FULLY FUNDED (see COST)
We’re pleased to announce that we are partnering with education charity Ambition Institute to deliver the NPQ in Senior Leadership.
This 18-month programme helps you develop your leadership knowledge and expertise to improve outcomes for teachers and pupils in your school.
- Gain an NPQ Senior Leadership accreditation
- Enjoy flexible training to suit your timetable
- Access evidence-based learning
- Learn from leadership experts
Choose our NPQ for Senior Leadership and you’ll be joining over 37,000 teachers and school leaders (as of July 2025), who have decided on Ambition to complete their NPQ since they were launched in 2021.
Evidence-informed curriculum
Benefit from our evidence-informed curriculum to help you put your learning into practice in your school or trust.
Develop skills on school improvement
Throughout the course, you’ll develop your knowledge and skills on school improvement at the senior leadership level. This programme aims to develop expertise that is flexible and allows participants to respond to the challenges they will encounter in a range of contexts.
Train to your timetable
Our ‘little and often’ approach means you’ll need on average just one hour per week to engage in our NPQs, helping you to fit your NPQSL around your timetable.
No large project
On our NPQs, there’s no large project at the end. Instead, you’ll sit an ‘open book’ assessment with support via a live webinar and clinics available to help you get the most from your NPQ.
Benefits for you
Build your confidence
Learn how to excel as a leader and get the support you need to take the next step in your career.
Access the latest research
Benefit from the latest evidence-based learning and approaches to great teaching and leadership. See how it can improve schools and change lives.
Enact positive change
Translate what you’ve learned on this programme to your own school context. We’ll help you do this by providing models and examples that seek to make the link between theory and practice concrete.
Build your network
You’ll connect with other senior leaders, sharing your experiences and building a strong support network that lasts long after you finish the course.
Benefits for your school or trust
Create a common knowledge base
NPQ qualifications are aligned, so you can have confidence that all your educators will share a common language and framework to develop your school or trust.
Support your leaders
Senior leaders will be given the tools to drill down into specific areas of leadership to improve their knowledge, make evidence-informed decisions and action positive change.
Learn from evidence
Senior Leaders will be introduced to evidence-informed practices straightaway. This will help them develop strategies to improve teaching and pupil performance at your school.
Make a leadership pipeline
The programme will help to identify future leaders and create a positive culture where teachers can develop and thrive.
Boost attainment
Studies show that high-quality continuous professional development can improve pupil outcomes almost as effectively as having a teacher with 10 years’ experience in the classroom.
What you will learn
This programme follows the Department for Education’s National Professional Qualification: 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.
Note: programme content is subject to change.
How you’ll learn
Our NPQSL is designed so you can engage in live, facilitated sessions alongside modules you can complete at any time.
Over 18 months, our NPQSL includes:
- Two full day conferences (6hrs each).
- Nine courses (each course lasts six weeks and is loosely aligned to a school half term).
- Each course includes six modules.
- Six two-hour clinics (facilitated sessions).
- One two-hour assessment clinic.
- Five communities (1hr15mins group sessions).
The content is delivered through blended learning. This includes 12 hours of in-person delivery (via 2 full day conferences and in-person twilight sessions), a mix of real-time, interactive online sessions and self-guided modules you complete in your own time.
The programme includes facilitator-led sessions with your peer group that focus on decision making. The programme starts with a one-day live conference.
Note: programme content is subject to change.
The assessment window starts at the end of the 18-month programme and runs for three months. During this time, you’ll be given an eight-day window to sit an ‘open book’ style assessment in which you respond to a short case study.
You have two submission attempts. If you fail on the first submission, you will have one further opportunity to resit the assessment. You will submit the assessment at the next available assessment window.
You need to complete 90% of the programme and pass the assessment to gain the qualification.
Webinars and live clinics are offered in advance of the assessment window to support participants.
Scholarship funding for Autumn 2026
Scholarship funding is available for teachers who are, or are aspiring to be, a senior leader with cross-school responsbilities, in publicly-funded schools (including maintained nursery schools) and 16 to 19 educational settings in England.
Funding for this course is also available to:
- hospital schools
- young offender institutions
- local authority virtual school headteachers, staff in a defined deputy headteacher role and staff in direct teaching roles
- other local authority staff in direct teaching roles – for example, local authority supply or peripatetic teachers
If you don’t work in an eligible school, or are unable to access a funded place, the NPQ in Senior Leadership costs £1,139 plus VAT.
