Ofsted Inspection Preparation: How To Get Your School Ready In 2026/27

Most Ofsted inspection preparation happens long before the phone rings. Once Ofsted calls on a Monday morning, there’s little time left to change anything about your school, so the next few days are about making sure inspectors see it as it is.

This guide sets out what Ofsted inspection preparation looks like under the renewed framework, using the inspection materials that apply from September 2026. It covers the work worth doing all year round, what to do in the 24 hours after the notification call, how to support your team during the two days on site, and what happens once inspectors leave. The documents inspectors work from, and how each stage of an inspection runs, are set out in the Ofsted inspection framework itself. There’s an Ofsted inspection checklist at the end you can share with your senior team, so you can see at a glance whether you’re inspection ready.

Key takeaways

• Ofsted can inspect from 5 school days into the autumn term, and most schools are inspected roughly once every 4 years.
• Ofsted usually calls on a Monday morning, so agree your plan for that day well in advance.
• Your strategic, behaviour, attendance and safeguarding documents need to be ready by 8am on the first day of the inspection.
• Ofsted doesn’t want documents produced specifically for an inspection, so preparation is mostly about knowing your school and being able to explain it.
• Inclusion and case sampling now shape much of an inspection, so leaders need to know the pupils who face barriers to their learning or wellbeing, and the support they receive.
• Findings stay confidential, apart from governors and trustees, until your final report card arrives.

Ofsted Preparation Guides: Primary and Secondary Maths

A practical guide to preparing for maths under an Ofsted inspection, including what’s changed in the renewed framework, from report cards to the evaluation areas, and the questions inspectors are likely to ask.

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What Ofsted is looking for in 2026/27

Ofsted inspectors grade your school in six evaluation areas: inclusion, curriculum and teaching, achievement, attendance and behaviour, personal development and wellbeing, and leadership and governance. Early years and sixth form provision are graded separately where you have them, and safeguarding is judged as ‘met’ or ‘not met’. Under the new Ofsted framework, each area gets its own grade on the report card, from exceptional to urgent improvement.

Every area starts from the ‘expected standard’ in the school inspection toolkit, so that’s the most useful place to begin your own preparation. The toolkit was updated for inspections from September 2026, and the changes most schools need to think about are:

• achievement is now compared with similar schools as well as with national averages, using data that appears in your inspection data summary report (IDSR)
• pupils facing barriers to their learning or wellbeing need to be achieving well for the school to reach the expected standard for achievement
• inspectors speak to the range of leaders with an inclusion role, including your designated teacher, as well as your SENCo
• there are clearer expectations on mobile phone and bullying policies, a dedicated allergy safety policy and a published inclusion strategy

Ofsted inspection preparation all year round

Ofsted is clear that it doesn’t want schools producing documents specifically for an inspection. The toolkit puts it plainly: “We do not need leaders to produce documents specifically for an Ofsted inspection of their school. This would create unnecessary workload.”

That means Ofsted inspection preparation is mostly about the work you’d be doing anyway, done well enough that you and your team feel confident talking about it.

Self-evaluate against the toolkit

On the planning call, Ofsted inspectors will ask where you think the school sits on the five-point scale for each evaluation area. It’s much easier to answer if your senior team has already agreed a view.

Work through the standards in the Ofsted toolkit area by area, starting with the expected standard, and note the evidence behind each judgement. Ofsted doesn’t require a written self-evaluation, so keep whatever you produce short and useful to you and your governors.

Know your data and what it tells you

The inspection team will ask how you use your internal data and what decisions you’ve made as a result, although they won’t review the data itself. So spend your preparation time on being able to explain those decisions clearly.

Before an Ofsted inspection, school leaders and governors should be confident talking about:

• your published results in national tests over time, and how your performance and outcomes compare with national averages and with similar schools
• how disadvantaged pupils attain compared with disadvantaged pupils nationally, and whether any gap is narrowing
• attendance, suspensions and exclusions for different groups of pupils
• what your internal assessments show, and what you’ve changed because of them

Check progress against your last report

Your last Ofsted inspection report sets out the areas the school needed to improve, and the inspection team will read it before they call. Make sure senior leaders can explain what you’ve done about each one, what difference it has made and how you know.

Keep safeguarding culture and records up to date

The single central record is the first thing checked on day 1 of an Ofsted inspection, so it needs to be accurate and complete at all times. Inspectors also look at whether staff know how to raise a concern, whether pupils feel safe and know who to talk to, and whether leaders and governors take a whole-school approach to safeguarding.

Since September 2026, inspectors also check that disqualification records under the Childcare Act 2006 are accurate, and that you have arrangements for pupils with medical conditions, including a dedicated allergy safety policy. The safeguarding questions Ofsted is likely to ask are worth running through with your designated safeguarding lead well before an inspection.

Know the pupils who might be case sampled

When Ofsted calls, you’ll be asked for a list of pupils for case sampling: pupils who are disadvantaged, have SEND, are known (or previously known) to children’s social care, or face other barriers to their learning or wellbeing. Inspectors then follow around six of these pupils through the inspection: they visit their lessons, look at their work and talk to the staff who know them best.

For each group, leaders should be able to explain how pupils’ needs were identified, what support they receive and who delivers it, and how you check that it’s working. If you run targeted school interventions, be ready to show how they link back to what pupils are learning in class.

This information often sits with several different people, from your SENCo to your designated teacher and pastoral leads, so bringing it together before the call saves a lot of time on the Monday afternoon.

Review your website and policies

Your website is public, so anyone preparing to visit the school, inspectors included, can read it in advance. Check it against the Department for Education’s guidance on what maintained schools must publish online, or the equivalent guidance for academies, and make sure dates and policies are current.

Under the September 2026 toolkit, also check that you have:

• a behaviour policy that covers mobile phones, and that pupils and parents know the expectations
• a policy on bullying, and records of incidents and how you dealt with them
• a dedicated allergy safety policy
• a published inclusion strategy that explains how your funding meets the needs of your pupils
• an up-to-date pupil premium strategy, which inspectors expect to be based on evidence of what works

Support your governors and trustees

Inspectors meet the chair of governors or trustees, and as many other governors or trustees as are available. They’ll want to know how the board holds leaders to account for the evaluation areas, including safeguarding, behaviour and the curriculum, and how it considers leaders’ workload and wellbeing.

Make sure your governors understand the evaluation areas and the five grades, and can talk confidently about the school’s strengths and priorities.

If you’re part of a trust

Ofsted inspects each academy as an individual school, but it recognises that trusts keep overall legal responsibility. Your scheme of delegation is read before the inspection and checked on the planning call, so it needs to match what happens in your school day to day. The operating guide also tells inspectors that, where trust-wide policies are in place, they should focus only on their impact on the academy being inspected.

Agree in advance who from the trust will join each stage of the inspection, from the calls on Monday to the final feedback meeting, and make sure they know the academy well.

Prepare your subject leaders

Inspectors still talk to subject leaders during learning walks and focused leadership meetings, even though the renewed framework has no deep dives. Subject leaders should be ready to talk through the reasons for their curriculum choices and how far they’ve got, including how they know it’s working.

Maths leads can practise with the question banks in the free Ofsted preparation guide for primary maths and Ofsted preparation guide for secondary maths. The Ofsted questions staff are likely to be asked are a useful starting point for other subjects too.

What Ofsted doesn’t need from you

It’s easy to spend the last few days before an inspection on things inspectors have said they won’t look at. Ofsted’s inspection information lists what it does not require, including:

• written evidence for each standard in the toolkit, or any formal self-evaluation document
• individual lesson plans, or curriculum planning in a particular format
• predictions of attainment and progress, or pupil-tracking information
• a specific pupil premium document or plan beyond your published strategy
• grading of individual teachers or lessons
• work scrutiny to evaluate marking, or a set frequency or volume of marking
• workbooks or photographic evidence of pupils’ work put together for the inspection
• presentations about your school
• retrospective DBS checks for staff who have been continuously employed
• using AI in any particular way

Sharing this list with staff is one of the simplest ways to reduce teacher workload in the weeks before an inspection.

When the call comes: the first 24 hours

The day of the notification call is the busiest part of any Ofsted inspection. Having a plan for it, agreed in advance, makes a big difference to how calm the rest of the week feels.

The notification call

Ofsted encourages headteachers to have at least one other senior leader with them when the lead inspector calls, usually the person who deputises for them or a member of trust staff, so decide in advance who that will be. After the call, you’ll receive an email with links to the pupil and staff questionnaires to share, and you must let parents know about the inspection.

Choose your nominee

Having a nominee is optional, but it can take a lot of pressure off the headteacher. If you’re going to have one, choose someone senior who knows your self-evaluation well and can step away from their usual role for two days, as the nominee works closely with the inspection team from the planning call to final feedback.

Prepare for the planning call

The inspection team uses the planning call later that day to decide the inspection activities for day 1, so it’s your best chance to shape the inspection. Before the call, have to hand:

• your school improvement plan and where you think the school sits in each evaluation area
• your list of pupils for case sampling
• information about any pupils in off-site alternative provision, on part-time timetables or flexi-schooling
• details of your governance arrangements, or your scheme of delegation if you’re in a trust

Get your documents ready for 8am

These are the documents Ofsted inspectors ask schools to make available by 8am on the first day of the inspection:

• strategic documents, including your school improvement plan, governance minutes and any external evaluations
• behaviour and attendance records, including suspensions, exclusions, bullying incidents and safeguarding referrals
• the single central record and your safeguarding information, with secure access for inspectors
• practical information, such as the timetable, a staff list, a school map and Wi-Fi details

Brief your staff

Brief staff on the Monday afternoon, ideally in person. Tell them who the inspectors are, what learning walks and case sampling involve, and that inspectors won’t grade individual lessons or teachers. Encourage everyone to teach the lessons they had planned.

Agree who will cover the headteacher’s and nominee’s usual responsibilities for the two days, so the school runs as normal while they’re with inspectors.

During the Ofsted inspection

The inspection team usually arrives no earlier than 8am and leaves by 5pm, apart from in exceptional circumstances. Day 1 starts with a check of the single central record and agreeing the pupils for case sampling.

Learning walks

Learning walks are the main way inspectors see teaching and learning in classrooms, and schools can choose a leader to go with the inspector. It’s a good chance to show inspectors your practice in context and the difference your strategies are making. In primary schools and early years, they focus first on how well pupils secure strong foundations in communication and language, reading, writing and maths, and the knowledge and skills they need to access the rest of the curriculum. In secondary schools, inspectors look at a group of subjects agreed with leaders on the Monday.

After each learning walk, you’ll get a summary of what they’ve seen. If something wasn’t typical of the school, say so and suggest other evidence they could look at.

Reflection meetings

Use the reflection meetings across the two days to check how inspectors’ thinking is developing, and to add evidence while there’s still time. It can help to keep a shared note of what comes up in each meeting, so senior leaders can follow up quickly on anything inspectors want to see.

Look after your staff and yourself

Inspectors check with leaders on their own wellbeing and that of their staff before inspection activities each day, and they’ll ask who is responsible for the headteacher’s wellbeing during the inspection. If staff need support, the Education Support helpline is free and confidential.

It also helps staff when senior leaders stay visible around school during the two days and take time to check in on colleagues and thank them.

After the inspection

The Ofsted inspection ends with a final feedback meeting at the end of day 2, so agree in advance who will attend from your governing board or trust. For maintained schools, a local authority representative is also invited. Remember that the grades shared at this meeting are provisional until Ofsted’s quality assurance checks are complete.

What you can share, and when

Leaders should share the findings with all governors or trustees, and anyone else they consider appropriate, but the information shouldn’t be made public or shared with parents until you receive your final report card.

Your report card

When your draft report card arrives, you have 5 working days to comment on its factual accuracy, so agree in advance who will check it. Once the final version arrives, you must send a copy to parents within 5 working days. Reading a few published Ofsted report cards beforehand means the format won’t be new when yours arrives.

Plan your next steps

Use the priorities inspectors have identified to update your school improvement plan, and plan how you’ll talk parents and staff through the report card. If any area is graded ‘needs attention’, the school may receive a monitoring visit, and Ofsted can regrade an area if it finds the school has moved on.

If closing gaps in maths is one of your priorities, Third Space Learning provides low-cost one-to-one maths tutoring from Skye, the spoken AI maths tutor developed by maths teachers, for every pupil who needs it.

Ofsted inspection checklist

Use this Ofsted inspection checklist with your senior team to check you’re ready at each stage of the process, and to agree who will follow up on anything that’s missing.

Maths leads in primary schools, secondary schools and trusts can work through the same stages for their subject with the free Ofsted preparation guides for maths.

Ofsted inspection preparation FAQs