About facts and figures under the report cards
All Ofsted report cards have a section called ‘Facts and figures used on inspection’. On this page, we’ll explain more about the data we include in this section and where we get it from.
In general, the data always shows a snapshot in time: it’s what was available to the inspectors at the time of the inspection. We do not update the data in the report card after it is published, which means that more recent data may be available elsewhere.
We also only include data that is already publicly available, for example on the Department for Education (DfE)’s website.
We never include data that could be used to identify information about individual children or learners. Where this is a risk, we replace the figure with the letter ‘S’.
Where the data comes from depends on the type of provider the report card is about, such as a childminder, nursery, school or college. Below, we’ll explain where the data comes from for each type of provider, as well as any other useful information you may need.
Early years settings
For early years settings, all the facts and figures are recorded by inspectors as part of the inspection.
State-funded schools
Before a state-funded school inspection, we put together a collection of facts and figures about the school, including some analysis. We call this the inspection data summary report (IDSR). This is used by our inspectors to help plan the inspection and to make sure that our inspections are carried out consistently. We share the IDSR with the school.
Most of the data in the IDSR comes from the DfE and is published on its ‘Compare school and college performance in England’ website. Compare school and college performance in England
Some data comes from other government departments – for example, data on deprivation is from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
And some data comes directly from the school, through what the school has uploaded to the DfE’s ‘Get Information about Schools’ (GIAS) website – for example, the ‘Resourced provision or SEND unit’ section.
You can find a full list of data in the IDSR and its sources in the School IDSR guide.
IDSRs are created periodically throughout the year, when new data becomes available. Inspectors access their IDSRs in advance of the inspection, but if new data is released after the inspection starts, this will not feed through to the report card. This means that, on some occasions, more up-to-date information is available at the time of the inspection, for example if the school updates its data on GIAS. (It is the school’s responsibility to keep GIAS up to date.)
The ‘Total pupils’ figure in the report card is the number of on-roll pupils given in the DfE’s latest January census. Again, this is a snapshot taken at a point in time and is not updated during the academic year. Ofsted cannot change this figure.
Key stage 2 and key stage 5 data
The DfE gives inspectors and schools provisional data for key stages 2 (primary school) and 5 (sixth form) for use on inspection before it is published and available to the public.
Although we use this data for the inspection, we do not include it on the report card until the DfE publishes it. Up to that point, we mark it with an ‘R’ (for ‘redacted’). Once it has been published by the DfE, we update the report card to show this (‘revised’) data.
Note for schools: if your report card still has an ‘R’ for data that you believe has been published, please make sure you have the latest version of the report card (the live copy on your page on the Ofsted report website, not a saved PDF).
How we compare the school with the national average
In the report card, some tables include a column titled ‘Compared with national average’. This compares data for the school with the same data from other schools in the same ‘phase’. There are 2 school phases:
- primary schools (including middle schools that we treat as primary)
- secondary schools (including middle schools that we treat as secondary)
There is one exception to this: the location deprivation measure, which is compared with data for all schools nationally, not just those in the same phase.
We do not compare special schools with national averages.
For more information about how we compare schools’ performance data with national data and place them into ‘bandings’, please read our blog post ‘The role of data on school and further education inspections’.
State-funded nursery schools
We collect a more limited range of data for state-funded nursery schools than we do for other state-funded schools – for example, we do not collect data about school capacity. Therefore, this information is not included in the report cards for nursery schools.
We do not include comparisons with the national average for nursery schools.
Alternative provision
For alternative provision, we do not publish information about attainment and progress at key stages 2 (primary school), 4 (Years 10 and 11) and 5 (sixth form), so these are not included in the report cards for these providers.
We do not publish comparisons with national averages for alternative provision.
We do not collect absence data for alternative provision as frequently as for mainstream schools. This means that the latest absence data for alternative provision may not be as recent as that shown on report cards for other mainstream schools.
Non-association independent schools
For non-association independent schools, all the facts and figures are recorded by inspectors as part of the inspection.
Further education and skills providers
Before we inspect a further education (FE) and skills provider, we put together a collection of facts and figures about the provider, including some analysis. We call this the FE and skills inspection tool (FESIT). This is used by our inspectors to help plan the inspection and to make sure that inspections are carried out consistently.
Most of the data in the FESIT is supplied directly to Ofsted by the DfE, including learner numbers, funding and performance measures.
FESIT is a live tool that is continually updated throughout the year. Learner numbers and funding are updated with data that providers supply to the DfE. Several times a year the DfE supply Ofsted with the latest attainment outcomes, which are then updated in FESIT.
To be open and transparent, FESIT is shared with providers. They can only see their own data and have access all year round.
Number of learners
The ‘number of learners’ is recorded by inspectors as part of the inspection.
Percentage of learning aims successfully achieved
Under ‘Percentage of learning aims successfully achieved’, the figures in the ‘this provider’ and ‘national average’ columns are taken from the publicly available DfE national achievement rate tables.
Occasionally, the DfE removes figures from its public releases, usually because there is only a small number of learners in that particular category, which could mean that information about individual learners is identifiable. In these cases, the figure in the report card will be replaced with an ‘S’.
How we compare the provider with the national average
In the report card, the table about the overall achievement rates includes a column that compares data for the provider with the same data from other providers and places them into ‘bandings’. For more information about how we calculate this, please read our blog post ‘The role of data on school and further education inspections’.
Initial teacher education
For initial teacher education providers, all the facts and figures are recorded by inspectors as part of the inspection.