An Ofsted 'Requires Improvement' rating sounds alarming. But what does it actually mean in practice — and should it change where you send your child?
When a school receives a 'Requires Improvement' (RI) rating from Ofsted, many parents assume the worst. Their child's school is failing. They should move their child immediately. The school is in crisis.
In most cases, this reaction is an overreaction. Here's what Requires Improvement actually means — and what it doesn't.
Ofsted defines Requires Improvement as a school that "is not yet a good school." That's the entirety of it. The school has been found to have shortcomings in at least one significant area, but it is not classed as having serious weaknesses or being in special measures.
The key word is "yet." Requires Improvement is not a failing school. It is a school that has been identified as needing to improve, and Ofsted will re-inspect it — usually within 30 months — to check on progress.
Before drawing conclusions from an RI rating, check three things:
1. When was the school inspected? An RI rating from four years ago tells you very little about a school today. Schools that receive RI ratings are re-inspected more frequently. Many have already improved to Good by the time parents see the rating. Always check the inspection date.
2. Which areas triggered the rating? Under the new Ofsted framework (from September 2024), schools are rated across five areas: Quality of education, Behaviour and attitudes, Personal development, Leadership and management, and Early years provision. An RI rating in one area while scoring Good or Outstanding in the others is very different from a school that received RI across all five.
3. What has the school done since? Leadership teams change. Teaching staff changes. Curriculum is overhauled. A school that received RI two years ago under a previous head teacher and has since appointed new leadership may be performing significantly better. The Ofsted report itself often contains detailed information about the school's improvement trajectory.
Approximately 8% of London schools are currently rated Requires Improvement. This means a child in an RI school is in a relatively unusual situation — but also that plenty of London children attend these schools, and the majority have perfectly adequate educational experiences.
Research by the Education Policy Institute has consistently found that the correlation between Ofsted ratings and pupil progress is weaker than many parents assume. Some schools rated Good are outperformed on pupil progress measures by schools rated Requires Improvement.
There are situations where an RI rating warrants more serious attention:
An Outstanding school inspected seven years ago may be performing worse today than an RI school inspected last year that is clearly on an upward trajectory. Ofsted ratings are snapshots. They tell you about a school at a specific moment in time, not about the school your child will attend for the next seven years.
Use the data on ofsted.london alongside other evidence: visit the school, speak to parents of current pupils, look at the KS2 progress scores (which often tell a different story from the headline Ofsted rating), and check how recently the inspection took place.
A Requires Improvement rating deserves attention. It rarely deserves panic.
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