Read about the changes to Ofsted's School Inspection Handbook for 2024. We’re working on a more detailed summary in our article on Ofsted changes – select 'save for later' at the top of that article to be notified when it’s ready.
Graded inspections no longer include 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 to 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. This is explained in more detail in paragraphs 190 and 191 of the inspection handbook.
If 1 or more of those key areas are judged 'requires improvement', the school may be subject to monitoring by Ofsted.
There have been no changes to the grade descriptors for the 4 key areas.
There are changes to how to work out the likely date of your next inspection
This is because of the removal of the overall effectiveness grade.
Schools graded before September 2024
Your next inspection date will be based on your most recent overall effectiveness grade. Find specific dates and indications of timescales set out in paragraphs 42 to 47 of the inspection handbook, linked above.
We're in the process of updating our article on Ofsted changes, where we'll include more detail. Select 'save for later' at the top right of that article to be notified when it's ready.
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.
You'll be notified about routine inspections on a Monday morning
This applies to graded and ungraded inspections, with the exception of:
- Urgent or monitoring inspections: you can be notified on any day
- When an inspection date is deferred: you can be notified of the new date on any day of the week
- A week with a bank holiday: you may be notified on the Tuesday
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.
Inspectors may consider any of the 4 key areas of inspection in an ungraded inspection.
This will lead to 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 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 suspended for 3 months, 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.
|
See more information in the inspection handbook, paragraph 412.
Other small changes:
- In the inspection planning conversation, the inspector will confirm your governance arrangements (paragraph 99)
- There are different single central record (SCR) requirements for maintained schools and academies (paragraph 392)
- There have been some small changes and clarifications in the school monitoring handbook
These and any further changes and clarifications will be set out in our article on Ofsted changes – select 'save for later' at the top of that article to be notified when it’s ready.
Next steps
Take a look at our summary article on Ofsted changes, which covers the changes in more detail.
We'll update our articles affected by the changes. Select 'save for later' at the top of these articles to be notified when this is complete.
Stay up to date on all things Ofsted with our article on the latest changes.
