NPQ in Leading Teaching
Build your expertise for leading teaching in your specialist area.
Begin your application by registering with the DfE below.
- Develop as a specialist in your role.
- Gain the skills for successful leadership.
- Learn to effectively support colleagues.
- Free one-to-one support and coaching.
- Join a passionate network striving for educational equality.
- DfE scholarship funding available to all state school teachers and leaders.
Create a culture of continuous improvement in your school.
Benefits
Develop as a specialist in your role
Gain an understanding of the core principles behind the science of learning, get practical tools and guidance to sequence your curriculum and plan for assessment in your specific subject and context.
Gain the skills for successful leadership
Build the expertise to effectively manage a team of teachers and create a culture of professional learning and continuous improvement in your school.
Learn to effectively support colleagues
Develop the skills to help colleagues plan effective lessons, meet individual pupil needs and provide opportunities for all pupils to succeed – without creating unnecessary workload.
Free one-to-one support and coaching
If you work in a school serving disadvantaged communities, you can apply for our free one-to-one support which runs alongside the NPQ in Leading Teaching (NPQLT). This free support comes in the form of an experienced former school leader who will coach and guide you throughout the programme. You can apply for this additional support in your application.
Join a passionate network striving for educational equality
Share experiences with other school leaders, learn how they’ve faced similar challenges and build a professional network that will support you throughout your career.
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Programme
Is the NPQLT programme for me?
This programme is for those who have, or are aspiring to have, responsibilities for leading teaching in a subject, year group, key stage or phase. For example a head of subject, key stage head or head of department.
How does the NPQLT work?
This 15-month programme (12 months' delivery and up to three months for assessment) consists of a series of courses based on the DfE’s NPQ frameworks. Each course cycle features:
- evidence-based online content to refresh and build knowledge, as well as exemplify what this looks like for your role and level of leadership
- a formative assessment task to support your learning
- a face-to-face seminar with a group of peers, facilitated by a serving school leader or Teach First Development Lead – you’ll analyse and reflect on the task and hear further examples of good practice
- the opportunity to record reflections and consolidate learning
This cycle repeats throughout the programme, with implementation a consideration in every course. Towards the end of the programme, you’ll also take a course focused specifically on effective implementation. This provides an opportunity to complete a significant but manageable change project as part of your role. There will be ongoing support through a seminar group and discussion forum.
What will I learn?
You’ll develop expertise in the knowledge, skills and concepts for specialist areas related to your role. These include subject and curriculum, classroom practice and adaptive teaching. Our content is informed by the best and most recent evidence and developed with input from serving school leaders and subject matter experts.
Our programmes have a practical focus. You’ll be supported to make small but important changes to your and others’ practice throughout the programme. This will conclude with the implementation module and practical implementation cycle of the programme.
Find out more about the DfE’s NPQLT content framework:
What are the training commitments?
The programme is designed to fit around your teaching and other school commitments. Over the course of the whole programme (spread over three terms), you’ll undertake approximately 55 hours of learning. This includes a combination of seminars, online learning modules, conferences and a practical implementation cycle.
How will I be assessed?
At the end of the programme, you will complete your summative NPQ assessment during a fixed 8-day window. Your assessment submission is a written response to a case study related to the content covered in your NPQ, and is an opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the NPQ Framework. Detailed dates will be shared with you before the start of the programme.
In order to be eligible to complete the assessment, you will need to have engaged with at least 90% of the course content both online and in-person. Diagnostic tasks contribute 30%, reflective tasks 20%, and attendance at events 50% to this total.
The assessment process for all NPQs has been refreshed to reduce the workload burden on teachers while still providing an opportunity to apply their knowledge. To pass the programme, you’ll need to evidence at least 90% of the course and pass one summative assessment.
At the start of your training, we’ll also provide you with the dates of the Summative Assessment so you can plan for this with your school. The summative assessment will take the form of a case study. It will represent a likely situation that a leader might encounter at the relevant NPQ qualification level. The summative assessment is designed to give you an opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of the relevant NPQ framework and how this can be applied to school improvement.
You will have an eight-day window to provide a written response of a maximum of 1,500 words for the case study. It is an ‘open book’ approach so you can refer back to your course materials when completing your response.
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Cost
Cost: £901
DfE scholarship funding
Full DfE funding, with no cost to the participant, is available to staff from:
- state-funded schools in England
- state-funded organisations that offer 16 to 19 places in England
You can do more than one NPQ, but will only be eligible for funding for each NPQ once. If you withdraw or fail your course you cannot get funded again for the same NPQ.
Additional support for small schools
Through their Targeted Support Fund, the DfE are offering additional payments to small schools to enable them to support their teachers and leaders to undertake NPQs.
For each teacher or leader they employ who takes an NPQ in the 2023 to 2024 academic year:
- state-funded primary schools with one to 150 pupils will receive a grant payment of £800
- state-funded primary schools with more than 150 pupils will receive a grant payment of £200
- state-funded secondary schools and state-funded 16 to 19 educational settings with one to 600 pupils will receive a grant payment of £200
Other settings eligible for scholarship funding
Organisations eligible to access scholarships also include independent special schools, virtual schools (Local Authority run organisations that support the education of children in care), hospital schools not already included in other categories of eligible organisations and young offender institutions. Applicants from these organisations who feel they should be eligible for funding should contact continuing-professional-development@digital.education.gov.uk for more information.
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Apply
Is my school eligible?
While NPQs are open to all teachers and leaders in schools in England, we prioritise working with schools that teach a high number of pupils from low-income backgrounds.
Our criteria are agreed with the Department for Education (DfE) and used to identify schools that will benefit most from working with us. We use the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) and pupil premium (PP) information for each school to guide us.
We work with schools that are ranked in the top 70% most deprived areas (based on IDACI) and where the proportion of pupils eligible for pupil premium is in the top 50% of all state-funded schools.
If your school is affiliated to one of our NPQ delivery partners, your school is automatically eligible to take part. Contact the relevant delivery partner for further information.
If you’re not sure whether your school is eligible, or if you think your school would benefit from our support but doesn’t match the standard eligibility criteria above, please contact us.
When does the programme start?
The next programme starts in autumn 2023.
How can I apply?
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Start by registering with the DfE on its NPQ service and selecting ‘Teach First’ as your provider.
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We or one of our delivery partners will then be in touch with you within a few days to complete your application.
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