Support for schools identified as ‘requires improvement’ in their latest Ofsted report.

Eligibility

We will be offering support to schools that:

  • enter the 2019 to 2020 academic year with a ‘requires improvement’ (RI) judgement for overall effectiveness
  • receive a ‘requires improvement’ judgement during the 2019 to 2020 academic year

Schools already receiving support under the 2018 to 2019 academic year offer will not normally be eligible for the 2019 to 2020 offer; however, where a school has taken up the 2018 to 2019 offer and subsequently receives a RI judgement that results in it meeting the eligibility criteria for another tier, it will become eligible for that additional support.

In addition the department will consider providing support where there has been a significant change in a RI school’s circumstances since taking up tier 1 support under the 2018 to 2019 offer. You should contact [email protected] if you believe this applies to your school.

Support available to schools

We use tiers to determine the amount of support an eligible school can get:

Tier 1

Your school will get up to 3 days’ support and advice from a national leader of education (NLE) or equivalent to help your leadership team identify and implement improvements within its school.

Tier 2

Your school will get:

  • up to 3 days’ support from an NLE (or equivalent) to help your leadership team to identify and implement improvements within its school
  • up to £16,000 to address the needs identified by the NLE

Tier 3

Your school will get:

  • up to 3 days’ support from an NLE (or equivalent) to help your leadership team to identify and implement improvements within its school
  • up to £24,000 to address the needs identified by the NLE

The tier of support a school receives will depend on its Ofsted inspection history.

Schools:

  • with a single RI judgement will be in tier 1
  • with 2 consecutive RI judgements will be in tier 2
  • that receive an RI judgement on their first inspection (where they have no previous published Ofsted rating) will also be in tier 2
  • that currently have a RI judgment and have not been rated above RI since 2005, across a minimum of 4 inspections, will be in tier 3

For all tiers of support, the NLE will work with senior school or trust leaders to identify improvements in areas including:

  • leadership
  • governance
  • financial health

These will be delivered through evidence-based support programmes and high-quality system leader support.

When support is available

For those schools that become eligible for support during the year, DfE will initially contact their trust, diocese or local authority to inform them of the offer available before contacting the school directly.

More information

The ratings for both current and previous Ofsted inspections is based on the Ofsted management information published monthly.

The Teaching Schools Council will co-ordinate the support and match NLEs to schools.

Email [email protected]

Check the school improvement support collection for other available support.

Statistics on the number of schools eligible for and engaging with the 2018 to 2019 school improvement offer is available at School improvement support for 2018 to 2019: summary statistics.

Published 19 July 2019
Last updated 2 September 2019 + show all updates

  1. Page updated to reflect new measures to raise standards in schools.
  2. First published.

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