One in three schools told ‘attention needed’ in first year of Ofsted report cards

A third of the 5,900 schools inspected in the first year of Ofsted’s report-card system were told that “attention is needed” in at least one of nine areas, according to figures published by the inspectorate on Thursday, with attendance and provision for pupils with special educational needs the most common weaknesses.

The report cards, which replaced single-word judgments in September 2025, grade schools on a five-point scale across areas including curriculum, behaviour, attendance, inclusion, leadership and safeguarding. Ofsted said 12% of schools received the top grade, “exceptional”, in at least one area, and that 2.1% were found to have unmet safeguarding standards, a figure in line with previous years.

The chief inspector said the data showed the new system was doing what it was designed to do: “telling parents what is strong and what is not in the same school, rather than reducing 1,200 children to a word”. Ofsted said 71% of parents surveyed found the cards easier to understand than the old grades.

Head teachers were less enthusiastic. Stuart Pemberton, head of a secondary school in Carlisle that received “attention needed” for attendance alongside “strong” grades in six other areas, said the single low mark had dominated local coverage. “The headline in the paper was that we needed attention. The six strongs did not make it in,” he said. “Our attendance is 92%. The national average is 93%. For that I have had three parents ask if they should move their kids.”

The NAHT, which represents most primary heads, said the system had “replaced one cliff edge with nine” and called for the lowest grade to be renamed. Ofsted has said it will review the language in 2027.

The figures also showed a sharp regional pattern. Schools in the north-east and Yorkshire were 40% more likely than those in London to receive “attention needed” for attendance, and schools with the highest proportion of pupils on free school meals were twice as likely to receive the grade for inclusion. Dr Anita Rowe, of the research group Schools Data Lab, said the cards risked “grading poverty and calling it leadership”. “A school in Middlesbrough with 55% on free meals and a school in Richmond with 8% are not running the same race,” she said.

Ofsted said inspectors were trained to take context into account and that the inclusion grade measured what a school did for its pupils with additional needs, not how many it had. It said 290 schools had already been reinspected and 61% of those had improved at least one grade.

The Department for Education said the first year had “bedded in well” and that it had no plans to change the framework before 2028.