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: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk. For any Ofsted-specific queries, please contact Ofsted’s Content team: contentteam@ofsted.gov.uk.
Ofsted logos
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. See more on logo misuse in the section Misuse and misrepresentation.
Our official logos are as follows:
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: contentteam@ofsted.gov.uk.
Ofsted QR code badge
We have a QR code ‘badge’, which contains a version of the Ofsted logo, available for education providers to use in your printed materials (we will roll this out to social care providers at a later date). The QR code links directly to your Ofsted page, so parents and carers can quickly and easily access this to read your latest report in full. We hope this will be helpful for your promotional materials.
You can download the QR code badge from the bottom of your page on the Ofsted reports website. The download package includes different file types and guidelines on how to use them.
You are free to highlight your inspection results as you wish, but we request that where you display printed content from your Ofsted report card, you only do so alongside our official QR code badge so that the reader can easily access the full report.
Please note that QR codes are not designed to be used online. They are for printed materials only.
Ofsted ‘outstanding’ and ‘good’ overall grade logos
We have specific ‘outstanding’ and ‘good’ logos for those that received ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’ as the overall grade at the last inspection. If you received one of these overall grades at your last inspection, you can download your ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’ logo. The downloadable file includes guidance on how to use the logo.
We no longer issue overall grades in our inspections, so these associated logos will gradually phase out as more education and care providers are inspected under the current system.
The most important thing when using one of these logos is to not mislead the public, intentionally or otherwise. You must not falsely imply that your provision is graded ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’ when it is not.
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 overall grade logos 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 overall grade.
If you have previously been judged as ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’ but you have now been inspected again, that inspection will not have any overall grade. This means you must remove these logos from your website, 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 any grades of the predecessor provision cannot, in law, transfer to the new one. This means you cannot continue to use any previous ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’ overall grade logos attached to the old URN.
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.
Misuse and misrepresentation
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.
All Ofsted logos are protected under Crown Copyright. We are aware of fake logos in circulation, such as those that say ‘Ofsted approved’ or ‘Ofsted registered’. We take misuse of our logos very seriously and will follow up on anyone misusing them, especially if this is misleading the public.
We also take 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’.
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.
Updates to this page
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We made minor updates to the guidance for clarity and added a new section on using the Ofsted QR code badge, which contains a version of the logo.
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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.