The Blossom Nursery Glossary - Ofsted

From EYFS to XYZ, we’ve pulled together every term you might need to know to work, run, open or book your child into any childcare setting.

Whether you’re starting your childcare career or have never truly understood the difference between a grapheme and a phoneme — we have you covered.

EYFS Ofsted

Ofsted is the Office for Standards in Education, the body responsible for grading education establishments in England.

As of 2nd September 2024, Ofsted’s single-word ratings were scrapped, and now instead nurseries and educators will receive a ‘report card’ that looks at four areas of education. These four areas are:

Quality of Education
Behaviour and Attitudes
Personal Development
Leadership and Management

Early Years Ofsted Inspection Framework

This is the inspection framework that Ofsted will use when they visit nurseries. It is split into four main sections: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management.

Discussing some of the most commonly asked Ofsted questions about EYFS settings can prepare your team for an upcoming Ofsted inspection.

Quality of education

This section of the Ofsted process looks at how your EYFS curriculum is designed to meet the children’s needs. The inspectors will evaluate the impact on children’s learning and development.

Behaviour and attitudes

A positive attitude to learning is vital from an early age. Behaviour and attitudes of children are monitored in an Ofsted visit.

Personal development

A child’s wider development is more than academic learning. Personal development measures progress in well-being, social, and emotional development through access to carefully planned activities.

Leadership and management

Nursery management should ensure a high quality of provision is achieved for every child. In this aspect of the Ofsted inspection, nursery leadership will be evaluated for effective practices.