Ofsted has today launched a new way for education providers to
celebrate and share their inspection report cards with parents,
carers and the wider community.
New QR code badges have been created for every school, college,
training provider and early years setting, which link directly to
their individual page on the Ofsted reports website. The
Ofsted-branded badges can be displayed anywhere the provider
wishes to promote their inspection outcomes, offering instant
access to their full report.
Since November last year, education providers have been inspected
against a renewed Ofsted framework, which evaluates their
strengths and weaknesses across a wider range of areas without
awarding an overall, one-word grade. The findings are published
in new, colour-coded report cards, which present a more detailed
account of what's working well at the provider and where its next
steps for improvement lie.
Under the previous inspection system, many providers chose to
promote their overall Ofsted grade on a banner by their gates, as
well as on leaflets, brochures and websites. Now, without that
single word judgement, there are more ways they can choose to
highlight their inspection outcomes – such as by listing their
full suite of grades, or quoting specific sections from their
report card.
In guidance sent to providers today, Ofsted has advised that
providers are free to promote their inspection results however
they wish, but where they publicly share printed content from
their report card it should only be displayed alongside their
official QR code badge.
His Majesty's Chief Inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver, said:
The beauty of our new report cards is the clear picture they
offer about a provider's strengths and areas for improvement
across a wide range of areas, without that blunt one-word
judgement casting its shadow over the detail.
Schools, colleges and nurseries are free to promote and celebrate
their successes in any way they wish. But it's important that
parents and carers have easy access to their full inspection
report card too, so they can understand those findings in their
full context.
We hope our new QR badges will be a really useful addition to
banners, brochures and leaflets and, crucially, they will help us
maintain transparency and accessibility in sharing inspection
outcomes.
Providers can download their QR code badge from their page on the
Ofsted reports website,
where they can choose from different file types and read
guidelines on how to use them.
