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.

Need more information?

Frequently asked questions

Looking for a different NPQ 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 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 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?

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 1500 words for the case study. It is an ‘open book’ approach so you can refer back to your course materials when completing your response.

Need more information?

Frequently asked questions

Looking for a different NPQ programme?

Cost: £1,148

DfE scholarship funding 

A limited number of DfE scholarship funded places will be available to teachers and leaders from:  

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

For further information and guidance, please see the information on funding for NPQs on the GOV.UK website.

Need more information?

Frequently asked questions

Looking for a different NPQ programme?

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 2024.

How can I apply?

Applications open in July 2024 for our autumn intake.

If you would like to register your interest, please contact us and we will then be able to let you know once applications open.

If you have already been in contact with one of our delivery partners, please continue to liaise with them on your next steps.

Need more information?

Frequently asked questions

Looking for a different NPQ programme?