Why Ofsted's new leadership standards will change how your school communicates

Ofsted's new Education Inspection Framework (fully operational from 2026) changes how schools are evaluated, but what many school leaders are missing is how much the new standards will change communication.

The new framework replaces overall grades with reports on six core areas:

• Leadership and governance

• Curriculum and teaching

• Attendance and behaviour

• Achievement

• Personal development and wellbeing

• Inclusion
  
  

These standards have already been scrutinised by many schools to make sure they know what Ofsted will be looking for. However, leadership and governance is one of the most critical areas of the new framework... and its implications for how schools communicate matter.

What the new standards look for

What makes leadership and governance so important is that it is the framework's only evaluation area where a grade of "urgent improvement" automatically means special measures become necessary. This makes it a top priority for school leaders.

Schools who meet the expected standards for leadership and governance will fulfil the following criteria, as laid out in Ofsted's schools inspection toolkit:

• having a clear and strategic approach to improvement, in which leaders accurately monitor the school’s context and prioritise actions that address the most significant barriers to learning

• managing the school as an organisation effectively, including organising staff strategically and removing barriers and distractions from core classroom activities

• leaders making decisions in the best interests of pupils, including prioritising the experiences and outcomes of the groups listed above

• leaders having a reflective understanding of the school’s strengths and areas for 
  development, and taking effective action to engage the school community to improve and/or to sustain high standards

• having a coherent professional learning programme for all staff that is rooted in a culture of purposeful collaboration, focuses on building collective expertise and enables expert teaching across all subjects and phases

• leaders and those responsible for governance (where relevant) understanding their respective roles and their performance in these roles, in a way that enhances the school’s effectiveness

• parents and the school community engaging and participating in a thoughtful and positive way that supports pupils’ education

• the responsible body taking into account the workload and well-being of leaders and, in turn, leaders taking into account the workload and well-being of their staff

How does this relate to how schools communicate? There are actually multiple criteria with an impact on communication. Let's explore how these new standards change things.

Criteria #1: Getting a clear picture of the school's strengths and weaknesses

Ofsted defines this as: Having a clear and strategic approach to improvement, in which leaders accurately monitor the school’s context and prioritise actions that address the most significant barriers to learning.

Strategically improving a school's context also means monitoring how it communicates, particularly with parents.

Are parents made aware of important updates and information in a timely, reliable way? Is it easy for parents to communicate with school staff? Do parents have access to resources they might need to support their child's learning?

Many parents complain that they are never sure what is going on with their child's school, or that they aren't sure where to look for learning resources. 

School leaders should put themselves in the shoes of busy parents and make sure that all communication is easy to understand and easy to find, with clearly labelled information and updates accessible from one central place.

Criteria #2: Making it easy for teachers to communicate

Ofsted defines this as: Managing the school as an organisation effectively, including organising staff strategically and removing barriers and distractions from core classroom activities.

Effective communication is not just about supporting parents - it's also about supporting teaching staff.

Distractions from the classroom have long been an issue for teachers, who must juggle paperwork, admin and other office tasks with teaching lessons. While parents value frequent updates from teachers, providing these updates takes more time out of a teacher's busy schedule.

As a result, teachers may let these updates fall by the wayside, permanently hovering around the bottom of their "to-do" list. 

School leaders can simplify this entire process, making it quicker and easier for teachers to provide updates to parents. 

Updates don't have to take hours out of a teacher's day. By giving teachers one platform to publish on, the most tedious part of communications - replicating messages across email, SMS, social media and more - is already removed. With ReachMoreParents, teachers can also easily communicate with individual parents, or parents of class groups, along with accommodating SEND and EAL families through accessibility and translation features.

But there's more to it. Automation removes much of the work for teachers, giving them message templates, the ability to schedule messages in advance or auto-chase parents for replies to messages (rather than needing to manually write out and send each message themselves). 

Criteria #3: Engaging with parents and the community

Ofsted defines this as: Parents and the school community engaging and participating in a thoughtful and positive way that supports pupils’ education.

Giving parents the opportunity to meaningfully engage with their child's school and teachers is now a must-have for schools. 

Other parents have always used how current parents feel about a school as a barometer of whether they would like to send their own child there. The reason why reputation management for schools forms the backbone of what we do at ReachMoreParents is because we know it's one of the most reliable ways for schools to maximise their pupil intake.

But now it's not just prospective parents judging a school by its reputation with current parents: it's Ofsted too. 

Leadership and governance is not the only evaluation area where the new standards are changing communication. Read more about how Ofsted now expects all school communications to be inclusive.