In January 2026, two His Majesty’s Inspectors walked into Aardman Animations in Bristol and spent two days inspecting our training provision. Not the films. Not the awards. The teaching.

As far as we know, we are the first film company in the UK to be Ofsted inspected under their own company name.

Here is the thing you need to understand about that. Everyone who enters this building signs a non-disclosure agreement. Journalists, partners, students, delivery drivers, everyone. We have live productions in these studios that cannot be seen, discussed, or acknowledged. A studio tour is not something we offer.

Ofsted inspectors do not sign NDAs. They are not legally required to. And they can go wherever they want.

For two days in late January, two His Majesty’s Inspectors had more unrestricted access to this building than almost any external person ever has. They were warm, rigorous and completely respectful about it. But we could not say no. I have never felt so simultaneously proud and exposed in my professional life.

Nobody tells you how to prepare for this. There is no template for a film studio navigating an Ofsted inspection. You read the framework, work out what matters, and have utter confidence in the people around you. Which is deeply uncomfortable when the stakes feel enormous. And they felt enormous. At Aardman, if you are going to do something, you do it properly or you don’t do it at all.

So we built a schedule. Colour coded. Timed to the minute. Buffer zones. Contingencies. My colleague Suzanne Prince co-led the inspection with me and, unlike me, never once lost her composure. The inspectors did not need a schedule that detailed. They got one anyway.

What kept me up at night was not the preparation. It was the absence of rules. When nobody has done this before you, all you have is what you believe to be right. And I do believe in what we do at the Academy. Deeply, sometimes embarrassingly so. But belief is a fragile thing to stand on when two government inspectors are in your building asking questions you haven’t seen in advance.

The whole company showed up for it. That is Aardman. Hard to describe if you have never been inside it. When something matters, people recognise it and respond. Our learners spoke with honesty and confidence. Our tutors were observed teaching in a live production studio, the same space, the same equipment, the same exacting standards used on actual films. Not a simulation. The real thing.
Ofsted rated our leadership, our inclusion practice, and our curriculum and teaching as Significant Progress across the board. At a first monitoring inspection, Significant Progress is the highest outcome available anyone can achieve and it’s incredibly rare. No grades exist at this stage. Just a verdict on whether you are moving fast enough in the right direction to make a genuine difference to real people. We are.

Some of what the report chose to record, I had hoped they would notice. But you cannot know, in advance, whether they will. That we film safe travel routes to the building so learners feel comfortable before they arrive on day one. That our inclusion committee funds people from underrepresented backgrounds into preparatory courses before they can even apply for a place. That tutors plan seating and studio layouts specifically around individual learner needs. None of that exists because an inspector asked for it. It exists because we think it is right. Seeing it written into an official government report was unexpectedly moving.

So why does any of this matter beyond one studio in Bristol feeling pleased with itself?

The UK screen industry is genuinely struggling to train itself. Recent independent research into the West of England’s screen sector found that three quarters of production companies consider skills gaps a serious problem. The hardest roles to fill are not junior ones. They are mid-level and senior: line producers, heads of department, the experienced craft crew who hold a production together. The pipeline into those roles is narrow, expensive to access, and built on a system of informal networks that works brilliantly if you are already inside and is essentially invisible if you are not.

This industry is also extraordinary. It makes things that last. It employs people doing work of staggering technical and creative precision. Stop motion animation is a craft so physically demanding and unforgiving that the people who master it are, without exaggeration, rare. They deserve a route in that is worthy of what they do.

The screen sector has historically been poor at training itself with accountability. It has relied on learning on the job, on who you know, on falling into things. That works until it doesn’t. And right now, across the industry, it isn’t working well enough.

Industry-led training is the right answer. But only if it is held to account. Anyone can run a course. Anyone can claim their programme changes lives. Ofsted registration means an independent inspector can walk in, talk to your learners without you in the room, observe your teaching, and tell you plainly whether what you are doing is actually working. It is not comfortable. As I have mentioned, they do not sign NDAs!

But it is exactly what this industry needs more of. The credibility of training that can be scrutinised. The accountability of provision that has to prove its quality. The signal to learners, to funders, to partners, that the standard is real and someone independent has checked.

We went through this because we believe the Academy should be held to the same standards as any other training provider in the country. No exemptions because we make films. No special treatment because of what’s on the showreel.

I am proud of every single person who has come through the Academy as a learner, a tutor, a trainer. I am proud that we opened the door, let two inspectors look at absolutely everything, and came out the other side with a result that is a genuine reflection of who we are.

And if you want to see what that looks like officially, you can. Go to the Ofsted website. Search for Aardman Animations. There is now a page on a government inspectorate’s website dedicated entirely to an animation studio that has been making films for fifty years. It is a small page. A short report. But it is there, publicly, permanently, for anyone who wants to look.

Read the full report here: Ofsted Report