National Professional Qualification

Leading Teaching

We are pleased to partner with education charity Ambition Institute to deliver the NPQ for Leading Teaching.

In 12 months, participants will discover what outstanding teaching looks like and use this knowledge to become high-performing leaders of teaching.

Those doing the training will learn:

  • How to become excellent leaders of teaching
  • How to unpack and apply learning in teaching, curriculum and assessment
  • At a time and pace that suits their existing timetable.

Benefits to your school:

  • One of a series of new, specialist NPQs
  • Access to the latest learning
  • Retain your teaching talent.

Excel as a teacher
Delve into the nuts and bolts of what makes an effective teacher, what good teaching looks like, and how you can lead others and they can learn from you.

Build on existing experience
This programme helps you to unpack and apply learning in teaching, curriculum and assessment – and to support others to develop in these areas. That’s whether you are a classroom teacher keen to develop your knowledge or a head of department wanting to maximise your impact.

Invest in your future
Ongoing professional development helps you to grow and thrive as a teacher. You will follow an evidence-based framework and gain a professional accreditation at the end of the programme.

Train to your timetable
This programme is designed to fit around your teaching role and much of the work can be completed in bite-size chunks around your existing work timetable.

Connect with your peers
You will train alongside other teachers from similar school contexts. You can share your experiences and build a strong support network.

Create a ‘golden thread’
The new NPQs are all aligned. So, no matter what career stage your teachers are at, by joining this programme, they will benefit from an evidence-based framework. They will also share a common language with other NPQ participants that they can pass on to colleagues.

Access the latest learning
Teachers will bring evidence-based teaching and learning into classrooms, meaning high quality teaching and improved pupil outcomes.

Identify future leaders
Competent and confident teachers who excel in their roles will be more likely to apply for middle or senior positions in your school when they arise.

Retain your teaching talent
By allowing teachers to develop and nurture their talents in specialist areas you are investing in their future. This will boost their confidence, making them feel supported and less likely to apply for jobs elsewhere.

Tap into a network
Your teachers will train alongside peers from other schools with similar contexts, supported by facilitators that fully understands your needs.

Ambition Institute has designed this ground-breaking NPQ to help you develop a culture of high expectations and good behaviour in your school.

The programme uses the latest evidence-based learning and shows you how to put it into practice. You will learn alongside other teachers from schools with similar challenges and circumstances.

The new and reformed NPQs have been developed as a complete series, sharing a common language. This means you can have the confidence that all the educators in your school are building and developing their knowledge from the same evidence-based frameworks.

Ambition Institute knows that schools’ and trusts’ needs vary. So its programmes are designed with flexibility in mind and can be completed at a time that suits you best and fits in with your existing role. Through Steplab, the innovative personal development platform built for teachers, by teachers, you will have access to your modules and practice activities to help you get better faster.

What you will learn

This programme follows the Department for Education’s National Professional Qualification (NPQ): Leading Teaching Framework.

On this programme, you will learn how to:

  • Explain important ideas about the science of learning
  • Understand what good teaching practice is and how to implement it
  • Support colleagues to design a broad and coherent curriculum
  • Plan effective lessons and stimulate your pupils’ thinking
  • Help colleagues adapt their teaching to different needs
  • Contribute to the design of school assessment systems
  • Align your professional development with wider school improvement priorities.

How you will learn

The content is delivered through blended learning. This includes a mix of real-time interactive sessions, face-to-face training, peer-led sessions and self-guided modules you complete in your own time.

Note: programme content is subject to change

The assessment window starts at the end of the 12-month programme and runs for three months. During this time, participants will be given an eight-day window to sit an ‘open book’ style assessment in which they respond to a short case study.

There are two assessment windows every year, and participants can sit the assessment two times, if they need to.

You need to complete the course to qualify for the NPQ accreditation.

Ambition Institute will offer a webinar and live clinic in advance of the assessment window to support participants.

The Department for Education has some NPQ scholarship funding available to publicly funded schools and 16-to-19 educational organisations in England, so you may be eligible for a fully-funded NPQ.

To apply, you must be a teacher who has, or is aspiring to have, responsibilities for leading teaching in a subject, year group, key stage or phase.

Deadline for Online Applications:
Spring 2025

Contact npqs@cumbriaeducationtrust.org for further information