Ofsted website alerts

Overview

Every RealSmart website is watched automatically for the pattern an Ofsted inspector's pre-inspection review usually leaves: a methodical look through safeguarding, SEND, pupil premium, governance and other statutory information, often downloading the policies. Sessions that look like this are checked by Claude before anyone is emailed. There is nothing to set up except who receives the emails.

An alert is an early warning, not a confirmation: Ofsted usually telephones around midday on the working day before an inspection, and not every alert is followed by a call. RealSmart also receives these alerts while we check how accurate they are.

Choose who receives the alerts

1. Go to your WordPress Dashboard.
2. Find the Ofsted website alerts box at the top.
3. Enter up to five email addresses, separated by commas (for example your headteacher and office manager).
4. Click Save alert addresses.

To stop the emails, empty the box and save.

If your school is in a multi-academy trust, your trust can choose to receive the same High-confidence alerts for its schools. When it does, the box says Also sent to and your trust's name. Your trust chooses its own addresses; you do not need to add them here.

Each month's alerts also appear in the Ofsted early warning section of the Monthly website report.

Website Activity Monitoring has gone

Websites used to have a separate setting, Settings → Website Activity Monitoring, which warned you when a visitor opened a few pages from a list you kept, in quick succession. It could not tell an inspector from a parent or governor, and it only watched the pages you remembered to list. The Ofsted website alerts above replaced it in October 2026: they need no list, and every alert is checked before anyone is emailed.

You do not need to do anything. If you had email addresses in Website Activity Monitoring, add them to the Ofsted website alerts box on the Dashboard instead.

Troubleshooting

We have not had an alert

Why it happens: No one has read the website the way an inspector preparing a visit does, or no addresses are saved.

How to fix it:

1. Check the Ofsted website alerts box on the Dashboard lists the addresses you expect.
2. Ask the people on the list to check their junk or spam folder.

Someone at the school should stop receiving alerts

1. Go to the Ofsted website alerts box on the Dashboard.
2. Remove their address and click Save alert addresses.