Section 5 Ofsted: What A Full Inspection Means In 2026/27

If you’ve worked in schools for a while, you’ll know ‘Section 5’ as the full Ofsted inspection. It still means that, although a lot of what happens around it has changed.

Since November 2025, section 5 inspections have been carried out under the renewed Ofsted inspection framework. Ofsted now calls them full inspections, schools receive a report card instead of a single headline grade, and a section 8 inspection no longer means an ungraded check on a good school.

This article covers what school leaders need to know about a section 5 Ofsted inspection in 2026/27: what it is, how it differs from section 8, how often it happens, what can trigger one, and what to expect from the first phone call to the final report card.

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What is a section 5 Ofsted inspection?

A section 5 Ofsted inspection is a full inspection of one of England’s state-funded schools, carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. The Act requires Ofsted to inspect schools at regular intervals and report on what it finds.

Ofsted’s inspection information for state-funded schools now says full inspections “were previously known as graded inspections or section 5 inspections”. You’ll still hear all three names in staffrooms, and they all mean the same thing.

Ofsted stopped giving state-funded schools an overall effectiveness judgement in September 2024, and the renewed framework hasn’t brought it back. Instead, a full inspection grades six core evaluation areas separately, plus early years and sixth form where a school has them:

• inclusion
• curriculum and teaching
• achievement
• attendance and behaviour
• personal development and well-being
• leadership and governance
• early years (where the school has early years provision)
• sixth form (where the school has sixth form provision)

Each of these evaluation areas is graded on the same five point scale:

1. Exceptional
2. Strong standard
3. Expected standard
4. Needs attention
5. Urgent improvement

Ofsted says the renewed inspections put “a stronger emphasis on leadership as a driver of sustained improvement, and on inclusion”. You’ll see that in the toolkit: an exceptional grade, for example, depends on strong practice being sustained over time.

Safeguarding is judged differently: inspectors decide whether the school’s safeguarding is ‘met’ or ‘not met’, rather than grading it on the point scale. The grade descriptors for every other area are set out in Ofsted’s inspection toolkits, which have replaced the old school inspection handbook. Together with the operating guides, these inspection materials are what the inspection team works from.

What is the difference between a section 5 and a section 8 Ofsted inspection?

Section 5 inspections used to be graded and section 8 inspections ungraded. Ungraded inspections have now ended, so every routine inspection is a full section 5 inspection with a report card.

Section 8 of the Education Act 2005 is now used for two types of inspection:

• Monitoring inspections for schools where Ofsted has identified a need for improvement, such as an evaluation area graded needs attention or a school placed in a category of concern.
• Focused monitoring inspections, which follow up concerns about a school that isn’t in a category of concern, for example after a qualifying complaint. Ofsted says these were previously known as urgent inspections, inspections with no formal designation and unannounced behaviour inspections.

For a school with one or more areas graded needs attention, monitoring is fairly light touch. Most schools have one monitoring inspection, usually lasting a day and normally within 24 months (two years) of the report card being published.

Schools with an evaluation area graded urgent improvement, or where safeguarding is not met, can be placed in a category of concern. These schools are eligible for formal support and intervention, and maintained schools and pupil referral units in a category of concern are subject to a directive academy order. They also have more monitoring: a school that requires significant improvement can have up to 5 monitoring inspections within 18 months, and a school in special measures up to 6 within 24 months.

How often should you expect a section 5 Ofsted inspection?

Schools are inspected approximately once every 4 years, unless they are in one of Ofsted’s monitoring programmes. The legal limit is 5 school years, counted from the end of the school year in which the last inspection took place.

Some schools will have their first full inspection under the renewed framework a little earlier. If your school’s last inspection was an ungraded one before September 2024, and the lead inspector wasn’t satisfied, the school would have kept at least its current grade; the first full inspection comes around 2.5 years after that report was published. The same applies to schools last inspected before September 2024 that were judged requires improvement.

If your school was judged good or outstanding for overall effectiveness before September 2024, you can keep using the Ofsted good or outstanding logo until your next full inspection.

Ofsted can inspect at any point from 5 school days after pupils first attend in the autumn term, and outstanding schools are no longer exempt from routine inspection.

Which schools get a section 5 inspection?

Full inspections under section 5 cover state funded primary schools, secondary schools, special schools and maintained nursery schools. That includes:

• maintained schools, including community, foundation and voluntary schools
• academies, including sponsor-led academies, academy converter schools, free schools, university technical colleges and studio schools
• special schools, including some non-maintained special schools
• pupil referral units and alternative provision academies
• maintained nursery schools

Other settings have their own inspection toolkits and operating guides instead. Early years settings and early years providers such as nurseries and childminders, further education and skills providers (including 16 to 19 academies) and non-association independent schools are all inspected separately.

What triggers a section 5 or section 8 Ofsted inspection?

Most full inspections come round on schedule, but Ofsted’s guidance is clear that “we might inspect a school at any time if we have any concerns”. Things that can bring an inspection forward include:

• a qualifying complaint about the school
• a request from the Secretary of State under section 118 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006
• a request from the school’s governing board or trustees
• other serious concerns, such as concerns about safeguarding

Concerns don’t always lead to a full inspection. Ofsted may carry out a focused monitoring inspection under section 8 instead.

What should you expect during a section 5 inspection?

Full inspections normally last 2 days, and the Ofsted inspection process follows the same pattern in most schools.

The phone call

For a full inspection, the lead inspector usually phones the school between 9.30 and 10am on a Monday morning, or on a Tuesday after a bank holiday or in the first week back after the Christmas, Easter or summer holidays. As soon as this phone call is taken, the inspection has started!

Before that call, the lead inspector reviews your previous inspection report, Ofsted’s inspection data summary report (IDSR), any relevant complaints made to Ofsted and your school website, including your governance arrangements.

The first call covers the practical details: contact details, governance arrangements, pupil numbers, SEND provision, any off-site alternative provision and any reasonable adjustments anyone needs. A longer planning call follows later the same day and can take up to 90 minutes. This is your chance to talk through your school context, its strengths and its areas for development, using the toolkit as a reference point. Headteachers are encouraged to bring another senior leader.

Both inspectors and schools have responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010, which protects people from discrimination because of a protected characteristic. That’s why the call asks about reasonable adjustments, and it’s worth thinking about who on your staff might need one before the call comes.

Unannounced inspections work differently: the inspector phones about 15 minutes before arriving.

The nominee

You can choose a nominee: a senior member of staff with a thorough knowledge of how the school operates day to day. The nominee attends the planning call alongside the headteacher, briefs staff, makes sure documents are available and gives inspectors insight into the school’s context. They also attend the regular meetings with inspectors to review evidence and discuss emerging findings and grades, and act as the link between the lead inspector and school leaders if you want to raise a concern. It isn’t compulsory, and Ofsted says schools will not be at any disadvantage without one.

Gathering evidence on site

Inspectors shouldn’t arrive before 8am and should leave by 5pm, other than in exceptional circumstances. The lead inspector checks in with leaders about their wellbeing, and the wellbeing of other staff, before inspection activities begin each day.

By 8am on the first day, you need to have these documents ready for the inspection team:

• strategic documents, such as your school improvement priorities and governing board or trustee minutes
• behaviour and attendance records, including suspensions and permanent exclusions and any pupils taken off roll
• inclusion information for case sampling: a list of disadvantaged pupils, pupils with SEND, those known to children’s social care and others who face barriers to learning, such as young carers
• operational documents, such as the timetable and staff list
• safeguarding information, including the single central record

You won’t find deep dives in the renewed framework. Inspectors gather evidence through learning walks with leaders, lesson visits, looking at pupils’ work and talking to pupils and staff. They do not grade individual teachers or lessons. Expect Ofsted questions about how the curriculum works for pupils with SEND, disadvantaged pupils and anyone who needs learning interventions to catch up. Inspectors put these to subject leaders, senior leaders and the SENCo, who they meet throughout the inspection.

Safeguarding

Ofsted safeguarding runs through the whole inspection. The lead inspector looks at the single central record early on and meets the designated safeguarding lead on day 1. Safeguarding isn’t something schools just ‘do’ for Ofsted, but preparing for Ofsted safeguarding questions and answers takes some of the stress out of the day.

Feedback

There’s an end-of-day reflection meeting with leaders after day 1, and a grading meeting at the end of day 2. Inspectors meet those responsible for governance on either day. At the final feedback meeting, the lead inspector shares the provisional grades with the headteacher, the chair of governors or trustees (and as many governors or trustees as can attend) and, for maintained schools, a local authority representative.

How to prepare for a section 5 inspection

Preparing for a section 5 inspection means knowing your school well and making sure everyone else does too. Here are a few things school leaders can do now:

• Know your school context and be ready to explain it in the planning call, including the strengths and areas for development you’d point to in each evaluation area.
• Read the school inspection toolkit with your senior leaders, middle leaders and department heads, so everyone knows what the expected standard looks like.
• Make sure the documents inspectors need by 8am are up to date and easy to find, especially the single central record and your case sampling lists.
• Decide whether you’ll have a nominee, and who it will be.
• Talk to staff about the inspection process, so nobody is surprised by a learning walk or a conversation with an inspector.

What Ofsted doesn’t ask schools to prepare

Ofsted says it does not want schools to do any additional work for inspection. You don’t need:

• a written self-evaluation form, or a formal self-evaluation against the toolkit
• predictions of attainment or internal pupil-tracking data
• a separate pupil premium document
• individual lesson plans
• workbooks put together for inspection, or photos of pupils’ work
• a presentation about your school context

Work scrutiny isn’t used to judge marking either, and there is no expected marking frequency.

After the inspection: when you get your report card

Once inspectors leave, the timeline for the inspection report is:

• the draft report card normally arrives within 18 working days
• you have 5 working days to comment, mainly on clarity and factual accuracy
• the final report card is normally shared within 30 working days of the end of the inspection
• you must share it with parents within 5 working days of receiving it
• Ofsted publishes it on its reports website 5 working days after sending it to you

Report cards aren’t normally issued during school holidays. Each one shows the grade for every evaluation area with a short written summary, alongside the safeguarding outcome. These are the Ofsted ratings parents now see, in place of one overall grade.

What changed in September 2026

Ofsted now reviews its inspection toolkits and operating guides every year. The first annual update, for inspections from September 2026, kept the framework the same but changed some details:

• KS2 and KS4 results are now compared with similar schools as well as with national averages.
• Inspectors meet the SENCo and other inclusion leaders throughout the inspection.
• The toolkit has clearer wording on progress for disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND.
• Inspectors can give next steps even where an area is graded expected standard or above.
• In the safeguarding evaluation area, ‘leaders’ now explicitly includes those responsible for governance.

How can Third Space Learning help with a section 5 Ofsted inspection?

You can support your team in their preparation for a section 5 Ofsted inspection with our range of Ofsted resources for school leaders. They make excellent resources for CPD and are suitable for primary and secondary schools. Start with the Ofsted Preparation Guide for primary and secondary maths leaders.

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Section 5 Ofsted FAQs