Return to Page A A A A M L XL

NPQSL

National Professional Qualification in Senior Leadership (NPQSL)

We’re pleased to announce that we are partnering with education charity Ambition Institute to deliver the NPQ in Senior Leadership.

This 18-month programme helps you develop your leadership knowledge and expertise to improve outcomes for teachers and pupils in your school.

Why this programme?

Ambition Institute has designed this ground-breaking NPQ to give you the chance to learn about evidence-based school leadership and put it into practice in your school or trust.

Ambition’s 'little and often' approach uses the latest research to help you apply your learning to persistent problems. You'll train alongside other leaders with similar responsibilities, focusing on the key challenges you face in your role.

With no project work and minimal time out of school, the NPQs are designed to fit around your busy timetable.

Benefits for you

Train to your timetable

The flexible programme is designed to fit in with your busy working role. Training is delivered in bite-sized chunks, which is useful for retaining knowledge, and you can learn at a time and pace that suits you.

Build your confidence

Learn how to excel as a leader and get the support you need to take the next step in your career.

Access the latest research

Benefit from the latest evidence-based learning and approaches to great teaching and leadership. See how it can improve schools and change lives.

Enact positive change

Translate what you’ve learned on this programme to your own school context. We'll help you do this by providing models and examples that seek to make the link between theory and practice concrete.

Get peer-to-peer support

Learn from a network of like-minded peers and have the share insights with colleagues in your own school setting.

Benefits for your school or trust

Create a common knowledge base

NPQ qualifications are aligned, so you can have confidence that all your educators will share a common language and framework to develop your school or trust.

Support your leaders

Senior leaders will be given the tools to drill down into specific areas of leadership to improve their knowledge, make evidence-informed decisions and action positive change.

Learn from evidence

Senior Leaders will be introduced to evidence-informed practices straightaway. This will help them develop strategies to improve teaching and pupil performance at your school.

Make a leadership pipeline

The programme will help to identify future leaders and create a positive culture where teachers can develop and thrive.

Boost attainment

Studies show that high-quality continuous professional development can improve pupil outcomes almost as effectively as having a teacher with 10 years’ experience in the classroom.

Curriculum

What you'll learn

This programme follows the Department for Education’s National Professional Qualification: Senior Leadership Framework.

You will learn how to:

  • Set clear goals and communicate shared values that improve the culture in your classrooms and school
  • Establish a safe and positive environment for pupils
  • Support colleagues to meet individual needs and make sure all pupils have access to a rich curriculum
  • Lead school-wide professional development for staff
  • Make and act on evidence-informed decisions
  • Work well with parents, carers, other schools and the wider community
  • Lead by example, be accountable for decisions and make sure colleagues know their responsibilities.

Note: programme content is subject to change.

How you’ll learn

The programme is delivered through blended learning. This includes a mix of face-to-face conferences, real-time, interactive online sessions and self-guided modules to complete in your own time. You'll put what you learn into practice in your school, tracking your progress and getting feedback as you go.

Note: programme content is subject to change.

Assessment

The assessment window starts at the end of the 18-month programme and runs for three months. During this time, participants will be given an eight-day window to sit an ‘open book’ style assessment in which they respond to a short case study.

There are two assessment windows every year, and participants can sit the assessment two times, if they need to.

You need to complete the course to qualify for the NPQ accreditation.

Ambition Institute will offer a webinar and live clinic in advance of the assessment window to support participants.

Cost

Scholarship funding for autumn 2024 

Funding for autumn 2024 will target those teachers and leaders who work in the most challenging schools or educational settings, serving more disadvantaged communities. 

Scholarship funding to cover the full NPQ course cost will be available to teachers and leaders from: 

  • the 50% of schools with the highest proportion of students who attract pupil premium funding 
  • 16 to 19 educational settings identified as having high disadvantage 

For the early years leadership NPQ, highly disadvantaged early years settings will also be eligible.    

Scholarships will continue to be available to all teachers and leaders from publicly funded schools and 16 to 19 educational organisations for the following NPQs: 

  • leading primary maths  
  • SENCO  
  • headship  

For the early headship coaching offer, funding to cover the course fees will be available if you are in your first 5 years of headship in England in a state-funded school or state-funded 16 to 19 organisation. You should also be doing or have done the headship NPQ.  

Apply

To apply, you must be, or are aspiring to be, a senior leader with cross-school responsibilities. For example, you might be an assistant or deputy headteacher, or a head of department or faculty. Complete the form below and a member of the team will be in touch.

Cookie Policy | Privacy Policy
Admin

Privacy Policy

We regard your privacy as important and any personal information you give to us will be used in accordance with the Data Protection Act and the General Data Protection Regulations.

We do not store personal information about individuals who visit this site except where they provide contact information via our contact us page and contact forms available on various pages throughout the website.

Any information you provide will only be used for the reasons specified and it will not be shared with any third party without your consent, unless required by law.

Your contact details are kept securely and are only accessed by authorised members of staff as part of the provision of school services. If you do not wish us to keep this contact information please tell us.

This website uses Google Analytics which provides statistical data about the usage of the site. This information is not used to identify individuals, but is collected to provide us with an understanding of the areas of interest on our site and how our site is being used.

If you are connected to the internet you will have an IP Address. This may take the form of a figure, such as 333.333.22.1. The address will be automatically collected and logged as part of the connection of your computer to our web server and may be used to determine the total number of visits to each part of the site. This data is not collected and used for other purposes.

This website contains links to other websites. The School is not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites or organisations and recommends you consult the privacy information on those sites.

This policy will be reviewed and updated versions will be posted on the website.

If you have any questions about the use of your personal information, the Information Commissioner is the independent regulator for both Data Protection and Freedom of Information.