NPQ in Leading Teaching

Build your expertise for leading teaching in your specialist area.

Benefits

Develop as a specialist in your role.
Gain the skills for successful leadership.
High-quality, evidence-led training designed by education experts and school leaders.
Free one-to-one support and coaching.
Flexible training that fits around your schedule and prior knowledge.

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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.

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.

The 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 One Cumbria 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:

Download 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?

Assessment takes place within three months of you completing your NPQLT. Detailed dates will be shared with you before the start of the programme.

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 engage with at least 90% of the course and pass one summative assessment.

Cost

DfE Funded for all eligible schools.

In June 2021, £184 million of new funding was announced to provide scholarship funding to enable colleagues in eligible schools to train at no cost. Please see slide 5 for more information on this.