Using Ofsted logos and copyright
Guidance on using Ofsted's logos, plus copyright information.
Applies to England
Copyright
You may use and re-use information on Ofsted’s GOV.UK website (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium under the terms of the Open Government Licence. Please reference the source of the information, including a hyperlink.
You should send any enquiries about the use and re-use of any GOV.UK information to: [email protected]. For any Ofsted-specific queries, please contact Ofsted’s Content team: [email protected].
Ofsted logos
All Ofsted logos are protected under Crown Copyright. You should follow our guidance on logo use carefully and should not edit the logos in any way. We take misuse of our logos seriously and will follow up on anyone misusing them, especially if this is misleading the public.
We have 4 categories of logo. Any other ‘logos’ that are in circulation, such as ‘Ofsted approved’ or ‘Ofsted registered’ logos, are unofficial and should not be used.
The main Ofsted logo
You cannot use our main logo, unless in exceptional circumstances and with our express permission.
We only permit specific third parties to use our logo when we are co-hosting events or co-authoring publications with them. This is because the logo is seen as our endorsement. If you are working with us in this way, please contact Ofsted’s Content team about the logo: [email protected].
Our role is to inspect and regulate providers of education and care. We do not approve or endorse any third-party training courses, software packages, first aid courses or companies in any way. The presence of the Ofsted logo or name on any other website, publication or product should not be taken as endorsement or approval of any kind by Ofsted.
We take logo misuse or misrepresentation of our name by any third parties very seriously, including any claims that the third party or their products are ‘Ofsted approved’, are ‘Ofsted endorsed’ or ‘meet Ofsted’s requirements’.
Ofsted outstanding and good logos
We have specific outstanding and good logos available for those we inspect. We give permission for those that we have graded as outstanding or good at their latest inspection to use the relevant logo.
If you have achieved one of these grades at your last inspection, you can download your outstanding or good logo. The download includes guidance on how to use it.
If you have not yet been inspected or if you have not been graded outstanding or good at your last inspection, you cannot use any logo.
From September 2024, we no longer give overall effectiveness grades when we do graded inspections of schools. We instead give a set of grades for different inspection areas (you can read more about this in the school inspection handbook). This means that schools will no longer have any overall grade when we next inspect them, so must then stop using the good or outstanding logos. Schools judged to be outstanding or good for overall effectiveness before September 2024 can continue to use the relevant logo until their next graded inspection.
The most important thing when using one of our logos is to not mislead the public, intentionally or otherwise. You must not falsely imply that you are graded as outstanding or good by using a logo.
If you have a website that covers more than one provision, for example a chain of nurseries, a group of children’s homes or a multi-academy trust, you must be clear which provision any logos that you use relate to. You can put a good logo on, for example, a specific page about a good nursery in your chain, but not in the header or footer of the whole website when it covers other nurseries that do not have this grade.
If you have previously been judged as outstanding or good but you have not been graded either of these at your last inspection, you must remove your previous logos from your websites, banners and other marketing materials.
If your provision has closed and you reopen it under a new unique reference number (URN), your original provision ceases to exist in law and is replaced by a new and distinct legal entity. As a result, the inspection history and outcomes of the predecessor provision cannot, in law, transfer to the new one and you cannot continue to use any previous logos attached to the original URN.
If you have been inspected by another inspectorate, such as the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI), you cannot use any Ofsted logo to reflect this. You can make clear on your website and other marketing materials that you are inspected by the ISI, but not with any Ofsted logo.
Ofsted Parent View logo
We’re keen that schools and other education providers link to Ofsted Parent View to encourage parents and carers to complete the questionnaire. This includes the option to embed the Ofsted Parent View logo on their website.
Ofsted effective childminder agency logos
If you run a childminder agency that was judged effective at its most recent inspection, you may start using our childminder agency effective logo to show this achievement. Please contact Ofsted’s Content team for this logo: [email protected].
If you were previously judged as effective, but you have not retained that outcome at your last inspection, you must remove the logo from your website/banners/marketing materials.
Updates to this page
Published 24 April 2015Last updated 11 October 2024 + show all updates
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We have added a paragraph clarifying that providers inspected by another inspectorate cannot use an Ofsted logo to reflect this.
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Updated to reflect recent changes to school inspection.
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Updated the name and contact email address for the Content team.
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Added specific section on logo use for childminder agencies.
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First published.