What Ofsted ratings actually mean: Outstanding to Inadequate explained

The four grades

What inspectors actually assess

Since September 2019, Ofsted uses the Education Inspection Framework (EIF). The overall grade is based on four areas:

• Quality of education — the curriculum, how well it's taught, and what pupils learn and remember
• Behaviour and attitudes — conduct, attendance, and attitudes to learning
• Personal development — character, resilience, extra-curricular, and preparation for life
• Leadership and management — how well the school is led and how staff are developed

Crucially, raw academic results are not the primary driver of the grade. A school with strong GCSE results could be rated Good if its curriculum or leadership has weaknesses. A school with modest results could be Outstanding if it demonstrates exceptional progress for its pupils.

The inspection gap problem

Until 2023, Outstanding schools were exempt from routine inspection. Many were last inspected in 2010, 2011, or 2012. A school with an Outstanding rating from that era has had the same leadership, staffing, and pupil intake change significantly since then — with no external check.

From September 2023, Ofsted resumed inspecting Outstanding schools. Many are now receiving Good or even Requires Improvement grades on reinspection. This means Outstanding ratings from before 2023 should be treated with particular caution.

Always check when the school was last inspected. A recently inspected Good school gives you more current information than an Outstanding school inspected eight years ago.

What the rating doesn't tell you

• Progress for your specific child — aggregate ratings mask wide variation. A school Outstanding overall may have weaknesses in specific year groups or subjects
• Class sizes and staffing — not reported in the rating. Some Outstanding schools have large classes or high staff turnover
• School culture and community — highly subjective and not captured in inspection grades
• Whether your child will get a place — the rating drives demand, which makes catchments tighter. An Outstanding school your child can't access is irrelevant

How to find Ofsted ratings

Search any address on movegrid to see nearby schools and their current Ofsted grades. For the full inspection report — including the date, sub-grades, and inspector comments — visit reports.ofsted.gov.uk and search by school name.

The full report gives you much more context than the headline grade. Two Good schools can look identical from the outside while the inspection reports reveal very different strengths and weaknesses.