Ofsted for Governors
"We don’t do what we do, schools or governing bodies, because Ofsted are coming…..we do what we do because we care about young people’s education and welfare"
Ofsted is responsible for inspecting maintained schools and academies to make sure that they are providing a high standard of education.
Recent Changes to inspection
There has been recent changes to inspection following Ofsted's Big Listen, including:
- the removal of single headline grades (schools will still receive grades for the four existing key judgement areas) – Ofsted is developing report cards to replace this in 2025
- the removal of ‘deep dives’ from ungraded inspections
- a revised process for pausing and deferring inspections
- notice for all routine inspections (graded and ungraded) in the form of a phone call will be given on a Monday with inspections to start on a Tuesday
- a new pilot approach to safeguarding reporting – school leaders may be given 3 months to resolve safeguarding issues if the school is doing well in all other areas
Key documents and links
NGA guide to Ofsted inspection - October 2024 (pdf, 339kb)
Inspection and governance | Ofsted webinar for schools -Dec 2022