If you last looked at schools a few years ago, the vocabulary has changed underneath you. "Outstanding" and "Good" are no longer being issued. Neither is the ISI's "Excellent". Both inspectorates have moved to more detailed, less headline-friendly reporting, and the transition means you will find a mixture of old and new formats when researching schools.
Here is what changed and how to read what you find.
What Ofsted did
Ofsted removed the single overall effectiveness grade for state schools in September 2024. From 10 November 2025, it went further and replaced the old report format with a report card for early years, state-funded schools, and further education and skills providers. For initial teacher education and non-association independent schools, inspections under the renewed framework began in January 2026.
The familiar words — Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement, Inadequate — are no longer awarded.
What replaced them
Instead of one grade for the whole school, inspectors now grade each evaluation area separately on a five-point scale:
- Exceptional
- Strong standard
- Expected standard
- Needs attention
- Urgent improvement
The report card presents these with a traffic-light style display, an explanation for each area, and suggested next steps. Safeguarding is judged separately and recorded simply as met or not met.
There is no overall grade. That is the point of the change: a school can be strong in one area and need attention in another, and the old single word forced all of that into one label.
Why it changed
The single-word judgement had been criticised for years — for compressing a complex institution into one word, for the pressure it placed on school leaders, and for the disproportionate consequences of a one-word downgrade. The move to report cards followed sustained pressure for a more granular approach.
For parents, the practical effect is that you now get more information and less of a shortcut. That is more work, and it is better information.
And the ISI changed too
Less widely noticed, but just as relevant if you are looking at independent schools. The Independent Schools Inspectorate inspects most association independent schools, and it moved to a new framework in September 2023.
Under the old framework, ISI reports carried headline descriptors — Excellent, Good, Satisfactory, Inadequate — for academic achievement and personal development. Those are gone. Under the current framework, schools are assessed against five Standards, with each reported as Met or Not Met. Inspectors may note "significant strengths" within a Met Standard. There is no single overarching judgement.
So an independent school described as "ISI Excellent" was inspected under the pre-2023 framework. That is not a criticism of the school — it simply means the rating predates the change.
What this means when you are researching schools
You will see a mixture, and it will be confusing. Inspection cycles run over several years, so at any given moment some schools have been inspected under the new arrangements and many have not. A school last inspected in 2022 still has a 2022-format report, and that is what any directory — including this one — will show.
Treat old grades as historical. A "Good" from 2019 tells you about a school as it was, under a framework no longer in use, quite possibly under a different head. The date matters as much as the word.
Read the report, not the label. This was always true and is now unavoidable. Full reports for state and non-association independent schools are on the Ofsted reports site; ISI reports are on the ISI website and usually on the school's own site.
Look at what changed between inspections. Two consecutive reports tell you more than either alone — particularly whether the things flagged last time were fixed.
What to look for in the text
Regardless of framework, the useful signal is in the prose rather than the grade:
- What inspectors say about the weakest pupils, not the strongest. Any school can showcase its high achievers.
- Specific, evidenced observations rather than generic praise. "Pupils in Year 9 could explain their reasoning in mathematics" means something. "Pupils are happy" does not.
- The areas for improvement, and whether they are cosmetic or structural.
- Anything about safeguarding, which is the one area where a negative finding should stop you.
- Consistency with what you saw on your visit. If the report describes calm, purposeful classrooms and you saw something else, trust your eyes. See making the most of an open day.
Our article on ISI vs Ofsted covers the differences in what the two inspectorates actually look at.
A caution about inspection data on any website
Every school directory — ours included — displays inspection outcomes drawn from published data, and that data reflects whatever framework applied at the time of the inspection. So you will see older-style ratings alongside newer ones.
Use them the way they are useful: as a rough filter for building a longlist, and as a prompt to go and read the actual report. They are not a ranking, and a school inspected four years ago under a retired framework is not directly comparable with one inspected last term under the current one.
The same caution applies to exam results. Our guide to reading school league tables explains why attainment figures mostly measure who a school admits.
The short version
- Ofsted no longer issues Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement or Inadequate. Report cards grade each area on a five-point scale from exceptional to urgent improvement, with safeguarding met or not met.
- The ISI no longer issues Excellent, Good, Satisfactory or Inadequate. Five Standards, each Met or Not Met.
- Older ratings you find online are historical, not current judgements.
- The report text is worth more than any label, old or new.
Next step: filter schools by inspection outcome and results on the school search, then read the full inspection report for anything on your shortlist before you visit.