How choosing a secondary school might be about to get easier

Choosing a new school is one of the biggest decisions a parent makes, and is often based on a mixture of visiting, speaking to friends and looking at Ofsted reports.

From September 2025 a new "report card" based on Ofsted inspections is due to be introduced, replacing the one-word judgements scrapped this year.

Three areas in England have already been looking at developing a more detailed local report in response to parents asking for more information.

In the north London borough of Camden, a newly-styled school report card is being piloted, designed to be used on smartphones and tablets.

It will allow parents to search in an area around them for schools, and go into a site where they can explore through words, pictures and data what the schools are like.

A former head of Ofsted says the work in Camden, which has been shared with the BBC, should influence ministers thinking about what parents need in the national changes.

The first section of Camden’s school reports shows “Our school in 100 words” - a description of values and strengths, written by the school.

This is closely followed by “Our school in 10 photos”, to show the facilities and activities available to pupils.

The school's latest Ofsted report, usually two to three pages of writing, is embedded within the site.

But the report also pulls together some official statistics not included in Ofsted reports, such as GCSE results or those in primary national curriculum tests, often known as Sats, compared with both the local and national average. It also includes data on absence.

Each school also has to set out its approaches to learning, pupils’ wellbeing, its anti-bullying policy, and how it supports children with special educational needs.

And all of the information has to be submitted and checked before being uploaded, so it is in a standard format allowing parents to compare schools.

Shabnam Eslambolchi, whose daughter is in Year 4 at Gospel Oak Primary School, really likes the way the new site combines descriptions, photos and charts to tell her more about the school than the current Ofsted report does.

“You have a chance to read what the school is about, what they offer, you learn about the school community,” Mrs Eslambolchi, who is head of the PTA, says.

Marcus Goddard, who chairs the school’s governors, is about to start looking at secondary schools for his oldest child.

“I haven't taken the time to read the Ofsted reports,” he admits, adding: “I think I would read the report cards, largely because of the way they've been formatted.”

Pupils want a say in what school is best for them too - and the decision is a fresh memory for Year 7s at Regent High School.

Savanna wanted to know “if the teachers are good, and if the food’s nice”.

Eros agrees, although he says the building and facilities also mattered.

And Tyreese wanted to know what subjects were on offer and that “everybody can be loving and caring to one another”.

The report card project has been led by Camden Learning, a partnership between the local schools and the council, chaired by Dame Christine Gilbert, formerly England’s chief inspector of schools, running Ofsted for five years until 2011.

She says the “big idea” came from parents who wanted something to give them a real flavour of the school, such as how important sport was or the approach to discipline.

Dame Christine is “amazed at how it captures the ethos of the schools” and how strong the personal reactions are of parents who have tried it out.

In “Our School in 100 Words”, one secondary said it was feminist. And when that was shown to a focus group, one parent said they would “really want” their child to go there, while another “absolutely wouldn’t”.

Dame Christine says ministers and Ofsted should learn from the Camden project, as well as similar work under way in Sheffield and Milton Keynes.

“It’s really important we listen to the voices of parents," she tells me, "and here in a very simple cost-effective way parents will have more information.”

A public consultation on what Ofsted’s report cards should look like is due to start early next year.

Leaks suggesting it will give schools coded ratings in 10 areas have proved controversial with education unions.

The big difference with the Camden approach is it is created alongside schools, allowing them to have a say in what their strengths and weaknesses are.

But this raises a question about whether Camden’s reports would provide enough challenge to schools to improve.

Regent High School head Gary Moore, who has been fielding questions from parents on open days this term, says inspection has a very important role but welcomes the scrapping of Ofsted's “brutal" one-word overall judgements.

The broader, report-card approach is an improvement on “quite dry” Ofsted reports often not “written in family-friendly speak”, Mr Moore adds.

Gospel Oak head teacher John Hayes says he wanted to collaborate on something “more authentic, more useful to parents” while also recognising “as public servants with an incredibly important job, we do need to be held to account”.

Camden intends to keep on including Ofsted judgements in the new national report cards from next year. Sheffield will publish a report on its work so far in the coming weeks.