One-word Ofsted judgements for state schools are being scrapped with immediate effect in a move that has been hailed as a “landmark moment for children”.
Previously, the education watchdog awarded one of four marks to schools it inspects: outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate.
From this academic year, four grades will be awarded across the existing sub-categories: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development and leadership and management, the Department for Education (DfE) has announced.
School report cards will be introduced from September 2025, which will provide parents with a “comprehensive assessment of how schools are performing and ensure that inspections are more effective in driving improvement”, it added.
The change follows engagement with the education sector and family of headteacher Ruth Perry, who took her own life after an Ofsted report downgraded her Caversham Primary School in Reading from “outstanding” to “inadequate” over safeguarding concerns.
Last year, a coroner’s inquest found the inspection process had contributed to her death.
The DfE said “reductive” single phrase grades “fail to provide a fair and accurate assessment of overall school performance” and the change will help “break down barriers to opportunity”.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson told Sky News’ Breakfast with Kay Burley programme: “We are today making that change because I believe that parents need more information about what goes on within our schools and the system that we’ve got at the moment just isn’t working.
“It’s too high stakes, and it doesn’t have a sharp enough focus on how we drive up standards in our schools. And that is incredibly important because I want all of our children to get a great education and a great start in life.”
The change has been a central mission of the new Labour government, which has vowed to raise standards in state education and generate additional funding through a tax on private school fees.
As part of the announcement today, the government said it will prioritise improvement plans for schools identified as struggling, rather than relying on changing management.
From early 2025, regional improvement teams will be introduced to work with underperforming schools to address areas of weakness.
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Ofsted rating system ‘flawed’
In cases of the most serious concern, where schools would have been rated inadequate, the government will continue to intervene.
This could include issuing an academy order, which forces maintained schools to become an academy and which may in some scenarios mean transferring to new management, the DfE said.
Ms Phillipson earlier said: “The need for Ofsted reform to drive high and rising standards for all our children in every school is overwhelmingly clear.
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“The removal of headline grades is a generational reform and a landmark moment for children, parents, and teachers.”
She added that single headline grades are “low information for parents and high stakes for schools”.
“Parents deserve a much clearer, much broader picture of how schools are performing – that’s what our report cards will provide.
“This government will make inspection a more powerful, more transparent tool for driving school improvement. We promised change, and now we are delivering.”
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Reforms ‘could go further’
The announcement comes as pupils return to the classroom this week.
The removal of single headline grades will apply to state schools due to be inspected this academic year, with other settings like independent schools and colleges expected to follow.
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The plans have been welcomed by teaching unions, who have long called for reform.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Headteachers, said: “We have been clear that simplistic one-word judgments are harmful and we are pleased the government has taken swift action to remove them.”
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However, NASUWT general secretary Dr Patrick Roach said while the new government has “made the right decision”, it could go further and “end the fallacy that academy conversion is the only route to securing the improvements our schools need”.
“Whilst today’s announcements are an important step in the right direction, it remains the case that in the absence of root and branch reform to fix the foundations of the broken accountability system, teachers and school leaders will continue to work in a system that remains flawed,” he said.
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