About this tool
This is a free, independent self-assessment and discussion tool that helps schools and colleges in England explore their position against the
6 core DfE Digital & Technology Standards that all schools are expected to meet by 2030.
It was built by and for school IT professionals as a self-assessment and discussion aid — not as an authoritative compliance benchmark, and not as a replacement for the DfE's own Plan Technology for Your School service.
Questions are labelled throughout to distinguish between explicit DfE requirements and recommended best practice. A school may be fully compliant with the DfE standard while scoring lower on best practice questions — that distinction matters and is made visible.
Everything runs in your browser. No data is sent to any server. All data is automatically cleared when you
close or navigate away from the page.
Who Should Complete It?
The assessment is designed to be completed by the person with the most technical knowledge of the school's
infrastructure — typically the IT Manager, Network Manager or IT Technician. However, the DfE expects
the process to involve several people:
🖥️
IT Manager / Network Manager
Leads the assessment — answers the technical questions accurately
👤
SLT Digital Lead
Should be aware of the results and own the action plan
🛡️
Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL)
Should be involved in the Filtering & Monitoring standard
🏛️
Governors / Trustees
Should receive the Governor Report and seek assurance on gaps
📊
Business Manager / Finance
Should be aware of any investment requirements in the action plan
How Scoring Works
Each of the 6 standards has 5 questions. Every question is scored 0–3:
Each standard scores up to 15 points (5 questions × 3). The overall score is out of 90 points. RAG thresholds are:
🟢 75%+ — Meeting Standard
🟡 40–74% — Developing
🔴 Below 40% — Needs Attention
How Often Should You Reassess?
The DfE expects schools to be actively working towards the standards, with regular review.
As a minimum, complete a new assessment once per academic year — ideally at the start
of the autumn term so results can inform your annual digital technology strategy review and budget planning cycle.
You should also reassess after any significant technology change — for example, a new broadband connection,
a wireless refresh, or a new filtering provider. The Reassessment Comparison feature
(available in History after two or more assessments) lets you track exactly what has improved.
What to Do With the Results
1
Review the Action Plan
Work through the prioritised action plan. Each gap shows your current position, the DfE target, a suggested next action with specific tool references, and a link to the relevant GOV.UK standard.
2
Share the Governor Report
Use the 👤 Governor Report button to produce a plain English summary for governors, trustees or the headteacher. Use 📋 Copy for Email to paste it directly into an email.
3
Add to your Digital Strategy
The results should inform your annual digital technology strategy review. Red and amber standards should appear as actions in your strategy.
4
Present to Governors
Governors should receive the summary at least annually. Pay particular attention to Cyber Security and Filtering & Monitoring — Ofsted actively scrutinise these.
5
Reassess Annually
Set a reminder to return in 12 months. Use the Comparison feature to evidence progress to governors and the DfE.
For MATs and Trusts
The Academy Trust Handbook 2025 (effective September 2025) now formally requires trusts to have an understanding of, and be working towards, meeting the 6 core standards by 2030 — with mandatory progress reporting beginning in 2026. Regardless of how technology is implemented centrally, each individual school must complete their own assessment. A shared infrastructure or managed service does not automatically mean each school is meeting the standard — each school's SLT, DSL and IT support need to be involved in their own review.
Once each school has completed their assessment, use the
🏫 Trust / Multi-School View to aggregate results and compare progress across
the trust using the heatmap dashboard.
🔄 Live Standards Freshness Check
When this tool loads, it connects to the GOV.UK Content API — a free, public government API — to check
when each DfE standard's guidance page was last updated. This means you always know whether the tool's questions
are aligned to the most recently published guidance, without having to manually check GOV.UK yourself.
✅ What the API can do
Detect when any of the 7 DfE standard pages on GOV.UK was last changed, and display a per-standard freshness
indicator alongside the date it was updated. If a standard is newer than this tool's last verified date, a clear
warning is shown so you can review the GOV.UK page before completing your assessment.
⚠️ What the API cannot do
The GOV.UK Content API returns guidance prose — not structured assessment data. It cannot automatically
update the questions, scoring thresholds, answer options or suggested actions inside this tool. Those are
maintained manually by the ANME community and require a human review whenever the DfE changes its guidance.
The API is the early-warning system; the community provides the response.
If the freshness check flags a change and you believe the questions need updating,
please contact the ANME community ↗.
No data is sent to GOV.UK — the check is read-only and requires no authentication.