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What happened to 'Outstanding' schools under report cards
The single 'Outstanding' grade is gone. Ofsted stopped awarding one overall word in September 2024, and under report cards each area of a school is graded separately instead. A school that still shows Outstanding is displaying a legacy grade from its last old-framework inspection, which stays visible until it is reinspected. There is no direct swap to the new top grade: 'Exceptional' is deliberately rare and applied area by area, not to a whole school. In the early report card data we have analysed, only around one in six former Outstanding schools earned Exceptional on leadership; most landed at Strong standard.
For years, Outstanding was the grade families chased, the one that moved house prices and filled open evenings. Its removal is one of the biggest changes in how schools are judged in England, and it leaves a lot of parents asking a fair question: if a school was Outstanding, what is it now? Here is the honest answer.
The single Outstanding grade has been removed
Ofsted stopped giving schools a single overall effectiveness grade for state schools in September 2024. That word, Outstanding at the top and Inadequate at the bottom, no longer exists as a current judgement. In its place the report card grades a school across its separate areas, each on the five-point scale of Exceptional, Strong standard, Expected standard, Needs attention and Urgent improvement. So a school is no longer summed up as Outstanding; it now carries a set of area grades that can differ from one another.
Why some schools still say Outstanding
You will still see Outstanding on plenty of school pages, and that is not an error. Schools are inspected on a cycle, not all at once, so a school keeps its most recent old-framework grade on record until it is reinspected under the new system. Until that reinspection happens, its last single grade, whether Outstanding or otherwise, is the latest published judgement. This is why, across a single street of schools, you can find some with modern report cards and others still showing a one-word grade that may be several years old.
Takeaway: a current Outstanding is a legacy grade, not a fresh one. Check the inspection date. A glowing single word from years ago is weaker evidence than a recent, detailed report card, and it will be replaced by area grades when the school is next inspected.
Exceptional is not the new Outstanding
It is tempting to assume every former Outstanding school simply becomes Exceptional. It does not work that way. Exceptional is meant to mark genuine best practice, so it is deliberately uncommon, and it is awarded area by area rather than as a whole-school label. A former Outstanding school might come out Exceptional in one area, Strong standard in another and Expected standard in a third. The top of the scale has, in effect, been raised and narrowed, so far fewer judgements reach it than reached Outstanding before.
What our early analysis shows
We looked at how former Outstanding schools have fared as report cards have started to appear. The pattern is clear and worth being honest about: most did not land at the top grade. In our analysis of early data, only about one in six former Outstanding schools earned Exceptional on leadership, and the majority landed at Strong standard instead. That is not a fall from grace; Strong standard is a genuinely strong result. It reflects a scale designed to reserve its top grade for the rare few, rather than to hand it out to everyone who once held Outstanding.
| New grade on leadership | Roughly how former Outstanding schools fell |
|---|---|
| Exceptional | Around one in six: the deliberately rare top grade |
| Strong standard | The majority: still a clearly strong result, just below the top |
| Expected standard or below | The remainder: meeting the baseline, or with areas to work on |
This is our own reading of the early figures and it will keep shifting as more schools are inspected, so treat it as an indication of the direction, not a final tally. The wider point holds: the top grade is now scarce by design.
What this means when you are choosing
Do not read a school down just because it moved from Outstanding to Strong standard, and do not read one up just because it still shows a years-old Outstanding. Weigh the recency and the detail. A recent report card at Strong standard across the board tells you more than a single Outstanding word awarded before the current staff arrived. Our report is built for this transition, showing every school near a postcode with its latest rating and the year behind it, so a legacy Outstanding and a modern report card sit side by side with their dates visible. To go further, read the new report card scale explained, the 2024 grade changes for the full background, and how to weigh a school's report card areas for your child. You can also assess a school area by area with our tool, and see the full picture in our analysis of the grade transition.
The one in six figure is our own analysis of early report card data and will change as more schools are inspected; we date every rating we show so you can always tell a legacy Outstanding from a fresh report card. For the definitive framework, read Ofsted's own guidance on gov.uk.