What do Ofsted inspection grades actually mean?
A judgement about a school's provision against a published framework — and the system has changed substantially, which matters for interpreting any report you read.
The single-word judgements — Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement, Inadequate — were the headline output for years and have been discontinued for schools in England, following sustained criticism and the case of headteacher Ruth Perry. Inspections now report against separate areas without a single overall word.
The areas inspected include quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management, with additional judgements for early years and sixth form where relevant.
What an inspection actually involves. A short notice period, then inspectors spend one or two days in the school: observing lessons, conducting deep dives into particular subjects — tracing curriculum design through to what pupils remember — reviewing work, speaking to pupils and staff, and examining data and safeguarding records.
Safeguarding is effectively a threshold. If safeguarding is judged ineffective, a school cannot receive a positive judgement regardless of everything else.
The criticisms, which are substantial and now widely accepted:
A single word cannot summarise a complex institution, and the consequences of a low grade were severe and immediate — for admissions, staff recruitment, house prices, and the wellbeing of leaders.
Reliability. Studies have questioned how consistently different inspectors reach the same judgement on the same evidence.
Correlation with intake. Grades correlate with the affluence of the intake, raising the question of how much is being measured about the school rather than about its pupils.
High stakes distorting behaviour, including curriculum narrowing and — at the extreme — off-rolling.
Brevity. A judgement on years of work is formed over a small number of days.
What to read alongside it: the full report rather than any summary; the date, since schools change; the inspection history; performance data in context of intake; and — most usefully — visiting, talking to current parents, and observing how the school handles ordinary questions.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own inspectorates with different frameworks and terminology.