Ofsted Framework Explained

From November 2025, Ofsted inspects schools against a number of individual evaluation areas, rather than giving one single overall grade. This gives a more detailed picture of a school's strengths and priorities for improvement.

The evaluation areas

Schools are evaluated across the following areas, these are what Intelligent Evidence calls your Top Level Groups:

• Safeguarding
• Inclusion
• Curriculum and Teaching
• Achievement
• Attendance and Behaviour
• Personal Development and Wellbeing
• Leadership and Governance
• Early Years or Post-16 Provision, where either applies to your school

Safeguarding is graded differently to the other areas. It's assessed simply as "met" or "not met", rather than against Expected or Strong. See our Safeguarding FAQ for more on how this works in Intelligent Evidence.

Grade descriptors

Within each evaluation area, inspectors work from a set of specific statements called grade descriptors, these are the detailed criteria your evidence is actually measured against. This is exactly what Intelligent Evidence maps your evidence to when you upload a document.

Expected vs Strong

For evaluation areas other than Safeguarding, Ofsted use two main standards:

• Expected: the baseline. All the required standards and statutory expectations are met.
• Strong: the higher standard. All Expected standards are met, plus consistently strong practice beyond that.

If a category doesn't yet have all its Expected grade descriptors evidenced, it shows as Needs Attention on your Dashboard, this is your signal for where to focus next.

How this relates to Intelligent Evidence

When you upload evidence, Intelligent Evidence suggests where it may link to a grade descriptor. The final decision on whether that evidence is right for your school, and how it's used, always sits with your leaders.