National Professional Qualification for Senior Leadership (NPQSL)

Develop your leadership knowledge and expertise to improve outcomes for teachers and pupils in your school.

Eligibility: Designed for school leaders who are, or are aspiring to be, a senior leader with whole school responsibilities. For example, you might be an assistant or deputy headteacher, or a head of department or faculty.

Duration: 18 months.

Curriculum:

This programme is designed to develop your leadership skills and knowledge and covers the content listed in the Department for Education’s NPQ 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.

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, and supported by peer-led community sessions. 

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, a limited number of fully-funded NPQSL spaces will be available for participants working in schools with the highest 50% of pupil premium pupils.

Fully-funded spaces 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 NPQSL is £1139 + VAT.

If you’re unsure whether you will qualify for this ‘pupil premium’ based on funding, please use the Ambition Institute online eligibility check tool, and/or contact us at npq@northwestlondontsh.org.uk and we will advice.

Facilitators:

Andy Hammond

Middlesex Learning Trust

Lucy Floyer

Emma Hazlegreaves

Middlesex Learning Trust

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.