Map shows secondary schools to lose 'outstanding' Ofsted rating after major change

Nearly 500 top performing secondary schools will lose their “outstanding” rating after Ofsted introduced a new system for grading schools. Our new map shows which schools will be impacted across the UK including those in Merseyside.

A big change Ofsted has announced with immediate effect is putting an end to the practice of issuing an overall grade for a school. This means that outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate has now been scrapped.

During its latest round of inspections, carried out between September 1, 2023, and July 31 this year, Ofsted inspected 655 secondary schools. Following the inspections, 137 schools (about one in five or 21%) were told they had achieved the highest possible rating of “outstanding”.

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Including secondary schools last inspected before the last school year, there were 495 outstanding schools in England, as of July 31. That means 15% of English secondary schools were rated outstanding before the changes.

Although, there are huge differences between schools across different regions. In London, one in four schools were rated outstanding at their last inspection (27%), the highest proportion of any English region and the north west had the lowest proportion of outstanding schools (8%).

For future inspections this academic year, parents will see grades across the existing sub-categories including, quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management. Ofsted will continue to inspect schools against the same standards, but will now only issue gradings related to individual aspects of a school's performance.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “The need for Ofsted reform to drive high and rising standards for all our children in every school is overwhelmingly clear. The removal of headline grades is a generational reform and a landmark moment for children, parents and teachers.

“Single-headline grades are low information for parents and high stakes for schools. Parents deserve a much clearer, much broader picture of how schools are performing - that’s what our report cards will provide.'' The Department for Education said the old system did not give a fair assessment of schools and was only supported “by a minority of parents and teachers”.

You can see the schools near you that were rated outstanding at their last inspection using our interactive map below. The grey markers indicate schools last inspected up to the end of August 2023, while the blue markers indicate schools inspected during the last school year.