Ofsted went through a period of change during 2023/24, with an update to its School Inspection Handbook in January 2024, and the latest update on 16 September 2024.
The inspection handbook was also updated in April 2024, but the changes were small clarifications only.
We’ve summarised the changes from those updates in this article, so you can be prepared for Ofsted in 2024/25.
Stay up to date with the latest updates from Ofsted in our other article.
Ofsted also has a summary of changes document.
Removal of overall effectiveness grades
Graded inspections will no longer result in schools being given an overall effectiveness grade.
Inspectors will continue to give grades (outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate) for the 4 key areas of inspection:
- Evaluating quality of education
- Evaluating behaviour and attitudes
- Evaluating personal development
- Evaluating leadership and management
They will also make provision judgements for Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and sixth form, where relevant.
This is set out in paragraphs 462 and 463 of the inspection handbook.
If any of the 4 key areas are judged 'inadequate', and/or safeguarding is judged to be ineffective, the school will be placed in a formal category of concern (paragraph 190 of the handbook, linked above).
Inspectors will then decide whether the school has serious weaknesses or requires special measures, by deciding if the school is giving an acceptable standard of education:
| Judgements |
Acceptable standard of education? | Outcome |
|
Both quality of education and personal development are judged as 'requires improvement' or better | Yes | School will be judged to have serious weaknesses |
| Either quality of education or personal development is judged as 'inadequate' | No |
If leaders and governors/trustees are:
|
This is explained in paragraphs 190 to 194 of the handbook.
Read more about how inspectors judge whether schools have the 'capacity to improve' in paragraph 195 of the handbook.
If 1 or more of the key areas are judged 'requires improvement', the school may be subject to monitoring by Ofsted (paragraph 189).
There have been no changes to the grade descriptors for the 4 key areas.
Use of Ofsted logos
If your school received an 'outstanding' or 'good' overall effectiveness judgement before September 2024, you can use Ofsted logos to promote that judgement.
If your school receive a graded inspection from September 2024 onwards, you can't use the Ofsted judgement logos.
This is explained in paragraphs 187 and 188 of the handbook.
Changes to working out the likely date of inspections
The removal of the overall effectiveness grade means it's more complicated to work out when your school's next inspection might be.
Schools graded before September 2024
Your next inspection date will be based on your most recent overall effectiveness grade.
See below for specific dates and indications of timescales:
Specific dates and indications of timescales for likely date of next inspection
Schools graded from September 2024
Ofsted will set out the expected dates for when you'll next be inspected from September 2025 (when the new framework is in place).
You shouldn't expect a graded or ungraded inspection before then, but you could still have an urgent or monitoring inspection (paragraph 40 of the handbook).
Your headteacher will be notified about routine inspections on a Monday morning
This applies to graded and ungraded inspections, with the exception of:
- Urgent or monitoring inspections: they can be notified on any day
- When an inspection date is deferred: they can be notified of the new date on any day of the week
- A week with a bank holiday: they may be notified on the Tuesday
This is explained in paragraph 87 of the handbook.
Changes to ungraded inspections
We're working on an article about ungraded inspections to help you prepare for these.
- Ungraded inspections will focus on whether schools have taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection
- This change reflects the removal of the overall effectiveness grade from graded inspections
An ungraded inspection will lead to 1 of 4 possible outcomes:
- The school has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection
- Evidence gathered during this inspection suggests that the school’s work may have improved significantly across all areas since the previous inspection
- Evidence gathered during this inspection suggests that aspects of the school’s work may not be as strong as at the time of the previous inspection
- The school may now be inadequate in 1 or more of the key judgements under a graded inspection, and there are serious concerns about the quality of education, pupils’ behaviour or safeguarding. The ungraded inspection will usually be deemed to be a graded inspection within 48 hours
This is explained in more detail in paragraph 204 of the inspection handbook.
Deep dives
Ungraded inspections won't include deep dives when considering the 'quality of education' judgement.
Inspections can be paused or suspended
Pause for exceptional circumstances/occasions
Inspectors might consider pausing an inspection that has already started in 'exceptional circumstances' or 'occasions' (paragraphs 123 and 130 of the handbook).
These might include:
- Circumstances which prevent the inspectors from gathering enough evidence to reach a valid and reliable judgement, and where school leaders require support from their local authority or trust
- Any incident which has a significant effect on the day-to-day running of the school
Headteachers can request a pause, either by speaking to the lead inspector, or a senior Ofsted leader on the phone number provided.
Normally inspection will resume the next working day, but it might be up to 5 working days.
For more details, see part 2 of the guidance on pausing inspections.
Inspections can be suspended, to allow leaders to improve safeguarding
During a graded inspection, if inspectors consider that safeguarding is likely to be judged ineffective, they'll consider the wider context of the school and inspection before deciding on the outcome:
| Context | Outcome |
| If the school would still have at least 1 judgement graded ‘requires improvement’ or 'inadequate' | Inspection concludes as normal |
| No wider concerns, but there's no realistic prospect the leaders will be able to resolve the safeguarding issues within 3 months | Inspection concludes as normal, and school judged to have serious weaknesses |
| If all the judgements would have been good or outstanding, and inspectors consider that leaders would be capable of resolving the issues with safeguarding within 3 months |
The inspection will be suspended, and the school won’t be in a category of concern as the inspection is not finished.
|
This is explained in paragraph 412 of the handbook.
New focus on wellbeing
During the initial call, the inspector will ask your head to consider any reasons that mean they wish to defer. This is explained in the inspection handbook, paragraph 103 (maintained schools) and paragraph 104 (academies).
Headteachers can request a deferral either during the initial phone call or at the first opportunity afterwards, before the start of the inspection.
Inspectors usually won't consider a deferral request made after 4.30pm on the day your school is notified.
You can find this information in paragraph 92 of the inspection handbook.
Staff can bring colleagues with them to meetings with inspectors
Headteachers are encouraged to have at least 1 other senior member of staff present during:
- Both pre-inspection calls – e.g. the deputy head, assistant head, or a member of trust staff who can understand the content of the calls (paragraph 97)
- Inspectors' meetings at the end of each day – ideally the deputy head, assistant head, or trust staff, although they should try to limit the number of attendees (paragraphs 23, 136)
All staff can have another appropriate person present during meetings with inspectors (paragraph 121).
Schools can request that other leaders be present during the final feedback session, beyond the list of allowed attendees listed in paragraph 161 (paragraph 163).
Attending the final feedback meeting is voluntary, and anyone attending can leave at any time, and return if they wish (paragraph 164).
Remember that staff must not be present for meetings between inspectors and parents/carers, pupils or governors (unless there are exceptional circumstances), as was the case before (paragraphs 124 and 146).
The headteacher will be given a contact number for a senior Ofsted leader
They will get this number during the preparation for the inspection (usually the initial call).
They/any other member of senior leadership (or representative from the LA), can call this number to raise concerns that they can't resolve with the lead inspector.
If the issue can't be resolved, schools can contact Ofsted on the working day after the end of the inspection, to:
- Raise informal concerns about the process or outcomes of the inspection
- Ask about the next steps
- Highlight anything not fully considered during inspection
An inspector who is independent of the inspection will then look into this.
See paragraphs 184 and 185 for more details.
The headteacher can share inspection outcomes with some people outside of your school
School leaders can share inspection outcomes with others who aren't part of the school, such as:
- Colleagues
- Family members
- Medical advisers
- Wider support group
However, they can't make the information public, or share it with parents/carers.
You can find this in paragraph 165 of the handbook.
Ofsted won't use complaints to reach judgements
Inspectors review and consider qualifying complaints during preparation for graded and ungraded inspections, but won't:
- Investigate the circumstances of a complaint or come to conclusions about the complaint
- Follow up on complaints received before the inspection
- Use complaints, qualifying or other, or any information about complaints as evidence to support judgements
This is explained in paragraph 22 of the handbook.
Inspectors will consider whether schools requiring special measures can appoint ECTs
If the inspectors consider that the school can give early career teachers (ECTs) the support they need, they will include in the inspection report:
- Maintained schools: the school may appoint ECTs before the next monitoring inspection
- Academies: having considered the evidence, we are of the opinion that the school may appoint ECTs
If they consider the school can't provide the support needed, they will include:
- Maintained schools: the school may not appoint ECTs before the next monitoring inspection
- Academies: we strongly recommend that the school does not seek to appoint ECTs
They'll consider this again during monitoring visits. You can write to Ofsted to ask it to reconsider the position.
This is explained in paragraphs 172 to 174 of the handbook.
Other minor clarifications and changes
There have been a number of small changes throughout the handbook, including:
- Confirmation that there are no aligned inspections (when a boarding or residential special school’s graded inspection is due in the same financial year as the full inspection of its boarding or residential provision) planned for 2024/25 except in 'exceptional circumstances' (paragraph 76)
- In the inspection planning conversation, the inspector will confirm your school's governance arrangements (paragraph 99)
- In the inspection team meeting at the end of each day, if your head attends, they can discuss your reflections on what they've heard with the lead inspector, and clarify any factual matters (paragraph 100)
- There are different single central record (SCR) requirements for maintained schools and academies (paragraph 392)
Other handbooks have been updated
There have also been some small changes and clarifications in the School Monitoring Handbook – see the 'summary of changes' document.
The early years and further education and skills inspection handbooks have also been updated.
These were updated to be in-line with the school inspection handbook.