Eight Medway schools now have Ofsted's new report cards. The Howard School was rated Exceptional; Wayfield Primary is in special measures.

A Rainham secondary has been given Ofsted’s highest possible grade. The Howard School was rated Exceptional for personal development and wellbeing, a grade the inspectorate defines as “practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other schools can learn from it.”

It is the only Exceptional grade awarded anywhere in Medway so far under Ofsted’s new report cards. The last of the current batch of Medway reports was published on 21 July, so the picture is now complete enough to read across the towns. Eight Medway schools have been graded under the new system. Between them they hold 55 individual area grades.

How the new grades work

The old single word verdict has gone. There is no Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement or Inadequate any more, and no overall grade at all. Instead each school is graded separately on up to seven areas, using a five-point scale that Ofsted prints in every report:

  • Exceptional: practice of the highest standard nationally
  • Strong standard: leaders are working above the standard expected of them
  • Expected standard: the school is fulfilling the standard set out in legislation and professional standards
  • Needs attention: the expected standards are not met, but leaders are likely able to make the improvements
  • Urgent improvement: the school needs to make urgent improvements

One point is worth holding on to before reading any table. Expected standard is the benchmark a school is required to meet, not a near miss. Ofsted’s own definition is that the school is doing what statutory and professional standards require. Safeguarding is judged separately and can only be “met” or “not met”.

Grid of Ofsted report card grades for eight Medway schools across seven evaluation areas, showing one Exceptional grade at The Howard School, mostly Strong and Expected standards elsewhere, and Urgent improvement across most areas at Wayfield Primary
Every Medway school graded under Ofsted's report cards so far. Graphic by Medway Live from the published inspection reports.

What Ofsted said about The Howard School

The Howard School on Derwent Way was inspected on 24 February 2026 and its report card was published on 19 June. It is an academy of 1,471 pupils aged 11 to 18, part of The Howard Academy Trust.

Inspectors wrote that “teachers are experts in delivering the transformational personal development programme” and that it is delivered “consistently to a very high standard across all phases”. The report singles out pupils teaching pupils, noting that “sixth-form girls deliver lessons on misogyny to the lower school” and that this “has a lasting impact”.

The rest of the school’s card is strong. Curriculum and teaching, attendance and behaviour, inclusion, and leadership and governance were all Strong standard. Achievement and post-16 provision were at the expected standard. Safeguarding standards were met.

Two schools were strong in every single area

Two Medway schools were graded Strong across the board, with no area below it.

St Margaret’s at Troy Town CofE Primary in Rochester took Strong standard in all seven areas, including early years, at an inspection on 16 June 2026. It is a 216-pupil academy on King Street.

The Rowans in Chatham did the same across its six areas at an inspection on 9 December 2025. That result deserves more attention than it has had. The Rowans is Medway’s pupil referral unit, teaching children who are out of mainstream school. It was graded Strong in all six of its areas, from achievement through to leadership and governance.

Wayfield Primary is in special measures

The exception, and it is a serious one, is Wayfield Primary School and Nursery in Chatham. Inspectors visited on 4 December 2025 and the report card was published on 5 February 2026.

The school was graded Urgent improvement in five of its seven areas: achievement, curriculum and teaching, attendance and behaviour, inclusion, and leadership and governance. Personal development and wellbeing, and early years, were graded Needs attention. Safeguarding standards were recorded as not met, with inspectors writing that “the school has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding” and that “not all legal requirements are met”.

The report places the school in special measures. His Majesty’s Chief Inspector gave the reason as the school “failing to provide an acceptable standard of education”, with those responsible for leading, managing or governing it “not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement”. Inspectors also recorded a strong recommendation that the school does not appoint early career teachers for now.

Wayfield is an academy of 428 pupils aged 2 to 11, part of The Primary First Trust. We could not reach the trust’s website on 19 August to look for a response, and neither the school’s own Ofsted page nor its website carried a statement about the inspection when we checked. Ofsted’s published policy is that it carries out monitoring inspections of schools with any area graded needs attention or urgent improvement. No further inspection report for Wayfield had been published on the Ofsted register as of today.

The Medway picture in numbers

Across the 55 area grades held by the eight schools:

Grade Number of areas
Exceptional 1
Strong standard 31
Expected standard 16
Needs attention 2
Urgent improvement 5

Every one of the five Urgent improvement grades, and both Needs attention grades, belong to a single school. Set Wayfield aside and the other seven Medway schools hold 48 area grades between them, none of which is below the expected standard.

What it means for you

If you are choosing a school, the practical change is that there is no longer a single word to compare. You have to read the areas, and the area that matters most to your child may not be the one a neighbour cares about. A school at Expected standard for achievement and Strong for inclusion is not “worse” than the reverse; it is different.

Two further cautions when you look a school up:

  • The report card only covers schools inspected since the system changed. Most Medway schools still carry older-style reports, and those cannot be compared with these grades directly. Check the inspection date before comparing two schools.
  • The date on the Ofsted search results is the publication date, not the inspection date. The Howard School’s report shows 19 June, but inspectors were in the building on 24 February.

You can look up any school on the Ofsted report finder, which carries the full report for each of the schools above, along with pupil numbers and contact details.

Sources