Old grade versus new report card · a study of 684 re-inspected schools
When Ofsted swapped one word for a report card, most schools landed where the old grade said. But not all of them.
From November 2025 Ofsted began replacing the single word it stamped on a school, Outstanding, Good, Requires improvement or Inadequate, with a report card that grades several areas separately on a new five-point scale. We matched the 684 England schools that now hold both an old overall grade and a new inspection, and looked at where each old grade actually lands. The short answer: broadly consistent, with two real surprises at the edges.
These are the very first schools through the new system. Report cards only began in November 2025, so this covers an early sample of the roughly 1,300 schools re-inspected so far, out of about 26,500 state schools in England. It is a first read on how the two systems line up, not a verdict on the whole country, and the picture will move as more schools are seen. Every figure on this page is drawn from that sample.
Broadly consistent
Five in six schools landed where their old grade pointed.
Of the 684 schools, 571 (83.5%) landed in the band their old grade predicted: a former “Good” mostly at the new middle tier, a former “Outstanding” near the top, a former “Requires improvement” or “Inadequate” lower down. 50 did better than the old grade suggested and 63 did worse. So the report card is not tearing up the old map. It is redrawing it, and the redraw matters most at the two ends, which the rest of this page is about.
Where the 684 schools landed against their old grade
How to read this: the bar splits all 684 schools into three groups. “In line” means the new report card put the school in the tier its old single grade pointed to. “Better” and “worse” mean it landed a tier above or below that. Hover or tap a block for the exact count.
Source: School Choice Report analysis, GIAS joined to Ofsted report-card inspection outcomes, July 2026. n = 684 schools with both an old overall grade and a new report card.
Where each old grade lands
Follow each old grade onto the new scale.
The new report card does not give a single overall word. It grades separate areas, each on a five-point scale that runs from “Urgent improvement” up to “Exceptional”, with “Expected standard” as the baseline in the middle. Below, every school is grouped by its old single grade, and each bar shows how those schools were judged on the new scale. Switch the evaluation area to see whether the pattern holds.
The new five-point scale, worst to best
Below the barThe baselineAbove the bar
How schools on each old grade were judged on the new scale
How to read this: one bar per old single grade. The bar width is split by how those schools scored on the new five-point scale, coloured red (Urgent improvement) through to deep teal (Exceptional). A number inside a block is the count of schools; hover or tap any block for the share. Use the buttons to change which report-card area is shown.
Source: School Choice Report analysis, GIAS joined to Ofsted report-card inspection outcomes, July 2026. Each area covers the same 684 schools. Reading, top to bottom: 38 were “Outstanding”, 406 “Good”, 200 “Requires improvement”, 40 “Inadequate”.
The top got harder
“Outstanding” used to be the ceiling. The new top grade is much thinner.
Under the old system, “Outstanding” was one grade covering every school at the top. The new scale splits that top into two, “Strong standard” and, above it, “Exceptional”, and it puts most former “Outstanding” schools in the lower of the two. On leadership, only 6 of the 38 former “Outstanding” schools, about one in six, reach “Exceptional”. The rest are “Strong standard” or “Expected standard”. A word that used to mean the very top now mostly means the second tier, so a proud old “Outstanding” badge is not the same promise it once was.
The 38 former “Outstanding” schools, old grade versus new leadership judgement
How to read this: the top bar is these 38 schools under the old system, where all shared one grade. The bottom bar splits the same 38 by their new leadership judgement. A number inside a block is the count of schools; hover or tap for the share.
Old system: one grade for all 38
New leadership judgement: the same 38, now spread
Source: School Choice Report analysis, July 2026. Leadership and management judgement shown; behaviour and personal development follow the same shape, with the bulk of former “Outstanding” schools landing at “Strong standard”, not “Exceptional”.
What one word was hiding
Some “Good” schools carry a weak area the single word never showed.
The old grade rolled everything into one word. The report card grades areas separately, and that surfaces problems “Good” could hide. Among the 406 former “Good” schools, a real share now sit below the expected standard on a specific area, meaning “Needs attention” or “Urgent improvement”. It is not most of them, but it is enough that the single word “Good” is no longer a safe shorthand: two “Good” schools can now look quite different once you read the areas rather than the headline.
Former “Good” schools now below the expected standard, by area
How to read this: of the 406 former “Good” schools, the bar shows the share now judged below the expected standard (“Needs attention” or “Urgent improvement”) in each report-card area. The number at the end is that count of schools. Hover or tap a bar for detail.
Source: School Choice Report analysis, July 2026. Base: 406 schools that held a single “Good” grade and now have a report card.
The new baseline
Almost everything settles at “Expected standard”.
Pull back from the old grades and look at where all 684 schools land on the new scale, and one tier dominates: “Expected standard”, the middle of the five. On leadership it holds 414 of the 684 schools, and it is the largest group in every area. The extremes are thin: only 8 to 12 schools reach “Exceptional” in any single area, and the below-standard grades are a small minority too. In plain terms, the report card is built to say “this is a normally functioning school” most of the time, and to reserve its top and bottom words for the genuine outliers.
All 684 schools by new judgement, in each report-card area
How to read this: the five groups along the bottom are the new grades, worst on the left to best on the right. Within each group, the three columns are the three report-card areas. Column height is the number of schools. Hover or tap a column for the exact count and share.
Source: School Choice Report analysis, July 2026. n = 684 schools, judged in each of the three areas shown.
What changed, in one place
One word out, a set of graded areas in.
Until September 2024
A single overall word
- Each school got one overall grade: Outstanding, Good, Requires improvement or Inadequate.
- That one word did most of the talking in league tables, estate-agent listings and admissions chatter.
- Separate area judgements existed underneath, but few people read past the headline.
Report cards from November 2025
Areas graded on a five-point scale
- No single overall word. Instead, areas like leadership, behaviour and personal development are graded separately.
- The scale runs Urgent improvement, Needs attention, Expected standard, Strong standard, Exceptional.
- Old grades stay on show until a school is re-inspected, so both systems are visible at once.
What this means for a parent reading a school now
Do not read an old “Outstanding” as the new top
On the new scale most former “Outstanding” schools are “Strong standard”, the second tier, not “Exceptional”. It is still a strong school; it is just not sitting at the very top any more.
Read the areas, not just a headline
A former “Good” can now carry a below-standard area the old word hid. Look at leadership, behaviour and personal development one by one before you decide.
Treat “Expected standard” as normal, not a warning
It is the middle of the scale and where most schools sit. It means the school is doing what is expected, not that something is wrong.
Check whether a school even has a report card yet
Only about 1,300 schools have been re-inspected so far. Most still show an old single grade, so you will often be comparing the two systems. Weigh each grade against its date.
Methodology and sources
How we matched the two systems, and what the numbers do and do not say.
The data
We took the Department for Education's Get Information About Schools register and joined it, on each school's unique reference number, to Ofsted's published inspection outcomes, keeping the 684 schools that hold both a pre-September-2024 single overall grade and a new report-card inspection. Data as of 11 July 2026.
The old grade
The single overall effectiveness judgement from the old framework: Outstanding, Good, Requires improvement or Inadequate. In this set: 38 Outstanding, 406 Good, 200 Requires improvement, 40 Inadequate.
The new scale
Report cards grade separate areas on five points: Urgent improvement, Needs attention, Expected standard, Strong standard, Exceptional. We show three areas: leadership and management, behaviour and attitudes, and personal development. Each school is judged in all three.
In line, better, worse
We compared each school's new outcome with the tier its old single grade pointed to. “In line” means it landed in that tier; “better” and “worse” mean above or below it. 571 in line, 50 better, 63 worse.
Honest limits
This is an early sample. Only about 1,300 schools had a report card at the time of analysis, and re-inspected schools are not a random draw, so shares here may not match the eventual national picture. Treat every figure as a first read that can move.
Sources
Get Information About Schools (DfE) and Ofsted inspection outcomes. Not affiliated with Ofsted or the DfE. See the full methodology.
See it for your own postcode
Every state school near you, old grade and new judgement, on one page.
This is why the report shows each school's rating with its date and, where a school has been re-inspected, its newer report-card judgement. Enter a postcode and get every nearby state school ranked by distance, so you read the areas, not just a single old word.