National Professional Qualification

Leading Teaching Development

We are pleased to partner with education charity Ambition Institute to deliver the NPQ for Leading Teacher Development. In 12 months, participants will gain the knowledge to become teacher educators and successfully support fellow teachers to expand their skills.

Those doing the training will learn:

  • How to become expert teacher educators
  • To become champions of quality teaching
  • At a time and pace that suits their needs.

Benefits to your school:

  • One of a series of new, specialist NPQs
  • Create confident teacher leaders
  • Attract and retain staff.
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Become a teaching expert
This NPQ is designed to give you high quality professional development. All the training is evidence-based and informed by the science of learning.

Champion quality teaching
Many teachers who end up in leadership roles haven’t had any formal training to become teacher educators. This programme fills that gap by giving you the knowledge and insight to make classroom teaching in your school the best it can be.

Learn to your timetable
This programme is designed to fit around your busy teaching role. Much of the work can be completed in short bursts around your existing schedule.

Connect with peers
You’ll get to train and collaborate with other teacher leaders on the programme, sharing your experiences and building a network.

Develop a golden thread
The NPQ framework continues a ‘golden thread’ throughout every stage of a teacher’s career. Schools and trusts can have confidence that all their educators, from classroom teachers to leaders of multiple schools, are building and developing their practice from the same evidence-based framework.

Create confident leaders
Teachers who complete this programme will be able to successfully oversee staff development, leading to better teaching at your school and improved pupil outcomes.

Increase staff attainment
By investing in your teachers, you are showing confidence in their abilities. After completing the programme, they are more likely to stay in their roles and help you nurture the next generation of teaching talent.

More options for improvement
The specialist NPQs are designed to be complementary, giving teachers multiple career pathways and options at every stage of their careers.

Ambition Institute has designed this ground-breaking NPQ to help you develop the knowledge and expertise to lead teacher development at your school.

The programme uses the latest evidence-based learning and shows you how to put your findings into practice in your school setting. You will train alongside other teachers with similar responsibilities.

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

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 Teacher Development Framework.

On this programme, you will learn how to:

  • Make sure professional development in your school is focused on a shared responsibility for improving outcomes for all pupils
  • Diagnose what teachers know and can do, starting professional development from that point and adapting the approach based on their developing expertise
  • Help teachers improve through evidence-based professional development focused on improving classroom teaching
  • Gain an understanding of what teachers have learned by reviewing patterns of performance over a number of assessments
  • Develop and lead a team of colleagues who can facilitate a range of professional development approaches
  • Contribute to a programme of professional development for mentors, trainees and early career teachers.

How you will learn

The content is delivered through blended learning. This includes a mix of real-time, interactive online sessions and self-guided modules you complete in your own time. You will be encouraged to put what you learn into practice and track your progress as you go.

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, responsibility for leading other educators to develop. You might support all teachers in your school, trainees or those early in their career.

Deadline for Online Applications:
Spring 2025

Contact npqs@cumbriaeducationtrust.org for further information