Ofsted Grading – School Ratings

Ofsted Grading – School Ratings #

The CIF will continue to use the Ofsted 4-point grading scale:

• Grade 1: Outstanding
• Grade 2: Good
• Grade 3: Requires improvement
• Grade 4: Inadequate

Are ‘inadequate’ and ‘special measures’ the same?
When schools are graded inadequate, there are two possible categories they can fall into.

Special measures are the worst of the two, the other being ‘serious weaknesses’.

It means that the school is failing to provide its pupils with an acceptable standard of education and is not showing the capacity to make the improvements needed.
Serious weaknesses schools are not currently providing good enough education, but inspectors feel leaders have shown they know what must be done to turn things around.

If you don’t know which category your school falls into, check the Ofsted report.

On the second page, under the heading “full report”, it will either say the school requires special measures or significant improvement.

• Special measures – This means the school is failing to provide its pupils with an acceptable standard of education and is not showing the capacity to make the improvements needed.
•  Serious weaknesses – This means that one or more of the key areas of the school’s performance require significant improvement, but leaders and managers have demonstrated the capacity to improve.