Ofsted launches new QR code badges for promoting inspection findings

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.