From grades to report cards: how Ofsted will share inspection outcomes
Big change ahead: from November 2025, Ofsted will no longer give schools a single overall grade. Instead, every inspection will end with a detailed report card of your school’s performance – covering everything from curriculum and teaching, to inclusion, safeguarding, and attendance and behaviour.
Here’s what you need to know about how these report cards will work, how they’re structured, and what they’ll mean for you and your school community.
You’ll also have the opportunity to ask Ofsted leaders your questions directly by joining our upcoming webinar, Ask Ofsted: what the new framework means for your school, taking place on Wednesday 26 November from 4.30pm to 5.30pm (live on Zoom). Submit your questions live during the session, or share them in advance here.
What are the new report cards?
Every school inspected under the 2025 framework will receive a report card instead of a single overall grade.
Each report card will show how your school performs across the following evaluation areas:
- Safeguarding
- Inclusion
- Curriculum and teaching
- Achievement
- Attendance and behaviour
- Personal development and wellbeing
- Leadership and governance
- Early years (if applicable)
- Sixth form (if applicable)
A new 5-point scale replaces the old single-word judgement. The evaluation areas, with the exception of safeguarding (see below) will be graded as either:
- Exceptional
- Strong standard
- Expected standard
- Needs attention
- Urgent improvement
Each area on your report card will include both the grade and a short explanation summarising the evidence behind it.
Safeguarding will be judged separately, as a stand-alone area, and will be recorded as either ‘met’ or ‘not met’. To help make sure you’re inspection-ready and your staff are clear on their safeguarding responsibilities, download our Safeguarding and child protection: the essentials 2025/26 resource.
Get a first look at what these report cards will look like in Ofsted’s short explainer video, which walks through the new format and how inspection outcomes will be presented.
What can your school community learn from the new report cards?
They’re designed to give a clearer, more detailed picture of school performance across different areas.
For school and trust leaders, the breakdown aims to help identify where practice is strongest and where improvement is most needed – offering a more balanced overview than a single grade ever could.
For parents and carers, the report card format is designed to provide more insight into what’s happening in their child’s school day to day. It will also let them see how areas like inclusion, wellbeing and behaviour sit alongside academic achievement.
And for governing boards and trustees, this approach should offer more specific information to inform oversight, planning and discussions about improvement priorities.
How can schools prepare to interpret and use them?
Alongside the new grading system, Ofsted has published a school inspection toolkit to help schools understand how inspectors will make their judgements.
The toolkit sets out:
- What evidence inspectors will gather
- The criteria for each grade
- How this links to the statutory and non-statutory expectations you already follow
You won’t need to create new documents or collect extra evidence. The toolkit is based on what schools should already have in place.
The toolkit is there to help you check that your existing records, policies and data accurately reflect your current practice. It can also help you brief staff and governors so everyone understands the new report card evaluation areas and how your school’s strengths align with them.
When you’re preparing staff, make sure they feel confident and know what to expect before, during and after inspection. Our Ofsted inspection staff briefing includes a ready-to-use presentation, facilitator notes and handouts you can adapt for your school – helping you reassure your team, set expectations and keep wellbeing front of mind.
For more practical support, see our:
For even more tools and templates to help you prepare for inspection, visit our Ofsted resource hub.
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