Eight borough schools now have Ofsted report cards. All met safeguarding; Oakwood in Horley needs attention in five of six areas. Every grade in one grid.

If you last looked up a local school and found a single word, Outstanding or Good, that word is gone. Ofsted retired the overall grade and replaced it with a report card that grades each part of a school separately. Eight state schools and colleges in Reigate & Banstead have now been inspected under the new system, with the last of their reports published on 15 July.

Every one of them met the safeguarding standards. Seven were judged at the expected standard or better in every area. One, Oakwood School in Horley, the borough’s largest secondary with 1,610 pupils, needs attention in five of its six areas.

Grid showing Ofsted report card grades for seven Reigate and Banstead schools inspected in 2026 across achievement, curriculum and teaching, attendance and behaviour, personal development, inclusion, leadership and governance, and early years

How to read the new grades

The five-point scale is printed in every report: Exceptional, Strong standard, Expected standard, Needs attention, Urgent improvement. Safeguarding sits outside it and is only met or not met.

The word to be careful with is “expected”. It is the benchmark a school is required to meet, not a near miss and not a warning. Most of the grades in the borough this year are at that level, which means most local schools are doing what is asked of them.

Ofsted also says it now carries out monitoring inspections of schools with any area graded needs attention or urgent improvement.

Oakwood School, Horley

Oakwood was inspected on 24 February and the report was published on 30 April. Safeguarding was met. Inclusion was at the expected standard. Achievement, curriculum and teaching, attendance and behaviour, personal development and wellbeing, and leadership and governance were all graded needs attention (report).

The report is specific about what sits behind that:

  • Achievement. “Many pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and some pupils who previously attained highly, do not achieve as well as they should in national examinations.” Attainment in national tests has been broadly close to national averages over time.
  • Teaching. “Teaching is not of a consistently high quality, and the expectations of what some pupils can do are not high enough.” Inspectors found teachers routinely check what pupils know, but that this information “is not always used to adapt learning activities”.
  • Attendance. Too many disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND do not attend regularly. Inspectors also recorded that leaders “have taken effective action to tackle overall low attendance”, that overall attendance has improved and persistent absence has fallen.
  • Behaviour. The behaviour policy “is not consistently applied by staff”. Behaviour in lessons is described as generally calm, with younger pupils showing respect during social times, but older pupils showing “less respect for the school environment”, and poor behaviour often unchallenged.
  • Leadership. “Leaders are not precise enough in their understanding of what needs to improve.”

There are findings on the other side of the ledger in the same report. Pupils with SEND “achieve well from their individual starting points”, disadvantaged pupils are now typically achieving well across subjects at key stage 3, careers education is “woven through the school’s curriculum”, and the number of pupils moving on to further education has increased in recent years.

Where the borough did well

Six primary and infant schools were inspected, and none was graded below the expected standard in any area. Several picked up a strong standard, the second-highest grade on the scale.

  • Holmesdale Community Infant School, Reigate (inspected 21 April): strong standard for attendance and behaviour and for early years, where inspectors wrote that provision in Nursery and Reception “is a strength of the school and gives children an excellent start to their education”.
  • Trinity Oaks Church of England Primary, Horley (9 June): strong standard for attendance and behaviour, personal development and wellbeing, and early years. “Pupils love attending this school. Attendance is consistently above the national average,” including disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND.
  • Sandcross Primary, Reigate (3 February): strong standard for personal development, inclusion and early years. Inspectors noted leaders had adapted systems to meet the needs of a rising number of pupils with SEND, including “a significant rise in pupils with education, health and care plans”.
  • Wray Common Primary, Reigate (10 February): strong standard for attendance and behaviour, personal development and early years.
  • Walton-on-the-Hill Primary, Tadworth (20 January): strong standard for personal development, inclusion and early years.
  • Meath Green Infant School, Horley (9 June): expected standard across all seven areas, safeguarding met.

Reigate College was inspected on 21 April and graded separately as a sixth form provider. It took a strong standard in all five of its areas: achievement, curriculum and teaching, participation and development, inclusion, and leadership and governance, with the same grade repeated for its provision for learners with high needs. Inspectors found achievement rates “consistently high and improving year on year”, and that students needing GCSE maths and English “achieve these qualifications, usually at the first attempt” (report). The college published its A level results last week, which we covered in our Reigate A level results round-up.

What it means for you

If you are choosing a school. Do not look for an overall grade, because there is not one. Compare the areas that matter to your child: early years if you are picking an infant school, inclusion if your child has SEND, attendance and behaviour if that is your worry. A school can be strong in one and expected in another, and that is normal rather than a red flag.

If your child is at Oakwood. The grades apply to the school as inspected in February. Ofsted’s stated practice is to carry out monitoring inspections where areas are graded needs attention, so a further visit should follow. The full report is on the Ofsted site and sets out the specific findings behind each grade.

A note on what is not here. These are the borough’s state-funded schools and colleges inspected in 2026. Tadworth Primary School appears on Ofsted’s site with a 2026 document, but it is an academy conversion letter rather than an inspection, so the school has no report card yet. Independent schools in the borough are inspected against a different framework and are not comparable with these grades.

Every report quoted here can be read in full on Ofsted’s find an inspection report service.

Sources