Early years provision in schools gets own Ofsted grading

From September this year early years providers in schools will be graded separately by Ofsted.

Ofsted has confirmed it will award one grade to providers of early years and reception classes in a primary school and then consider a separate grade for the school overall. However, a poorly graded early years provision may affect the overall judgment of the school.

Consultation carried out by Ofsted earlier this year on whether grading should be done separately for early years and sixth forms within a school proved positive with over half the respondents either agreeing or strongly agreeing to the proposal.

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, welcomed the move but added: “We remain concerned about the proposal to base these inspection judgments on achievement, quality of teaching, behaviour and safety, leadership and management, rather than the existing criteria on which registered early years providers are currently judged.

“It’s vital that all early years provision — regardless of where this provision is delivered — is assessed against the same criteria to ensure that the inspection process is fair and consistent. As such, we look forward to reading Ofsted’s full consultation response to see what decision has been taken on this point.”

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Regards

jackie-hyde