Guide · Parents · England
Reading school inspection reports, old and new
How the new report cards in England work, why they can’t be compared with older single-word grades, and what to look for.
By the Pyxion Learn team · Checked 30 October 2026
School inspections in England changed in November 2025. If you are comparing schools, you will meet two different kinds of report, and they don’t translate into each other.
The new report cards (from November 2025)
Schools inspected since 10 November 2025 receive a report card instead of one overall grade. Each evaluation area gets its own grade on a five-point scale:
- Exceptional
- Strong standard
- Expected standard
- Needs attention
- Urgent improvement
Evaluation areas include achievement, curriculum and teaching, attendance and behaviour, personal development and well-being, inclusion, and leadership and governance. Safeguarding is judged separately as met or not met. Each grade comes with written commentary.
Older reports
Before September 2024, schools received a single overall judgement (outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate). Between September 2024 and November 2025, reports kept the separate judgements but dropped the single overall word.
Comparing schools fairly
- Don’t convert between the two systems. A “strong standard” for achievement is not the same thing as an old “good”. We show the two frameworks separately and never combine them.
- Check the date. A report from several years ago may describe a school with different leadership.
- Read the text, not just the grades. The commentary often tells you more about what a school is like day to day.
- Look at the history. A run of inspections shows direction of travel. Our reports list each school’s inspections since 2019, with links to every report.