Ofsted Guidance for School Leaders

Evaluation areas

Six evaluation areas will be graded:

Inclusion

Personal development and wellbeing

Curriculum and teaching

Attendance and behaviour

Achievement

Leadership and governance

There will also be grades for:

Early years (where applicable)

Sixth form (where applicable)

Schools will be given one of five grades for each area:

Safeguarding will be a separate grading of ‘met or not met’

When can schools expect their next inspection?

How Ofsted use the IDSR on inspection

Ofsted report cards and grades

In summary

All inspections will be full inspections (no graded and ungraded anymore).
All inspections will be led by an HMI (or an OI who has recently been an HMI (within 3 years)) to ensure more consistency across schools.
Full inspections will last for two days.
Schools will be inspected approximately once every 4 years, unless they are part of a monitoring programme.
There will be no deep dives. They are replaced by learning walks with the "relevant leader". Learning walks will focus on inclusion/curriculum, teaching and achievement/leadership and their impact. Learning walks will also include "case sampling". You can see a description of whar case sampling means here.
Inspectors will consider what leaders are aiming to achieve, how well they are doing it and how they know it is working (intent, implementation, impact).
Throughout the inspection, inspectors will give particular attention to the experiences and outcomes of disadvantaged pupils, pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), pupils known or previously known to children’s social care and those who face other barriers to their learning and/or well-being. Inclusion is a new and separate judgement, but it also weaved into every other area.
Notification of an inspection will still be via a phone call on a Monday morning. Following a bank holiday, or in the first week after the Christmas or Easter holidays, the lead inspector may contact the school on a Tuesday. In the autumn term Ofsted can inspect 5 school days after the first day that pupils attend.
If it is a previously deferred inspection or a monitoring inspection, the lead inspector may notify the school on any day of the working week.
The planning call (the 90 minute phone call) is expected to be a video call, "unless technology does not allow this".
Ofsted do not expect leaders to produce written evidence to support each standard in each evaluation area of the toolkit.
Ofsted do not expect schools to have completed any formal self-evaluation using the toolkit. However, "schools may wish to use the toolkit to support continuous improvement. In the planning call with leaders, we will ask where they see themselves against the 5-point scale of each evaluation area".
Any area that is graded "needs attention" will be subject to monitoring visits focussed on that area. One inspector will be linked to the school for the duration of that monitoring.
School with any ‘urgent improvement’ evaluation areas could either be placed in ‘special measures’, ‘requires significant improvement’ or ‘no category of concern’
Schools that require significant improvement will receive up to 5 inspections within 18 months of the last full inspection.
Schools that require special measures will receive up to 6 inspections within 24 months of the last full inspection
There is a list of documents that schools must provide to inspectors here.
There is a greater focus on pupils in AP. The details are here.
There is a focus on pupil premium. There should be, "a pupil premium strategy that is well thought through, is based on evidence
of what works well to support the achievement of eligible pupils, and accounts for any challenges pupils face that may negatively affect their education and their readiness to engage with school". Support for writing a pupil premium strategy is here.
Accessibility plans are mentioned explicitly, "the published school accessibility plan meets the requirements of the Equality Act 2010, is implemented effectively and is reviewed regularly".
Schools should be clear about who will lead on the inclusion element of an inspection. Whilst it is a separate judgement it is weaved into every area of the new framework.

Nominee training

Nominee training for Early Years - Ofsted webinar

Nominee training for schools - Ofsted webinar

Taken from: Inspection information for state-funded schools: for use from November 2025

Schools are invited to nominate a senior member of staff to support planning, communication and engagement throughout the inspection. Their involvement helps the inspection to run smoothly.

In particular, the role of the nominee is to:

attend the planning call alongside the leader
where delegated by the appropriate authority, inform relevant stakeholders about the inspection
make sure that children, pupils, parents and staff are informed about how they can give their views through the online questionnaires
brief staff about inspection arrangements
provide information for the lead inspector to support inspection planning
provide insight into the school’s context
liaise with the lead inspector and make sure that documents and other information are available, and that staff can attend meetings
attend regularly planned meetings with inspectors to review evidence and discuss emerging findings and grades
act as the link between the lead inspector and the school leader if the school wants to raise any issues and concerns or to clarify anything about the inspection
keep other leaders up to date on the progress of the inspection
join the lead inspector for inspection activities, where appropriate
suggest to the inspection team where additional evidence could usefully be gathered
coordinate feedback arrangements, in particular at the end of the inspection

Further information about the nominee

It is not compulsory to have a nominee. Schools will not be at any disadvantage if they do not nominate someone.
The nominee should have thorough knowledge of how the school operates on a day-to-day basis.
The headteacher/leader may take on this role if they wish to and feel able to.
A member of staff who is an Ofsted inspector can be a nominee.
Training for nominees is available (see links to the training above) but not compulsory.
The nominee will not have access to confidential inspection notes, safeguarding complaints, or any whistle-blowing information.
Nominees will not be present during confidential discussions with learners, staff or parents, or where their presence could limit open dialogue.

Webinar recordings

Primary schools

Secondary schools

Special schools

Maintained nursery schools

Childminders

Nurseries, pre-schools and other registered early years settings

Alternative provision

You can find the Ofsted YouTube channel here

Publication of inspector training materials

Ofsted will publish recordings of inspector training materials, as part of their commitment to being a more open and transparent organisation.

They have published materials previously, through the Ofsted Academy.

To view the training videos clicks here .

Ofsted inspections: staff and pupil questionnaire text

Ofsted have published the text of the staff and pupil surveys that will be used going forward. You may wish to have a look in preparation for a forthcoming inspection or use some/all of the questions for your in house surveys.

Staff survey questions

Pupil survey questions