Preparing for Ofsted: Engaging Staff, Parents & Pupils with Edurio

When Adam received “the call” from Ofsted last term, he didn’t scramble for ad-hoc anecdotes or hurriedly email parents for last-minute testimonials.

He simply opened the Edurio platform, and in minutes, he could show:

Inspectors remarked on the depth of evidence and the clear audit trail from voice → action → impact. Adam’s experience isn’t unique; it illustrates why systematic stakeholder feedback is fast becoming an essential part of inspection readiness for Ofsted-inspected schools and trusts.

Why stakeholder voice matters to Ofsted

• Leadership & Management pillar. Ofsted’s School Inspection Handbook asks leaders to show that they listen to and act on the views of staff, pupils and parents.
• Safeguarding culture. Inspectors triangulate records with parent-view complaints and pupil perceptions of feeling safe.
• Quality of Education & Behaviour. Direct evidence from stakeholders helps inspectors judge consistency across subjects, year groups and schools.

The Department for Education’s Trust Quality Descriptors echo this expectation, stressing that a strong trust “anchors its strategy in the needs of its schools and communities” and engages staff, parents and pupils in decision-making.

Going beyond Parent View: richer data, earlier in the cycle

Ofsted’s Parent View gives inspectors a quick pulse of parental opinion, but its single-school snapshot can’t tell you how your parents compare to others, what’s driving their views, or whether changes are working.

Edurio’s Parent Experience and Parent Ofsted-style surveys let you:

• Benchmark nationally: see instantly how your results stack up against hundreds of schools, not just last year’s cohort.
• Dig into the “why”: follow-up questions and open-text responses surface the reasons behind each rating.
• Track progress over time: run the survey termly or yearly and map trends to your improvement actions.

For example, while Parent View simply asks whether parents believe their child is safe, Edurio surveys can show the percentage of parents who are confident that their child’s teachers are able to keep their child safe, how this has improved overtime and how this compares to the national average. Here’s an example report each school can be sent after their survey has closed.

Source: Edurio Parent Experience Survey – Demo Report

Staff voice: closing the “say–do” gap

Nationally, only 34% of staff say they “always or often” see their feedback taken into account, while 26% rarely or never do.

Showing inspectors that your organisation moves from listening to action is therefore a differentiator. Edurio’s platform timestamps every survey and lets you export a PDF evidence bundle for your inspection folder.

Building a trust-wide narrative

Inspection teams increasingly visit multiple academies within a trust simultaneously, making a coherent culture across sites more important than ever. National benchmarking data from Edurio shows:

• 74% of staff nationally say their trust’s vision and values are clear.
• 54% of staff feel their trust’s values are embedded fully or to a great extent within their schools

Highlighting the same metrics across schools helps leaders explain both strengths and next steps.

The Edurio inspection-readiness cycle

Edurio’s Strategic Stakeholder Feedback model is a proven five-step loop: Set goals → Carry out survey → Analyse results → Take action → Review & continue.

For inspection preparation, this cycle can be adapted so that every step lines up with Ofsted’s evidence.

Navigating the report-card era

From autumn 2025, Ofsted will replace overall grades with ‘report cards’ scored on a five‑point scale. The new model brings sharper focus to inclusion and local context. Edurio’s survey library will map to these emerging areas, so the evidence you collect this year will remain inspection-ready next year and beyond.

Curious what trust CEOs make of the changes? Read our spring 2025 policy scan to see how trust CEOs felt about the changes. 

Other inspectorates

Independent schools inspected by ISI, and specialist settings under CQC or Ofsted Social Care, also rely on evidence of stakeholder engagement. Edurio templates mirror those frameworks, so you’re covered, whatever the badge on the inspector’s lanyard.

Ready to become a “listening organisation”?

Adam Walsh’s inspection story began months before Ofsted arrived, when his community first clicked ‘Start’ on the survey. If you’d like the same confidence:

• Explore the Staff, Parent and Pupil Ofsted survey suite or download our survey pack.
• Book a call with an Edurio Survey Specialist.

Because when evidence speaks, inspectors listen, and your community thrives.