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New OFSTED inspections: What will they look like?
For the beginning of this academic year (2025-2026), Ofsted has announced changes to the way it inspects schools. For state-funded schools, this new framework will take effect from 10th November, 2025.
Here, at EuHu, we wanted to highlight the key changes and takeaways:
- One of the main changes will be a move to colour-coded ‘report card’ reports.
- There will no longer be an overall effectiveness grade. There will be a new 5-point grading scale (including the new ‘exceptional’ grade) which will be applied to the following key evaluation areas:
- Achievement
- Attendance and behaviour
- Curriculum and teaching
- Inclusion
- Leadership and governance
- Personal development and well-being
- *Safeguarding (*this is not graded. Schools will be given either a ‘met’ or ‘not met’ judgement)
- There will also be separate evaluations for both Early years and Post-16 provision for schools where this is applicable.
What will it look like?
5-point Gradings
The 5-point colour-coded rating system will be:
· Red – Urgent improvement
· Amber – Needs attention
· Light Green – Expected standard
· Green – Strong standard
· Blue – Exceptional
On the report card, the evaluation areas will be grouped by grade and then listed alphabetically within each grade.
Other sections of the report:
What it’s like to be a pupil at this school
This provides a description of pupils’ experience at school, based on the inspectors’ observations.
Next steps
These are the inspectors’ recommendations to leaders at the school.
About this inspection
This section provides further information about the inspection e.g. the names of the Headteacher and Chair of Governors, and who inspectors spoke with during the inspection.
There will also be contextual information including: the total number of pupils; the school capacity; pupils eligible for FSM; pupils with an EHC plan; pupils with SEN support; and school location deprivation.
The mobile-friendly version of the report has been designed to be more accessible and will contain the same information as the desktop version.
When will schools be inspected?
As mentioned earlier, this new inspection framework takes effect from 10th November 2025 for early years, state-funded schools and F.E. and skills inspections. For ITE and non-association independent schools, inspections will commence under the renewed framework from January 2026.
Ofsted will not be conducting any routine inspections in September and October 2025. It says it will will ‘prioritise’ schools who have volunteered for inspection under the new system. Routine inspections will be introduced on or after 1st December 2025, depending on the number of schools volunteering. Ofsted also says there will be no routine inspections in the week before Christmas due to inspector training.
There will be no more ungraded inspections. All inspections will be full, graded inspections.
The Ofsted ‘Call’
The call will typically occur between 9:30 and 10am on a Monday morning.
What about ‘deep dives’?
The (hopefully) good news for schools is that deep dives will no longer be part of the inspection process. Instead, Ofsted has said that inspectors will focus on a school’s context and improvement priorities, and gather evidence on the core inspection areas.
New Inspection Toolkits
The final version of the Education inspection toolkits and new operational guides have now been published and are available to download from the Ofsted website. Alternatively, click on the links below:
State-funded school inspection toolkit
Early Years inspection toolkit
With many thanks to Jacqui for sharing her expertise and passion for education.
Jacqui is an Education Specialist at EuHu and a former Primary teacher with nearly 18 years’ classroom experience. During her teaching career, she held a variety of leadership roles, including SLT member, KS1 Lead and Subject Leader for English, R.E., Science, History and Geography. Jacqui is passionate about supporting teachers and believes in creating resources that truly understand the realities of the profession.
