Ofsted single-word judgements will be scrapped immediately, the Government has announced.
Teachers, school leaders, and unions have long called for the move, but the previous government dismissed their demands, insisting that schools needed to be held accountable and that parents liked the clarity of a headline judgement.
But the decision by Labour to abolish the ratings of “outstanding”, “good”, “requires improvement” or “inadequate” comes after the death of Ruth Perry, the headteacher of Caversham Primary School in Berkshire who took her own life in January 2023 while waiting for an Ofsted report to be published.
Following a major consultation known as the Big Listen, Ofsted will stop using the one-word ratings to judge a school’s performance, replacing them with new “School Report Cards” from September 2025.
The layout of the report card and what it will include is subject to consultation and will be developed over the coming months, the Government has said.
In the meantime, schools will continue being rated from “outstanding” to “inadequate” for categories within existing reports – but the headline grade will no longer appear.
Here is i‘s guide for parents on what to expect from the changes to Ofsted and how to tell whether a school is good or bad.
How are Ofsted reports changing and what is the timeline?
The Government announced on Monday that headline judgements will be scrapped from Ofsted reports, starting this September.
For inspections this academic year, parents will see four grades across the existing sub-categories: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development and leadership and management.
This means the Ofsted grades – outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate – will still be used this academic year, but there will not be a single headline judgement.
This reform paves the way for the introduction of School Report Cards from September 2025, which are intended to give parents a comprehensive assessment of how schools are performing.
What will School Report Cards look like?
The layout of the report card is subject to consultation but it is expected to provide a more nuanced narrative about the strengths and weaknesses of each school.
The report card could include different sections such as:
- Behaviour
- Attendance rates
- Support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)
- Exclusion rates
- Pupil well-being
- Extracurricular offer
Labour has been vague about what form the card will take and the Department for Education (DfE) has said the design and content will be developed in the coming months following consultation with schools and parents.
Jason Elsom, chief executive of Parentkind, a charity representing school parent-teacher associations, said parents want “greater clarity of the performance of their children’s school”.
Polling of a representative sample of parents with children at schools in England in April revealed that parents were significantly more supportive of proposals for Ofsted report cards where they included an “overall evaluation” of the school.
The survey, commissioned by Parentkind, found that proposals that included an overall evaluation were backed by average of 79 per cent of parents. Proposals where it was missing were backed by an average of just 52 per cent of parents.
The charity said ensuring the report card still provides a clear assessment of each school – without relying on a single-word judgement – is crucial.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said single headline grades are “low information for parents and high stakes for schools”, adding that Ofsted reform is needed to help raise standards for children in schools.
“Parents deserve a much clearer, much broader picture of how schools are performing – that’s what our report cards will provide,” she said.
“This Government will make inspection a more powerful, more transparent tool for driving school improvement. We promised change, and now we are delivering.”
Will the Government intervene in inadequate schools?
Over the next year, the Government could still intervene in schools judged as “inadequate” in one of four areas, Ms Phillipson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
The Government stated that poorly performing schools will be supported to install plans to improve the education and experience of children rather than relying on changing schools’ management.
But she confirmed that struggling schools could still be forced to become academies.
Asked whether an inadequate judgement in the sub-categories could lead to a school being forced to become an academy, the Education Secretary said: “It can do, or it could involve support being put in place.
“I retain the power to issue an order to convert that school into an academy.”
Regional Improvement Teams will be introduced in early 2025 to help struggling schools address weak spots.
How will parents know if a school is good or bad?
Parents will still be able to compare schools based on judgements across a range of areas but the overall assessment will be more nuanced.
The Government insists that scrapping one-word judgements will give parents a clearer and broader picture of a school, including more detail about a school’s strengths and weaknesses.
This means that parents can focus on the areas that are important to them when choosing a school, such as care for vulnerable children or pupil well-being rather than exam results and outcomes.
But we have limited detail on what the new report cards will look like and it remains to be seen how easy it will be for parents to compare schools that have been inspected under different systems.
Education experts warned that the report card system risks being “confusing” if it includes too much information and contextualisation.
Jonathan Simons, a former Downing Street education official under both Labour and the Conservatives, previously told i the new report card could include so much information that it “baffles people”, making them revert to the headline metric of exam results.
Sam Freedman, a policy adviser to Michael Gove when he was Conservative education secretary, fears a report card system could favour middle-class families who are more used to “navigating these types of systems”.
But Mr Elsom, of Parentkind, welcomed the decision to prioritise Ofsted reform. He said: “The move to end single-word judgements as soon as practical, whilst giving due care and attention to constructing a new and sustainable accountability framework during the year ahead, is the right balance for both schools and parents.
“Most parents understand the need for school inspection, but they want that inspection to help schools to improve as well as giving a verdict on the quality of education their children are receiving. When we spoke to parents about what was important to them, their children being happy at school was a big talking point and should not be overlooked.
“Parents have been very clear that they want to see changes to the way Ofsted reports back after visiting a school, and it is welcome to see a clear timetable being set out today for moving towards a report card that will give parents greater clarity of the performance of their children’s school. We need to make sure that we get this right for parents, as well as schools.
“There is much more we can do to include the voice of parents in Ofsted inspections and reform of our school system, and today’s announcement is a big step in the right direction.”
Sir Keir Starmer rejected the suggestion the new system lacks the simplicity of the old one, and said it would provide parents with a “richer picture” of a what a school does well, and where it requires improvement.