Choosing a nursery is one of the biggest decisions a family makes, and an Ofsted report is often part of that choice. From November 2025, the way nurseries are inspected and graded changed. Here is a guide to what is different and, more importantly, what it means for you and your child.
What has actually changed?
Ofsted has moved away from giving a nursery a single overall word such as Good or Outstanding. In its place, every setting now receives a report card that shows how it is doing across several separate areas of its care and learning. The aim is to give families a fuller and fairer picture, rather than reducing everything a nursery does to one label.
Alongside the new report card, inspections now happen more often and the grading words have changed too. We have set all of this out below.
How inspections work now
Inspectors use a new Early Years Inspection Toolkit, and the focus is firmly on what your child actually experiences during the day rather than on paperwork. During a visit, an inspector will spend most of their time watching children play and settle into daily routines, talking with our team about how each child is supported, and checking that safeguarding, health and welfare are all in good order.
This is a more open and collaborative style of inspection. Inspectors hold professional conversations with our staff and take the individual character of each setting into account, which means a nursery is judged on its own context rather than against a rigid checklist.
The six areas on the report card
Instead of one overall judgement, a nursery is now assessed across six areas:
- Curriculum and teaching looks at whether the nursery has a well-planned sequence of learning across the EYFS and teaches it well for each age, with particular weight on communication and language and on adapting for children with SEND.
- Achievement is about the progress children make from their own starting points, not comparison with others. The test is simply whether they know more, remember more and can do more over time, ready for their next step.
- Behaviour, attitudes and routines covers how settled and engaged children are, their relationships with staff, and attendance. The emphasis is on nurturing support that helps children self-regulate, and routines that build independence.
- Children’s welfare and well-being is about whether children feel safe and cared for, the strength of their attachments to staff, and how the setting promotes healthy habits like good food, activity and rest.
- Inclusion runs through everything as well as being graded in its own right, looking at how well every child is helped to take part and progress, especially children with SEND, disadvantaged children, and any child facing a barrier.
- Leadership and governance asks whether leaders meet EYFS requirements, but mainly whether they have a clear vision, support their staff, work openly with families and drive real improvement.
The new grading scale
Each of those six areas is given one of five grades:
- Exceptional is the highest grade. Practice that goes beyond the strong standard with a sustained, sometimes transformational impact on children.
- Strong Standard means consistently good practice, well embedded across the setting and clearly making a difference. A very positive result.
- Expected Standard means the nursery is meeting the statutory and professional expectations of the EYFS and delivering secure, good quality practice. This is a positive outcome and the level every setting is expected to reach, not a borderline pass.
- Needs Attention flags inconsistencies affecting children’s experiences. Not a crisis grade, but it marks areas to put right, and triggers more frequent inspection.
- Urgent Improvement is the lowest grade, pointing to areas that need rapid action, with close follow-up.
Safeguarding is judged on its own
Safeguarding sits outside the grading scale and is assessed separately as either met or not met. It is never traded off against anything else, because keeping children safe is the foundation everything else is built on.
How often will my nursery be inspected?
Most nurseries will now be inspected every four years, rather than every six, so the report you read will give a more current picture of a setting. Newly registered nurseries are usually visited within their first 18 months, any setting graded Needs Attention or Urgent Improvement is seen more often.
What this means for you
For families, the changes are good news. You get a more detailed and honest report, easier access to it, and the reassurance that nurseries are reviewed regularly and fairly. Above all, the new approach looks closely at the things that matter most day to day, whether children feel safe, included, happy and ready for their next step.
