What the words mean

Written for governors, business managers and anyone else new to the framework — the language should never be the barrier.

The five levels

1 · Emerging: The work has not really begun, or exists only in pockets. Nothing to be ashamed of — every school is Emerging at something, and saying so is the point of an honest self-evaluation.
2 · Developing: Something real is happening, but it depends on particular people or isn't consistent across the school yet.
3 · Established: There is a defined approach and it is actually implemented — a new member of staff would find it, not just hear about it. This is the level the DfE expects a strategy to be building towards.
4 · Embedded: Consistent practice across the school, checked and quality-assured. A rating of 4 or 5 is a claim: it needs current evidence (from the last 18 months) and a named owner before it counts as supported.
5 · Leading Practice: Sustained, evidenced excellence that other schools could learn from. Rare by design — most schools have none or one of these, and that is normal.

Principle score: The average of a principle's statement ratings, shown once at least 5 of its 6 statements are answered. Fewer than 5 and we show progress instead of a score, because an average of two answers would be a guess dressed as a number.
Whole-school maturity: The average of all 7 principle scores, shown only when all 7 are valid. One number can never tell the whole story, which is why it always appears beside the seven principle scores, never alone.
Provisional: A score marked provisional contains ratings of 4 or 5 that don't yet have the evidence and named owner to back them. The score stands, but it is flagged as not yet fully supported.
The no-compensation rule: A school cannot show as Leading Practice overall while any principle is below Established. Excellence in 5 areas does not offset real gaps in 2 — inclusion is experienced by children one gap at a time.

Belonging, participation, access: The three things the surveys measure, because they are what inclusion feels like from a child's side: do I belong here, can I join in, can I get at the learning.
Positive %: The share of answers in the top half of the scale — 'Mostly' and 'Always' for pupils, 'Agree' and 'Strongly agree' for parents and staff. The staff survey has a neutral middle point, so 50% positive does not mean 50% negative.
Suppression: With fewer than 5 responses, nothing is shown at all — in a small group, a number can identify a child. From 5 we show outcome scores rounded to 10%; from 10, every question rounded to 5%; written comments only appear from 15 responses. This is enforced in the database, not just the screen.

Barrier: Something the self-evaluation showed is getting in the way of children learning or taking part — drafted automatically from any statement rated 1 or 2, in the school's own evidence.
Budgeted cost: The DfE requires every activity in a published strategy to carry the money attached to it. The pre-publication checklist will not let a strategy publish without this.
Publication record: The public fact of publishing: the date, the link, and when the annual review falls due. This — and only this — is what your local authority sees automatically. Never the strategy's working, evidence or survey results.
Focus priority: Your three lowest-scoring principles, flagged in the strategy and on the dashboard. The same three in both places, so there is never two answers to 'where do we act first?'.

Graduated response: The assess → plan → do → review cycle used when a child needs more than the universal offer: understand the need, plan support, do it, then check honestly whether it worked.
Universal, Targeted, Targeted Plus: Three levels of provision: what every child gets (Universal), extra help for some (Targeted), and intensive personalised support for a few (Targeted Plus). A needs-led school decides by need, not by diagnosis or label.
Reasonable adjustments: Changes a school makes so a disabled child is not at a disadvantage — a legal duty under the Equality Act 2010, not a favour.