By Richard Guttridge

Copyright birminghammail

All parents want the best for their children. And as primary school applications open for September 2026, parents will be hunting around for the best schools in their area. Starting primary school is a huge moment in a child’s life. It can be hard to know where to start when trying to choose the best school for your son or daughter but their Ofsted rating is one indicator of how well they are performing. READ MORE: UK motorists with a blue badge issued warning over ‘common’ mistake Get our local newsletters like Black Country News, MySolihull and MySuttonColdfield straight to your inbox A school’s current inspection rating can be found online as well as details including in Ofsted’s report. There is an exclusive club of schools have been given the highest ranking of ‘outstanding’ by the education watchdog. These are judged to be the very best, though it’s worth bearing in mind some of these schools may not have been inspected for years. And achieving outstanding status is difficult. There are also hundreds rated as good, most of which will be perfectly fine. Ofsted judges schools in a range of areas including teaching, behaviour, attendance and management. These are the Birmingham primary schools currently rated as outstanding. Independent or special schools are not included. It comes ahead of a major shake-up of how schools are graded by Ofsted, following long-standing concerns over single-word grades which many heads feel were often unfair and damaging. This single-word grading system has now been scrapped for English schools, though many still hold their ratings as inspections only happen every few years. New colour-coded, so-called Nando’s-style report cards will be made available for parents to view.