What does an Ofsted rating actually mean?
An Ofsted grade is one inspector team's judgement of a school on the days they visited, against a published framework. It describes quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development and leadership — not how happy your child would be there. The single word on the front of the report is the least informative part of it.
What each grade describes
Outstanding means the school was judged to be exceptional across every area inspected. Good means it does what it should do well. Requires improvement means one or more areas fell short and the school will be revisited sooner. Inadequate triggers formal intervention, and in most cases the school is required to join or change academy trust.
Crucially, the grades are not a ranking of results. A school in a challenging area with strong teaching can be Outstanding while a school with higher raw SATs scores is Good.
How old is the grade you are looking at?
Inspection cycles are long, and a grade can sit on a school for many years. A school last inspected before a change of headteacher tells you about a school that no longer exists in the same form. Always check the inspection date next to the grade, and whether there has been a shorter monitoring visit since.
Short inspections that confirm a school 'remains Good' carry the earlier grade with a newer date. SpotWise shows both the grade and the date of the visit that produced it, so you are never comparing a fresh judgement with a decade-old one.
Read the text, not the label
The report body is where the useful detail is: how behaviour is managed, how reading is taught, what happens for pupils with SEND, whether the curriculum is coherent, what the school was told to improve. Two schools graded Good can read completely differently.
Read the trajectory as well. A school moving from Requires improvement to Good with a named set of fixes is often a better bet than one drifting at Good with the same criticisms repeated across two reports.
Related questions
Is an Outstanding school always better than a Good one?
No. The grade reflects a moment in time against a framework, and many Outstanding grades were awarded years ago under an earlier framework. A recently inspected Good school can be stronger today than a school carrying an old Outstanding.
How often are primary schools inspected?
Routine inspection happens on a multi-year cycle, more frequently where a school was graded below Good. Between full inspections a school may receive a shorter monitoring visit, which can confirm or change the standing grade.
Should I avoid a school in Requires improvement?
Not automatically. Read what the report asked the school to fix, when it was written, and what has changed since — new leadership, new staff, a monitoring visit. Ask the head directly on your visit.
Read next
Compare your own shortlist
SpotWise scores the schools near you against what matters to your child, using published UK school data.
See plans