New data on the first academic year of new-style Ofsted inspections confirms a correlation between pupil disadvantage and a school’s likelihood of being downgraded for ‘achievement’ and ‘attendance and behaviour’. Ofsted launched its renewed education inspection framework on 10 November, 2025 – bringing in new “report cards”, with six core judgment areas and a new five-point grading system. A year on, and education secretary Lucy Powell is planning changes at the inspectorate, amid growing concern over the continued impact of inspection on school staff. She told the education committee last week she wants to “see context and inclusion…being recognised in a different away”, though details of the changes are yet to be confirmed. Today, Ofsted released data from all inspections carried out last academic year. Here’s what it shows… 1. Over 3,000 inspections From 10 November 2025 to 31 August 2026, 3,262 inspections were carried out by Ofsted. Of those, 3,188 were full inspections, and 74 were monitoring inspections. This represents 15 per cent of state schools in England, of which there are just under 22,000. Lower-performing schools are inspected more often than high-performing ones, meaning the grades are not fully representative. 2. Deprivation difference Analysis by Schools Week found a correlation between the level of deprivation in a school’s intake and the grades received in the ‘achievement’ and ‘attendance and behaviour’ evaluation areas. This is not a new concern. Ofsted previously admitted a link between disadvantage and its ‘achievement’ grade, following concerns schools were being unfairly penalised under the new inspection framework. But the latest analysis gives the broadest overview to date of report cards, and shows a strong link. Among schools with the highest deprivation, 62 per cent received ‘expected standard’ or above for ‘achievement’. This compared to 85 per cent of schools with the lowest deprivation. The trend was similar for ‘attendance and behaviour’, where 73 per cent of schools with the highest levels of deprivation scored ‘expected standard’ or above, compared to 94 per cent of schools with lowest deprivation. Ofsted introduced a new ‘similar schools’ tool in September, to help inspectors better take into account schools’ contexts. But chief inspector Martyn Oliver has acknowledged “we need to keep doing more” in this area. 3. Compounded issues Separate analysis by FFT Education Datalab pulled out 65 secondary schools in the top 25 per cent for both proportion of SEN pupils and proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals – a proxy for disadvantage. Just 30 per cent of these schools achieved ‘expected standard’ or above for achievement, compared to 71 per cent of all secondaries. Datalab’s findings were similar for ‘attendance and behaviour’. Around 63 per cent of secondaries with highest SEN and free school meals eligibility achieved the middle grade and above, compared to a secondary average of 79 per cent. Secondaries with higher SEN and disadvantage also appeared to perform more poorly on ‘inclusion’ than the secondary school average. Around 84.5 per cent of those with high SEN and pupil disadvantage achieved ‘expected standard’ or higher for inclusion, compared to an average of just over 88 per cent. 4. Schools acing inclusion Ofsted’s new framework aimed to place inclusion at its heart – introducing a new standalone ‘inclusion’ judgment area, and weaving it into other inspection areas too. A breakdown of all grades from the last year showed state schools are generally performing very well on inclusion – with 90 per cent graded ‘expected standard’ or better. ‘Personal development and wellbeing’ was the area in which schools were most likely to receive the middle grade or higher. The proportion of schools graded the middle ‘expected standard’ and above were as follows: 95 per cent for ‘personal development and wellbeing’ 90 per cent for ‘inclusion’ 85 per cent for ‘leadership and governance’ 84 per cent for ‘attendance and behaviour’ 78 per cent for ‘curriculum and teaching’ 72 per cent for ‘achievement’ Safeguarding standards were met in over 99 per cent of full inspections. They were not met in just 18 of cases (0.06 per cent). 5. …but less so achievement ‘Achievement’ was the most likely judgment area to attract lower grades. Over one quarter (26 per cent) of schools were rated ‘needs attention’ and 2 per cent ‘urgent improvement’, for ‘achievement’. 6. Varying attendance issues Attendance and behaviour was the area with the biggest difference between primary and secondary settings. At primary level, 86 per cent of schools received ‘expected standard’ or above for the judgement area, compared to 78 per cent of secondary schools. 7. Third ‘need attention’ In 33 per cent of inspections, schools were graded ‘needs attention’ for at least one evaluation area. In another 3 per cent of inspections, schools were graded ‘urgent improvement’ for at least one evaluation area. 8. ‘Exceptional’ remains rare Conversely, the highest ‘exceptional’ grade – which Ofsted has always stressed is reserved only for the very best practice – remained much rarer. Just four per cent of schools received as least one ‘exceptional’ grade. But 11 schools managed to score straight ‘exceptional’ grades in all evaluation areas. ‘Expected standard’ was the most common grade.