NPQ in Senior Leadership

Take your school to new heights with our accredited senior leadership course.

Benefits

Grow your expertise as a senior school leader.
Create a culture where all pupils can succeed .
Build a supportive environment for colleagues and school leaders.
Free one-to-one support and coaching .
Join a passionate network striving for educational equality.

Applications closed

Grow your expertise as a senior school leader

Broaden your leadership knowledge and gain the specialist expertise needed to tackle your school improvement priorities.

Create a culture where all pupils can succeed

Learn how to support the development of a positive, predictable and safe environment for pupils. Contribute to your school’s strategic direction, setting ambitious standards across the school and establishing an environment for pupil success.

Build a supportive environment for colleagues and school leaders

Create a thriving environment in which all staff feel supported and valued.

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 Senior Leadership (NPQSL). 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.

The Programme

Is the NPQSL programme for me?

This is for school leaders who are, or are aspiring to be, a senior leader with cross-school responsibilities.

How does the NPQSL work?

This 21-month programme (18 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 areas of cross- and whole-school responsibility related to your role. These include school culture, behaviour and professional development. 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 NPQ content framework:

Download Framework

What are the training commitments?

The programme is designed to fit around your other school commitments. Over the course of the whole programme (spread over five terms), you’ll undertake approximately 77 hours of learning. This includes a combination of seminars, learning modules, conferences and a practical implementation cycle.

How will I be assessed?

Assessment takes place within three months of you completing your NPQSL. 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.