This article is about how Ofsted inspects EYFS provision for children aged 2 or older where a school's population includes children in early years as well as others.
Maintained nursery schools will not receive a separate early years grade. Early years provision that takes children younger than 2 (whether part of a school or not) is inspected under the Early Years Inspection Toolkit.
EYFS provision is graded on a 5-point scale
‘Early years’ is an evaluation area under the 2025 inspection framework.
The evaluation areas will appear on your school’s inspection report card. Each area will be graded using Ofsted’s 5-point grading system. Ofsted will use the 'expected standard' as a starting point. The exception is safeguarding, which is either 'met' or 'not met'.
The grades are:
- Exceptional
- Strong standard
- Expected standard
- Needs attention
- Urgent improvement
Inspectors will gather evidence from your EYFS when evaluating your