Ofsted stands for Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills. Their job is to regulate and inspect all settings which are responsible for caring for children and young people or any educational setting.
When they come in to a setting they carry out an inspection to establish what level the setting is at for certain areas. These areas include: Overall effectiveness, Effectiveness of leadership and management, Quality of teaching, learning and assessment, Personal development / behaviour and welfare, Outcomes for children and learners and The effectiveness of early years and sixth form provision, where applicable.
Each area is given a score of 1-4 1 being outstanding and 4 being inadequate. If the setting receives a 3 or a 4 then they are required to improve their performance in these areas. A little while after the inspection takes place the report by Ofsted will be available for the public to view.