Ofsted is pushing ahead with plans to judge schools using a five-point grading scale from November, and wants heads to volunteer for the first wave of report-card inspections.

The watchdog has published its long-awaited final inspection plans today, making a number of changes to the proposals it consulted on earlier this year.

It has reduced the number of evaluation areas it will judge schools on from eight to six, renamed the grades it will apply and changed the toolkits that inspectors will use to assess schools.

However, teaching union leaders have dismissed these changes as “minor and cosmetic” - and one leaders’ union is now asking its executive committee and council whether to encourage members to withdraw en masse from working as inspectors.

Five-point scale remains but with new grades

Ofsted is sticking with a plan announced earlier this year to introduce a new five-point scale for inspection judgements for each evaluation area, of which there are now six instead of eight.

However, it has changed the names of grades, with its lowest rating now called “urgent improvement” rather than “causing concern”.

“Attention needed” has been tweaked to “needs attention”, and the middle grade will be “expected standard” rather than “secure”.

There will then be a “strong standard” grade, and the highest grade will be “exceptional” - rather than “exemplary”.

Alongside each grade, there will be a narrative explaining inspectors’ justification for awarding it. 

Schools will not receive an overall single-phrase effectiveness grade after these were scrapped by Labour last year.

Ofsted has said it does not have any quotas for how many of each of the new grades it expects schools to receive.

Fewer evaluation areas

The five grades set out above will now be applied to six different areas instead of the eight that were originally proposed.

To achieve this, curriculum and teaching have been combined into one category, as have attendance and behaviour.

The other four inspection areas are inclusion; achievement; personal development and wellbeing; and leadership and governance.

There will be additional evaluations for early years and post-16 where schools have this provision. 

And schools will be assessed on a separate safeguarding judgement, involving a binary grade of “met” or “not met”.

Ofsted will start inspections with volunteer schools

Earlier this year, Tes revealed that the publication of Ofsted’s finalised plans would be delayed, meaning schools would only get half a term’s notice before inspections began.

Unions said the idea that schools could prepare for a complete change in the inspection system in the space of just two months was “ridiculous”.

However, Ofsted has stuck with a November launch date - but its first wave of inspections will now be in schools that volunteer to take part.

Tes understands a few dozen schools have already indicated they are willing to do this.

Voluntary inspections will start on 10 November and a normal schedule will not start before 1 December. It is possible that inspections of volunteer schools could continue beyond this date if enough schools come forward.

Toolkit changes

Under the report card system, inspectors will base their judgements on “toolkits” that set out how to grade schools.

The content of these toolkits initially sparked significant concern from leaders, but - as Tes previously revealed - they have since been rewritten.

Under the changes, inspectors will start by gathering evidence to see if schools are meeting the “expected standard” grade.

All areas covered by this grade will need to be met before inspectors can consider evidence against the “strong standard”.

Ofsted has also said that it is moving from a “best fit” approach to a “secure fit” model. This means that each standard within a grade must be met before that grade can be awarded.

Ofsted said: “We believe this will help keep grading as consistent as possible.”

Monitoring inspections

Schools graded as “urgent improvement” in an evaluation area will receive a monitoring inspection each term following the publication of the report card. 

Schools deemed to require significant improvement - judged as “urgent improvement” in any evaluation area or “not met” in safeguarding - will receive up to five extra inspections within 18 months.

Schools that are judged to require special measures - graded as “urgent improvement” in leadership and governance or “not met” in safeguarding, and given the lowest grade in at least one other evaluation area - will receive up to six inspections within 24 months.

Ofsted will also monitor schools that receive a “needs attention” grade in any of the evaluation areas.

A monitoring inspection can move a grade up to at least “expected standard”. When this happens, the report card will be updated.

Once a school is graded “expected standard” or above in all areas, the monitoring programme will end.

Ofsted will recommend what needs to improve

Report cards will make recommendations, or set actions, on what schools need to improve. Ofsted said there had been “widespread” calls for this from education professionals in its Big Listen consultation.

Schools with an area graded as “needs attention” will receive at least one recommendation describing “what needs to improve” - but they will not be told “how to do it”, Ofsted said.

Watchdog publishes independent wellbeing review

Alongside its final inspection plans, Ofsted has also published an independent review of wellbeing today, which was carried out by Sinéad Mc Brearty, chief executive of charity Education Support.

In her appraisal of the revised framework, Ms Mc Brearty warned that Ofsted’s plans do not “reduce the pressure on leaders to achieve a desirable outcome”. 

“The transition from a known quantity framework to something unknown creates additional anxiety about getting it right,” Ms Mc Brearty continued.

In the review, Ms Mc Brearty called on Ofsted to implement changes to reduce the “isolation and individual responsibility felt by headteachers and principals”.

In response, Ofsted said it has introduced an optional “nominee” role for schools to “ease the inspection process and help reduce the demands placed on providers”.

And it added that increased monitoring inspections mean that “progress can be recognised promptly”.

Ms Mc Brearty also suggested that Ofsted invests significantly in the wellbeing and professional development of its HMI workforce.

Ofsted has announced that it will add an extra inspector on the first day of school inspections, to boost capacity and support inspection teams.

‘Similar schools’ tool planned

The watchdog has also revealed today that is working on producing a “similar schools” comparison measure to help inspectors and schools to understand how they compare with those in a similar context. Ofsted has said it will ensure its approach is consistent with any work the Department for Education does in this area.

Service to give overview of children’s experience

A new service will launch in November called “Ofsted: explore an area”, aiming to provide an overview of children and young people’s experiences across the watchdog’s remits, in each area of the country.

Chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver has previously told MPs he wants the inspectorate to be able to provide an overview of services in each area.

How DfE will use Ofsted grades

Earlier this year, the DfE launched its own accountability consultation, which looked at how it would use Ofsted’s new grades to decide where its Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) teams would intervene in schools.

Today it has set out plans to intervene in schools using a new definition of stuck schools based on the new Ofsted framework. It also plans to provide, from September 2026, 18 months of RISE team support to schools identified as requiring significant improvement in Ofsted’s report card inspections.

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