If your nursery is in the Ofsted inspection window, you’ll be keeping an eye out on social media groups for recent experiences to help you prepare.
We spoke to our recently inspected Blossom customers to gather 7 top EYFS Ofsted themes to give you and your nursery team a head start with your preparations.
In this article:
What are the common themes for EYFS Ofsted inspections in 2025?
2024 saw changes to the way Ofsted inspect schools and nurseries. Continuing the improvement plans, 2025 has– so far – seen even more updates to inspection methodology.
We have cross–referenced the information gathered from 2024 inspections with the latest Ofsted inspection changes (February 2025) to ensure they are still relevant and extremely valuable to our nursery managers.
Top Tip: The terminology we’re all used to to describe the evaluation areas (personal development, quality of education and the like) will be changing when the single-word judgements are removed from all EYFS settings later this year. For now, we’ll keep the headings the same for clarity, but will list the latest Ofsted evaluation areas for early years below:
- Leadership and governance
- Curriculum
- Developing teaching
- Achievement
- Behaviour, attitudes and establishing
- routines
- (For schools, this is just Behaviours and Attitudes)
- Children’s welfare and well-being
- (For schools, Personal Development and well-being)
- Inclusion
- Safeguarding
- Schools also have:
- Early years in schools (where applicable)
- Sixth form in school (where applicable)
With some newer additions to the Ofsted inspection patterns, here are the broad themes our Blossom customers have found in their recent inspections.
EYFS Ofsted theme 1: The 3 I’s
Recent Ofsted reports and accounts from our customers and their immediate networks have highlighted the continued focus on the EYFS 3I’s: intention, implementation and impact.
One of our nursery managers noted that their inspector inquired about the intention behind most initiatives, curriculum choices, staff training plans, and parent communication.
You and your nursery team should be confident and clear about your intentions for every decision. Each decision should link to your nursery’s overarching strategic plans and take steps towards achieving that goal.
Early years Ofsted theme 2: Child development
Child development is the bread and butter of your nursery offer, so you’d be right to expect it to feature heavily in Ofsted inspections. What you may not be expecting is how inspectors may question your practitioners to see just how many of your processes consider child development.
The latest information from Ofsted pushes the concept of ‘Child and learner progress and outcomes, and their readiness for the next step of their learning’.
Child development is broad. It spans from curriculum intention to toddler well-being.
Here are some common child development themes we’ve noticed from EYFS Ofsted inspections in 2024:
- The depth of your team’s knowledge of childhood theories and how these impact your EYFS curriculum intention
- How staff continuous professional development (CPD) is designed to strengthen the child development opportunities
- The understanding of the bigger picture. We know EYFS is a learning stage in its own right. There must be a strong understanding of how early years learning weaves into key stage 1 learning
- Staff-wide understanding of what you’d like the children to know room to room
- Child well-being journeys and how they align with a child’s cognitive development stage
- Clear markers of progress, knowing where the children started, where they are now and how to push them forward
- Practitioner confidence in the seven areas of learning and how they might push a child forward in each specific area
- Secure and trusting relationships between practitioners and children, specifically that practitioners have in-depth knowledge of the child as an individual
Helpful Child Development resources:
- An overview of childhood development theories (from a Clinical Psychologists perspective)
- CPD bespoke plan journey setting advice
- A guide to making your EYFS tracking Ofsted ready
- Clarity on the seven areas of learning and development
- Information on a digital Child Profile to keep up with children’s changing interests and needs
Nursery Ofsted theme 3: Staff development
Staff development is always another heavy hitter when it comes to nursery Ofsted inspections. Understandably so, your nursery’s success relies on your practitioner team’s competency.
The latest proposed changes from Ofsted also mention staff CPD frequently. The underlying message from the guidance is that schools and nurseries should be assisting their teachers and practitioners to ‘apply their approaches to every child and learner’. A robust CPD plan is necessary to meet the high standards of professional development Ofsted expect.
Recent Ofsted inspections have focused on the following themes about staff development:
- Why CPD plans have been created and followed, also looking at the positive impact staff training has had
- An in-depth look into the supervision and peer observation process and how this continues to improve standards across your nursery
- Staff breadth of knowledge and awareness of other nursery rooms, their goals, challenges and the bigger picture for tackling these challenges
- Staff well-being and support have been mentioned more than in previous years. Inspectors are interested to know how practitioners (and managers) are supported and encouraged in times of challenge, stress or uncertainty
EYFS Ofsted theme 4: EYFS curriculum
Your EYFS curriculum will follow the EYFS statutory framework, but you determine the direction of the children’s learning. Your nursery’s curriculum should directly reflect the skills, knowledge, and capital culture your children need to succeed not only in their next stage of learning but also in the world around them (locally and globally).
Under the new proposed Ofsted changes, there will be a separate evaluation area for curriculum. Early years inspectors will be prompted to look at:
- The leadership of the curriculum
- The curriculum content, design and sequencing
- The inclusivity of the curriculum
Here are some themes nursery managers have noted in their most recent Ofsted inspections:
- Cultural capital for all children is still a strong focus for inspectors when they look at the intention and implementation of the curriculum
- How your EYFS curriculum is tailored to the disadvantaged children in your setting (consider how any additional funding has been used to enhance this, too)
- Nursery-wide understanding of the why behind your curriculum choices, how it helps to promote fundamental British values and is of importance
- A robust approach to knowing the curriculum coverage is having the desired effect on children and their families
- A knowledge and communal understanding of what progress looks like for different children and how this is taken into consideration when recording progress
Early years Ofsted theme 5: Safeguarding
Safeguarding is a non-negotiable for a successful nursery Ofsted inspection. EYFS safeguarding is as broad as it is long, covering everything from knowledge about the early signs of abuse and neglect to online safety and first aid procedures.
We know that under the latest changes, safeguarding will become its own category. Although private nurseries and childminders are not being inspected under the new Ofsted framework just yet, it is coming!
The newest system will deem if a setting has ‘met’ or ‘not met’ the legal and expected standards of safeguarding, welfare and well-being for the children in their care.
Your Ofsted inspector will look at how proactive you and your nursery team are at keeping children safe and well in your setting (extending beyond the nursery into home life, too).
Our Blossom customers have noted safeguarding questioning and themes around:
- County lines in early years and how to respond if there are any concerns about a child’s welfare and safety
- Safer recruitment systems and processes iring new staff (including staff that may have worked abroad for extended periods)
- A number of our customers mentioned several safeguarding scenarios were posed to them to see what their responses would be
- How your nursery practitioners would respond in different safeguarding scenarios if the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) wasn’t immediately contactable
- A focus on Child Protection (CP) and Special Guardianship Order (SGO) plans and arrangements (there were scenario-based questions surrounding these two topics)
Helpful Safeguarding resources:
Nursery Ofsted theme 6: EYFS funding use
With the changes to EYFS funding processes, it is no surprise that many nurseries have experienced increased questioning about funding use and impact.
Our customers found increased questioning about EYFS funding spending, budgeting and impact.
The approach to funding use should follow the guidance of the 3I’s: intention (what gap you intend the funding to contribute to closing), implementation (how you intend to use that funding), and impact (how you know your efforts have been successful and worthwhile).
Consider looking at all avenues of funding use and ensure you and your nursery team are aware of the spending and the successful impact this has had on child development and progression.
- Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP)
- Disability Access Fund (DAF)
- Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) funding
- Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS)
EYFS Ofsted theme 7: SEND
We all know the dynamics of mainstream nurseries are changing. Due to increased knowledge of early identification, more children with identified complex needs are in nurseries.
Ofsted has focused on how nurseries are supporting children with identified or suspected SEND needs. Again, this is not surprising given the government’s push to upskill EYFS practitioners in the SEND reform suggestions back in March 2023.
Many managers were also pleased to see inclusion have its own category in the newest Ofsted evaluation areas. The Education Inspection Toolkit for early years focuses on:
- Inclusive practices
- Identifying and meeting the need to remove barriers for learning
- Supporting disadvantaged children and those with SEND (especially those who receive additional funding)
- An inclusive culture in your setting
Nursery managers highlighted the following SEND threads in their recent Ofsted inspections:
- How confident are practitioners in using the Graduated Approach when identifying children’s needs
- The Graduated Approach and how it is used across your nursery to support children with additional needs
- Your setting’s training plans and cycles for upskilling your practitioners in areas of SEND needs (either to support existing children or to prepare for the future due to increasing SEND needs nationally in areas)
- Exploration into the EYFS curriculum and whether it is designed to meet all needs
- The methods and approaches taken to ensure early identification and support are a priority for children presenting with developmental delays
- Speech and language provision in your nursery is a hot topic that almost all of our Blossom customers who shared their inspection themes experienced
- How your nursery aims to increase speech and language opportunities for all children
- Assessment opportunities for speech and language skills, and how practitioners track the child’s speech and language
How to prepare for your Ofsted inspection in 2025
To be prepared for your upcoming Ofsted inspection, you must know your setting’s strengths and areas of development inside out. In order to do this, you’ll need the right tools for the job.
Consider software to help you access, analyse and celebrate your setting’s areas of strength and track the progress in the areas you are prioritising for development.
Access helpful Ofsted advice and support for you and your team. We have a whole stack of EYFS Ofsted questions and advice (around 60 questions as a jumping-off point for your team discussions).
Prioritise parent engagement, through online avenues and strategic plans for your nursery. Regularly gather their insights and opinions to help with operational and strategic decisions.
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