What is Ofsted and what does it do?
Ofsted is the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills. It reports directly to Parliament and is both independent and impartial. By law it must inspect schools with the aim of providing information to parents, to promote improvement and to hold schools to account.
Schools judged to be ‘satisfactory’ are inspected every three years. Those judged to be ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ are inspected once in any five year period. The inspection lasts between one and two days and schools will receive only one or two days’ notice prior to the inspection.
Information taken from http://independenteducationconsultants.co.uk/choosing-a-school/what-is-ofsted-or-isi-and-what-do-they-do/