The new Ofsted framework will be in force for school inspections in England from November 2025.
Beyond the headline changes on gradings and report cards, the stronger focus on inclusion is likely to bring more recognition to nurture practice in your school. There is more urgency than ever to ensure all learners, especially those with SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) or facing other barriers to learning, are included and get the support they need.
Ofsted: What's changed?
The inspection toolkit sets out what inspectors will look for with regards to safeguarding and six key areas:
- Inclusion
- Curriculum and Teaching
- Achievement
- Attendance and Behaviour
- Personal Development and Wellbeing
- Leadership and Governance
We’ve looked at ways that nurture practice can help focus your work and provide evidence in each of the key inspection areas.
Nurture practice and Ofsted
Inclusion
Ofsted inspectors will look at how your team identifies and supports pupils with SEND and other groups of pupils who may face additional barriers to their learning or wellbeing.
This broader definition of inclusion will bring more attention to the inclusive culture that is a prerequisite for successful nurture schools, as well as identifying and addressing social and emotional developmental needs (key barriers to learning and wellbeing).
If you’re already using the Boxall Profile® Online, you’ll know how it can help you quickly identify needs, plan your everyday high-quality inclusive teaching, use insights to reduce barriers to learning, and monitor the effectiveness of your adaptations. Rich data from the Boxall Profile® Online can also help you to present a powerful, data-informed story on progress to Ofsted inspectors.
If you’re new to the Boxall Profile® Online, you can try a full-featured free trial of our award-winning digital tool.
If you’re looking to develop your use of the Boxall Profile® Online, we recommend our Develop Boxall Pack, which includes our deep-dive training and our webinar on whole-school use of the tool.
“Using the information from the assessment of pupils’ needs to ... reduce barriers to pupils’ learning and/or well-being”
- Ofsted inspection toolkit (evidence for inclusion)
Curriculum and teaching
There’s a new focus in this framework on identifying and removing barriers to achievement, in curriculum design and in adapting teaching.
Understanding your pupils in greater depth using an assessment tool, like the Boxall Profile® Online, lets your team make effective changes to remove learning barriers caused by social and emotional needs. By reviewing the detailed reports on each child and reviewing needs within groups, your team can plan activities, and adjust tasks, teaching style or the classroom environment so that every child or young person is included.
“Staff know how to identify and remove barriers to achievement for their pupils“
- Ofsted inspection toolkit (evidence for inclusive curriculum and teaching)
Achievement
For pupils with SEND, the new Ofsted framework highlights the importance of setting high expectations, identifying the right priorities for pupils and ensuring they make progress.
For this group, in particular, we recommend using the Boxall Profile® Online to identify barriers to learning to make sure children and young people can make good progress.
"Leaders have identified the right priorities for pupils with SEND and are ensuring that they make good progress"
- Ofsted inspection toolkits (evidence for achievement for pupils with SEND)
Attendance and behaviour
When we take visitors around a school that holds the National Nurturing Schools Award, they’re often struck by the sense of calm. They can tell right away that the children and young people in the setting are cared for and supported within a positive and respectful culture.
Engagement is often key to improving both behaviour and attendance, and relational practice is a strong route to developing this. Relational practice will help by creating a more safe and secure environment, improving behaviour, engagement, and attendance.
We’ve put more of our tips into guides on attendance and behaviour. Our Relational Approach e-learning will help you and your team to get to grips with the key ideas.
“Leaders and other staff create a calm, orderly, respectful, supportive and positive environment in which pupils can thrive”
- Ofsted inspection toolkit (inspection of attendance and behaviour)
Personal development and wellbeing
When we visit a nurture school, we’ll invariably see a school culture that emphasises the development of wellbeing of every child, and a strong sense of belonging. The best schools are also really effective in identifying children and young people who need pastoral support, and work hard to build pupils’ social and emotional skills to boost their resilience.
Our highly regarded Theory and Practice of Nurture Groups training is not just for educators running nurture groups, it’s also a practical guide to nurturing interventions that can help all pupils feel like they belong.
Meanwhile, our forthcoming Nurturing Interventions pack focuses on activities that support social and emotional learning.
"Pupils feel welcome, valued and respected, and that they belong within the school community"
- Ofsted inspection toolkit (evidence for inclusive personal development and well-being)
Leadership and governance
The new Ofsted framework emphasises positive and respectful relationships, and how schools engage with parents, carers, and the local community.
The whole-school nurture approach, the National Nurturing Schools Programme, involves everyone within the school community.
Or as a first step, our new e-learning course gives your team practical help on working with parents and carers. You can access a discounted rate for your team along with with bundled publications in the Develop Parents, Families and Carers Pack.
"Leaders ... forge constructive relationships beyond the school, so that they can successfully engage and work in partnership with parents and the local community"
- Ofsted inspection toolkit (inspection of leadership and governance)
3 practical steps for your school to highlight good practice to Ofsted
1. Show you've identified barriers to learning with the Boxall Profile® Online
By using the Boxall Profile® Online, you will have clear evidence to show that you have identified pupils' social and emotional development and behavioural needs that act as barriers to learning, and that you have planned to meet these needs through individual or group learning plans.
Our unique digital tool helps you to understand the social and emotional development of the learners in your class, and pinpoint social and emotional difficulties they are experiencing.
You can sign up now for a free trial, or if you already use the assessment tool, our training, e-learning and publications packs can help you get full value out of your subscription.
2. Show your school is a welcoming, caring environment, where every child is valued
Under the new Ofsted framework, schools in England are expected to create a calm, orderly, respectful, supportive and positive environment in which pupils can thrive.
Schools that successfully complete the National Nurturing Schools Programme frequently report its transformational effect in creating calm, safe and supportive environments. Through pupil voice and parent feedback, they can immediately demonstrate that pupils feel valued and that they belong, and that this welcoming environment forms part of the school's approach to behaviour and attendance.
3. Show that your approach to behaviour and attendance addresses root causes
Nurturing schools often shine in the way their behaviour and attendance policies, and their approach to parental engagement work together to engage, rather than create barriers to improvement.
By fostering positive relationships between staff, pupils and parents, you'll build a positive and respectful culture that will be clear to inspectors.
Our Relational Approach E-Learning will give you a deeper understanding of why positive relationships are crucial for development and learning. The self-paced training will help you implement practical strategies and tools to foster a stronger connection with the whole school community. Our e-learning on working with parents and carers will help you develop a more nurturing approach.
Ready to continue your nurture journey?
Explore how nurtureuk can support your school's nurture journey: