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How Ofsted inspects your curriculum

Ofsted's 'quality of education' measure puts your curriculum in the spotlight. Understand how inspectors will judge your intent, implementation and impact, and the evidence they'll consider.

Updated
on 4 October 2024See updates
School types: All•School phases: All•Ref: 37734
Contents
  1. You're expected to provide a 32.5-hour school week
  2. 3 central concepts: intent, implementation and impact
  3. 3 elements of the inspection process
  4. What will come up in conversations about your curriculum 
  5. How inspectors will collect other evidence
  6. In a nutshell: what’s an 'outstanding' quality of education?
  7. Recap: 7 myths about the process, busted

You're expected to provide a 32.5-hour school week

This expectation was set out in the schools white paper 2022.

Ofsted will consider it as part of the 'quality of education' judgement. If your school is not meeting the 32.5-hour expectation and this impacts the quality of education, inspectors will:

  • Reflect this in their evaluation of your school and the inspection report 
  • Expect your school to set out a clear rationale for not meeting the expectation, and understand what impact it has on the quality of education
  • Want to understand what plans you have to meet the minimum expectation

This is explained in paragraph 239 of the School Inspection Handbook.

3 central concepts: intent, implementation and impact

Intent The extent to which your curriculum (through its design, structure and sequence) sets out the knowledge and skills that pupils will

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