Best Practice

Preparing for a successful Ofsted: Key steps and considerations

Inspection advice Ofsted Accountability Whole-school issues
In this practical article, school leader Clare Duffy offers useful advice for how schools can prepare for Ofsted inspection and manage the inspection visit effectively
Be bold: Ofsted inspectors are often open to different suggestions of subject and focus areas for your school inspection – if you can justify why - Adobe Stock

Since last year’s Big Listen consultation, Ofsted (2024) has made changes to its practices with more planned for September 2025.

There has been a promise from Ofsted to be more supportive and transparent with school leaders during inspections, seeking to minimise the anxiety so often caused by the process.

Chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver has promised “evolution not revolution” and that inspections will feel “collaborative”.

As this article was published, Ofsted unveiled its 12-week consultation over further changes planned for September 2025, including proposals for a new school report card to replace the current four judgement categories. See SecEd’s coverage of this here.

This article focuses on the changes introduced this academic year.

Graded inspections (Section 5, Education Act, 2005) this year have seen inspectors using the Education Inspection Framework to grade schools across for four judgements (quality of education; behaviour and attitudes; personal development; and leadership and management) and any relevant provision judgement (early years or sixth-form provision) against their grade descriptors. The overall single-phrase judgement has been axed.

Ungraded inspections (Section 8, Education Act, 2005) continue too. However, they are to be axed from September 2025 under Ofsted’s consultation proposals. An ungraded inspection focuses on determining whether the school has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the last inspection.

Reforms in play since September 2024 most relevant to school leaders include:

  • The removal of single-phrase judgements for overall effectiveness.
  • Improvements to how safeguarding is inspected.
  • A promise to make inspections more collaborative and supportive.
  • Notice for inspection to be made on a Monday with inspections planned for the Tuesday and Wednesday.
  • Ungraded inspections to no longer include subject deep dives (indeed deep dives are also proposed to be axed completely from September 2025 under the new consultation plans).

The changes to ungraded inspections this year are summarised in an Ofsted blog (Owston, 2024) which explains that instead of deep dives inspectors will look at a group of subjects together. There could be a focus on core subjects and another focus on vocational with a specific aspect (such as assessment) considered across these subjects. We shall wait to see what Ofsted’s consultation decides about how they will “replace” deep dives from September 2025.

For the time being, Ofsted has also clarified that there will usually be one or two other areas of focus decided during the initial phone call, probably related to personal development, behaviour, attendance, or a mixture.

This approach certainly seems to place less emphasis on subject leaders and encourages a dialogue between headteachers and their senior leaders aligned with a school’s strategic focus areas.

Ofsted’s consultation has also detailed plans for new inspection “toolkits” tailored to each phase of education, a promise for more contextual understanding of school’s circumstances (especially in relation to areas of deprivation), and a new focus on inclusion.

However, back to the here and now – I would like to offer some advice for schools being inspected this academic year.

 

Getting ready for Ofsted

One of the first things to consider when preparing for an Ofsted inspection is to ensure your self-evaluation form (SEF) is accurate and detailed, capturing the context of your school.

There is a choice of software available to support you (we use Perspective in my school). Each member of the senior leadership team should populate their area of responsibility and then draft overall judgements using statements from the inspection framework to guide the content.

Another crucial element is ensuring effective quality assurance of subjects throughout the school year, so leaders have an excellent understanding of a school’s strengths and weaknesses. This can be achieved in a number of ways:

  • Ask subject leaders to compile a knowledge organiser document for their subject detailing key curriculum information pertinent for Ofsted, such as curriculum design, intent, implementation and impact as well as information on inclusion and how different student groups are supported, subject enrichment opportunities, and assessment. Subject leaders should go through this with their senior leadership link who needs to be able to articulate it to inspectors.
  • Implement an on-going cycle of learning walks across the school. Involve subject leaders and use coaching to help develop teachers’ pedagogical skills. I have written previously about how we have developed this approach at Uppingham Community College. See my article on improving pedagogical practice and see also my piece on research practice in your classroom.
  • Audit all subject curriculum plans to ensure there is progression in knowledge planned for with mapping to the national curriculum where relevant. If there are differences to the national curriculum, ensure leaders can explain why. Long-term and medium-term curriculum plans should be sufficiently detailed to show what students will be learning at any given point and why (including links to previous and future learning to show progression). Senior leadership links should hold dedicated curriculum conversation meetings with subject leaders to discuss their curriculum planning.

Other activities which will support your preparation include the following:

  • Scrutinise your Inspection Data Summary Report (see Ofsted, 2025) to identify possible lines of enquiry that Ofsted may focus on.
  • Evidence how you monitor inclusion, SEND and disadvantaged across your school so you can discuss with specific examples and evidence of positive impact.
  • Create a live document folder with all Ofsted evidence collated in one place. This should be aligned with the inspection framework criteria and can be added to throughout the year by members of the senior leadership team. Within this you could make use of checklists provided by organisations such as The Key to help guide your content and example inspection questions to run through with senior leadership for practice.
  • As well as containing Ofsted-specific examples, this folder should contain documents which will help make your life easier when the call comes, for example having a letter to parents and a student briefing assembly ready to go will save time and ease the pressure.
  • When inspectors do their homework, they will look at your website. Ensure your school website content covers all of the statutory requirements and that it presents the best image of your school, highlighting successes and best practice.
  • Conduct staff/parent/student surveys annually using similar questions to the ones Ofsted use to monitor how these groups are feeling. Make sure you act on the findings and show impact.

 

The day of the inspection

Here follows some useful tips to ensure the inspection process goes as smoothly as possible for the headteacher, senior leadership team, and wider staff.

  • Have everything in one place ready for the phone call (this is where having a live document folder is invaluable) and have somebody in with you to make notes.
  • Brief staff, students, parents and governors once you have received the notification. Hold a brief staff meeting after school on the Monday to give succinct and clear guidance to staff and then let them go off to prepare.
  • Invite governors in to meet with inspectors. If there are any particularly positive parents, having them available before and after school to interact with inspectors on the playground is useful.
  • Control the focus and try to co-create the timetable for the inspection (as you know your school best). Inspectors are often open to different suggestions of subject/focus areas if you can justify why (e.g. a particular subject may have had turbulent staffing or be newly introduced to the curriculum).
  • Be visible and present throughout the process – staff will appreciate seeing the headteacher and senior leadership team for moral support. Also stay fed and hydrated so you can think straight and be effective.
  • Regular catch-ups between the senior leadership team and the headteacher will help you monitor how the inspection is going. Ask for senior leaders to be allowed to sit in on the inspectors’ summary meeting at the end of the first day so they can help plan for day two.
  • If you have concerns during the inspection, you have the right to complain. The lead inspector should make you aware of how to do this when they first arrive, and details can also be found in the inspection handbook.

 

After the inspection

The day after the inspection brief staff by sharing what you can (much will be confidential until the report is published). Thinking about staff motivation is crucial here, especially if the inspection has not been as positive as you had hoped. Acknowledge the hard work of staff and celebrate any positives with them to help foster team spirit.

At this point you can relax a bit but try to keep the momentum going. Everyone has worked hard to make the school great for Ofsted and this opportunity shouldn’t be wasted. Consider the focus areas which have emerged from the inspection and start to plan for how you might address these.

Before the report is published, spend some time thinking about what your message to stakeholders will be so that you are ready to share a positive message (including via social media).

 

Final thoughts

Keep up-to-date with the changes to Ofsted and plan accordingly. An accurate and detailed SEF supported by a live document filled with current evidence is crucial and underpins all of your preparation.

Ensure you have robust quality assurance practices so that you have a well-developed understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. During the inspection, control the focus and be visible.

Maintain momentum and positivity with staff post-inspection.

  • Clare Duffy is senior deputy headteacher at Uppingham Community College in Rutland. Find her previous articles and podcast appearances for SecEd via www.sec-ed.co.uk/authors/clare-duffy  

 

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