National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH)

Develop the knowledge that underpins expert school leadership and apply it to become an outstanding headteacher.

Eligibility: Designed for school leaders who are, or are aspiring to be headteachers. This programme will enable you to drive meaningful change in your school setting and focus on specific headship challenges in your school or trust.

Duration: 18 months

Curriculum:

This programme is suitable for aspiring headteachers, or individuals in the first two years of headship without an NPQH.

You will learn how to:

• Set clear goals and communicate shared values that improve classroom and school culture
• Transform pupils’ knowledge, capabilities and beliefs about learning
• Create a fair and structured approach to learning and testing
• 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
• Establish good financial, human and educational resource management
• 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 staff know their professional responsibilities.

How you will learn:

The programme is delivered with a mixture of face-to-face and virtual sessions. The programme starts with a full-day Conference to introduce you to the structure and content of the course, allowing you to meet your Visiting Fellows and the wider NPQ cohort, a second full-day Conference will take place in year two.  

Each of the nine courses within the programme are taught through a combination of independent and paired self-study modules, a facilitated live clinic, supported by peer-led community sessions, and a school visit.

The North-West London Teaching School Hub team will be supporting you throughout your learning journey on the programme, tracking your progress and acting as your point of contact. 

Assessment:

There is no project work required for this NPQ. At the end of the 18 month course, you will be given an eight-day assessment window to sit an ‘open book’ style assessment in which you respond to a short case study. We will offer a webinar and live clinic before the assessment window to support you in preparing for your assessment.

Cost:

From September 2024, the DfE has changed NPQ funding. For NPQH, funding is available to all publicly funded schools and 16 to 19 educational organisations in England. 

Fully-funded spaces are limited and are filled up quickly, therefore we always advice early applications.

If you do not work in an eligible school, or all fully-funded spaces have been filled, the cost of the NPQH is £1949 + VAT. 

Facilitators:

Mel Hooson

John Keohane

Wren Academy

Further Info:

Only in exceptional circumstances may a participant request either a deferral or withdrawal from their programme. Participants should be aware that there is a process to follow which is outlined in Ambition’s Institute’s Deferral and Withdrawal Policy

A participant considering withdrawal from an NPQ Programme should be aware that it is Department for Education Policy to only fund an NPQ course for a participant once. This means that a participant who starts a Department for Education funded NPQ course, and then withdraws from that course, will not be funded again for the same programme.