GovWire

Introduction

This guidance explains how Ofsted selects new schools for inspection. It also explains how we select for inspection those schools that have undergone significant change, such as the addition of a key stage, phase or the merger with another school.

Until September 2024, graded inspection of schools gave an overall effectiveness grade, in addition to the key judgements and any provision judgements. Overall effectiveness grades given before September 2024 will continue to be visible on school inspection reports and on Ofsteds website.

From September 2024, graded inspections will not include an overall effectiveness grade. Schools inspected from then will not have the same way of working out when to expect their next inspection as other schools. We will set out the expected dates for when we will next inspect them from September 2025. These schools should not expect to receive an ungraded or graded inspection before then. Some could receive an urgent or monitoring inspection, which can be deemed a graded inspection.

New schools

Ofsted defines a new school as a school with a new unique reference number (URN). The Department for Education (DfE) provides all schools with a URN. If a school changes its status or undergoes significant change and receives a new URN, it legally becomes a new school, and so judgements and associated Ofsted logos of the predecessor school are not those of the new school. If the school retains its URN following a change, it remains the same school. The following explains this in more detail.

Academies account for most new schools. These include:

• free schools
• former maintained schools that have voluntarily converted to become academies (academy converters)
• former maintained schools that were judged as inadequate by Ofsted before September 2024 and were directed by the Secretary of State to become academies and join a trust

Re-brokered academies

Academies that transfer from one academy trust to another are known as re-brokered academies.

An academy that is re-brokered to a new academy trust for performance reasons may receive a new URN and legally become a new school. However, an academy that is re-brokered to a new academy trust for non-performance reasons normally retains its existing URN and legally remains the same school. The decision on whether an academy keeps its URN is made at the discretion of the DfEs regional director.

Exceptionally, the DfEs regional director may agree for re-brokered academies to retain their existing URN, or receive a new URN, regardless of their reasons for re-brokering.

Merged schools

The legal status of a maintained school or academy that merges with another school will depend on whether the merged school has received a new URN. If the school has retained the URN of one of the merged schools, it is not legally a new school, but an existing school that has incorporated another school that has closed. If the merged school receives a new URN, it is legally a new school.

Schools that were formerly exempt from routine inspection before November 2020

From 13 November 2020, schools judged outstanding for overall effectiveness before September 2024 that were formerly exempt from routine inspection, including exempt academy converters, are subject to routine inspection. These formerly exempt outstanding schools are not new schools and still retain their existing URN. The timings for inspections of formerly exempt outstanding schools are set out in the school inspection handbook.

16 to 19 academies

We inspect 16 to 19 academies and 16 to 19 free schools using the further education and skills inspection handbook.

When we inspect new schools

The first inspection of new schools will usually take place within 3 years of their opening. We will not normally select a new school for its first inspection until it is in its third year of operation. These arrangements apply to all new schools that are yet to have their first graded inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005 (the Act). The Inspection and the COVID-19 pandemic section provides further details on how this arrangement, and the other arrangements outlined below, have been temporarily changed.

Academy converters and ungraded inspections (under section 8 of the Act)

New academy converters, whose predecessor schools were judged good or outstanding for overall effectiveness at their last graded inspection before September 2024, will normally receive an ungraded inspection as their first inspection. However, these schools remain subject to a graded inspection if we deem it necessary.

We will normally carry out ungraded inspections of academy converters approximately every 4 years. This is in line with our policy on scheduling ungraded inspections of schools. However, in the case of the first ungraded inspection of a new academy with a good predecessor school, we will consider the inspection history of the predecessor school to decide the timing of the inspection. For example, if the last inspection of the predecessor school took place some years before academy conversion, we may deem that the school would benefit from an earlier ungraded inspection. Further details on the policy for ungraded inspections are included in the school inspection handbook.

Note that for inspections of academy converters that were formerly exempt from routine inspection because their predecessor schools were judged outstanding for overall effectiveness before September 2024, it will be the most recent inspection of the academy or, where it has not yet been inspected, the most recent inspection of the schools predecessor school(s), that will determine when the first inspection will take place, and if it is to be carried out as a graded or ungraded inspection. Further details are set out in the school inspection handbook.

Academy converters where we recommended a graded inspection for the predecessor school

Before September 2024, there were a couple of circumstances where schools were going to convert to an academy and either:

• the predecessor school was judged good, with evidence that it may have improved to outstanding at its most recent ungraded inspection

• the lead inspector was not satisfied that the school would have received at least its current grade if a graded inspection was carried out at that time

In both these circumstances, we informed the predecessor schools that their next inspection would be a graded inspection. If that graded inspection did not happen before the school converted to an academy, the new academy converter will receive a graded inspection as its first inspection. As with all graded inspection of schools from September 2024, this will not include an overall effectiveness judgement.

In the above circumstances, the graded inspection will normally take place:

• no later than the predecessor school would have received the graded inspection if it had not converted to an academy; but
• no earlier than 1 year after the new academy opens

Sponsor-led academies

We treat maintained schools that become sponsor-led academies, and whose predecessor schools were most recently judged good or outstanding for overall effectiveness before September 2024, as new schools for inspection purposes. They are subject to a graded inspection as their first inspection. This will normally take place within 3 years of the school becoming a sponsor-led academy.

Schools that undergo significant change

Schools judged good and outstanding for overall effectiveness before September 2024

If a school judged good or outstanding for overall effectiveness at its last inspection before September 2024 subsequently undergoes significant change, for example through merging with another school or by adding a

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