s inspection information for state-funded schools, updated on 28 August 2026, says schools are inspected approximately once every four years unless they are in a monitoring programme. The statutory limit is within five school years from the end of the school year of the previous inspection.
For a full inspection, the lead inspector usually telephones between 9.30 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 working day. Full inspections normally last two days, and the school must take reasonably practicable steps to tell parents an inspection is happening.
Inspections can start from five school days after pupils first attend in the autumn term. The lead inspector writes the school report card. Findings given at the final feedback meeting must not be made public or shared with parents until the final version arrives.
When Ofsted report cards are published
The timetable after an inspection is set out in the same guidance:
| Stage | Usual timing |
|---|---|
| Draft report card sent to the school | Within 18 working days of the end of the inspection, in most cases |
| School comments on clarity or factual accuracy | 5 working days |
| Final report card sent to the school | Normally within 30 working days of the end of the inspection |
| School gives a copy to parents of every registered pupil | Within 5 working days of receiving it |
| Ofsted publishes on its reports website | Normally 5 working days after sending it to the school |
Ofsted does not normally issue or publish Ofsted report cards during school holidays. A school can submit a complaint seeking a review of the inspection process, including the grades given, and Ofsted responds before it finalises the report card. Ofsted has also been piloting an independent review of complaints.
Leaders should share findings with governors or trustees before publication, but Ofsted report cards in draft form must not be published by the school. The parental duty comes from section 14(4)(c) of the Education Act 2005, and schools may meet it by email or a link on their website.
Categories of concern under the Ofsted inspection framework
The law defines two categories of concern: special measures, and requires significant improvement (called serious weaknesses before November 2025). The school inspection operating guide sets out the decision as a “twin test” in steps:
- Is any area other than leadership and governance graded urgent improvement, or is safeguarding not met?
- Is leadership and governance graded urgent improvement?
- If both answers are yes, do any of four leadership capacity indicators apply?
A yes at step 3 means special measures; a no means requires significant improvement. If only one of the first two questions is answered yes, the school requires significant improvement. If neither applies, there is no category of concern. The capacity indicators include leaders failing to prioritise the right issues, having no track record of improvement, depending too much on external support, and governors or trustees not carrying out their statutory core functions.
A provisional category of concern is reviewed by Ofsted’s internal Enhanced Consistency and Moderation Hub, and the DfE is informed. The hub can confirm the decision, recommend grade changes or ask for more evidence, with disputed cases going to a regional director and, if referred, the national director. Maintained schools and pupil referral units placed in a category of concern are subject to a directive academy order. Maintained schools in special measures may not appoint early career teachers without written permission from His Majesty’s Chief Inspector.
Monitoring after a weak school report card
Ofsted usually monitors a school that has any area graded needs attention, or that is in a category of concern. The school monitoring operating guide describes an introductory call, typically within three months of the report card being published.
- A school with any needs attention grade normally has a single on-site monitoring inspection within 24 months.
- A school requiring significant improvement may have up to five on-site monitoring inspections within 18 months.
- A school in special measures may have up to six within 24 months.
Monitoring inspections can provisionally raise grades, usually no higher than expected standard, but cannot lower them; that requires the visit to be deemed a full inspection. A category of concern can only be removed after a full inspection.
Separately, focused monitoring inspections, previously known as urgent inspections, follow up concerns raised about schools outside a category, for example through a qualifying complaint. The monitoring guide also sets out whether a monitoring visit produces a report or an update to the school’s existing report card. Under the Ofsted inspection framework, a school leaves a category of concern when no area is graded urgent improvement and safeguarding is met.
What the first Ofsted report cards show
Ofsted’s official statistics as at 31 March 2026, published on 24 June 2026, cover 921 full inspections under the new framework from 10 November 2025. The share of schools graded expected standard or better was:
| Evaluation area | Expected standard or better | Needs attention |
|---|---|---|
| Personal development and wellbeing | 95% | 5% |
| Inclusion | 89% | 9% |
| Attendance and behaviour | 85% | 14% |
| Leadership and governance | 85% | 12% |
| Curriculum and teaching | 77% | 20% |
| Achievement | 70% | 27% |
Safeguarding was met in 99% of inspections and not met in eight schools. Some 4% of schools had at least one area graded urgent improvement and were placed in a category of concern, 59% of them in special measures. Only 3% received exceptional in any area. In attendance and behaviour, 87% of primary schools reached expected standard or better against 78% of secondary schools, a gap that early Ofsted report cards make visible by phase.
Ofsted cautions that the figures are “official statistics in development” and that the grade profile “is not representative of all schools”. All 125 schools inspected from 10 to 30 November 2025 were volunteers, and 18% of the schools inspected had been rated requires improvement or inadequate at their previous full inspection, against 10% of all schools.
Ofsted report cards: what changed for September 2026
Ofsted revised its school guidance twice in 2026. Versions published in June 2026 apply from September 2026, and August 2026 updates clarified the reasons for placing a school in a category of concern and inspectors’ access to DBS information on volunteers. Other clarifications cover off-rolling, safeguarding audits (which schools may share but are not required to), fire safety, and next steps that can appear even where a grade is expected standard or above.
As of November 2026, the five-point scale, the evaluation areas and the twin test for concern remain as set out above. Leaders preparing for Ofsted report cards should work from the September 2026 toolkit and operating guides rather than earlier versions, since the standards inspectors grade against have been reworded.
