Proprietors wishing to open a new independent school must apply to the Department for Education (DfE) for registration. When the DfE has checked that the application from a proposed new school is complete, it will commission Ofsted to conduct a pre-registration inspection of the proposed school.
The purpose of the inspection is to check whether the school is likely to meet the independent school standards if the DfE decides to register it. Schools must comply with the standards to be registered.
Once registered, new schools are inspected in their first year of operation.