From September 2024, Ofsted stopped giving schools an overall effectiveness grade. Here's what the new report cards mean for parents.
From September 2024, Ofsted stopped giving schools an overall effectiveness grade. This is one of the most significant changes to school inspection in England in over a decade — and it has left many parents confused about what school inspection results now mean.
The previous system — giving schools a single Overall Effectiveness grade of Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement or Inadequate — was criticised for oversimplifying complex institutions. A school could be rated Good overall despite having significant weaknesses in specific areas, or Outstanding despite mediocre results in some subjects.
More seriously, several high-profile cases linked Ofsted inspections to severe stress experienced by school leaders. A 2023 review commissioned by Ofsted's own chief inspector recommended moving away from single headline grades.
The new framework — called the OEIF (Ofsted Inspection and Evaluation Framework) — instead reports on each area of a school's work separately.
Under the OEIF, schools are now assessed and graded across five areas:
Quality of education — the curriculum, teaching and learning outcomes Behaviour and attitudes — conduct, attendance, safety Personal development — character, wellbeing, wider development Leadership and management — governance, school culture, staff development Early years provision (where applicable)
Each area is rated Outstanding, Good, Requires Attention (previously Requires Improvement) or Urgent Improvement (previously Inadequate).
There is no single overall grade. Instead, parents see a profile across all five areas.
Some schools inspected under the new framework are categorised as "Not judged" for overall effectiveness. This typically means the inspection was a monitoring visit (checking on a school's progress following a previous inspection) rather than a full graded inspection.
For schools rated as "Not judged" overall, Ofsted still publishes the individual area grades. A school with all five areas rated Outstanding is, by any definition, an exceptional school — even without an overall grade.
For schools inspected before September 2024, ofsted.london shows their historic overall effectiveness grade. For schools inspected under the new OEIF framework, we derive an overall indicator from the sub-grades — using the worst-performing area as the overall indicator, which is consistent with how Ofsted's previous framework worked.
We also show the inspection date prominently for every school. A school with a pre-2024 Outstanding grade has not been re-inspected under the new framework and may be rated differently if inspected today.
Rather than relying on a single overall grade, the new framework encourages parents to look at the specific areas that matter most to their child:
Read the full inspection report — available on the Ofsted website — for detailed commentary on each area. The grades are a starting point; the written report contains the specific evidence.
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