What do Ofsted mean by a ‘category of concern’?
A school is placed in a category of concern (or “a category”) because of judgements made during the course of an Ofsted inspection
How many categories of concern are there and what are they called?
There are two categories of concern, ‘Requires Significant Improvement’ (previously ‘Serious Weaknesses’) and ‘Special Measures’
How does a school come to be judged to Requires Significant Improvement?
EITHER:
A school is judged as needing ‘Urgent Improvement’ in at least one evaluation area, other than Leadership and Governance, or Safeguarding receives a ‘not met’, during the course of an inspection
OR
Leadership and Governance is the only evaluation area found to need “Urgent Improvement".
How does a school end up in Special Measures?
A school is judged as requiring ‘Special Measures’ if Leadership and Governance is judged as in need of Urgent Improvement AND at least one or more of the other evaluation areas is found to need “urgent improvement”, or safeguarding is “not met”.
Can a ‘Not Met’ judgement in Safeguarding place a school in Special Measures?
Yes, but under new ‘Suspend and Return’ arrangements a safeguarding concern that does not pose an immediate threat to children and which inspectors believe can be addressed by the school’s leadership within three months will not lead to placement in a category unless these issues are found to remain unaddressed at the time of the return visit.
How do Ofsted monitor a school in a category?
Through regular ‘Monitoring Inspections’ (previously described as Monitoring Visits), which under the new arrangements, will usually be led by the same HMI
In what other situations are schools subject to monitoring?
Any school that has an evaluation area identified as ‘Needs Attention’ will have typically termly monitoring inspections focused on that (or those) area(s) until it has reached at least the ‘Expected Standard’ grade in the relevant area(s), leading to an updating of the school’s Ofsted record card without triggering a full inspection. A school can also become the subject of another form of monitoring, a Focused Inspection. This may arise when a complaint has been made about some aspect of a school’s practice, or where the school is subject to significant adverse media attention.
How frequent are the monitoring inspections for schools judged as Requires Serious Improvement?
A school judged as Requires Serious Improvement will receive a termly monitoring inspection focused on the evaluation areas that were judged as in need of Urgent Improvement and may receive up to five monitoring inspections in the 18 months after the full inspection in which the judgement was made.
How does a school exit Requires Significant Improvement?
Through demonstrating at a monitoring inspection that it has moved to at least an Expected Standard grade in the evaluation area(s) previously identified as needing Urgent Improvement -– this will trigger a full inspection, enabling the school to exit its Requires Significant Improvement status. A school cannot exit a category of concern without undergoing a full inspection, but a monitoring inspection can be converted into a full inspection to speed up this process if the inspector judges that it has made rapid progress
How frequent are the monitoring inspections for schools judged as being in Special Measures?
A school placed in Special Measures will receive up to six termly monitoring inspections in the course of the 24 months after the full inspection in which the judgement was made.
How does a school exit Special Measures?
Through demonstrating at a monitoring inspection that it has moved to at least an Expected Standard grade in Leadership and Governance and made progress in any other areas identified as needing Urgent Improvement – this will trigger a full inspection, enabling the school to exit its Special Measures status
Is there any additional support for schools in a category?
Yes. From September 2026 , schools that require significant improvement will be paired with a regionally based RISE adviser who will work with the school on agreed priorities as these arise or as they are identified in monitoring inspections. If, after 18 months, the school is still judged to require significant improvement, or has ‘needs attention’ ratings, the school will be subject to structural change.
For schools in Special Measures, structural intervention will be the default approach.