National Professional Qualification in Senior Leadership (NPQSL)

Ambition Institute has designed this ground-breaking NPQ to give you the chance to learn about evidence-based school leadership and put it into practice in your school or trust.

Ambition’s 'little and often' approach uses the latest research to help you apply your learning to persistent problems. You'll train alongside other leaders with similar responsibilities, focusing on the key challenges you face in your role.

With no project work and minimal time out of school, the NPQs are designed to fit around your busy timetable.

Accredited NPQ Provider

Benefits for you

Train to your timetable

The flexible programme is designed to fit in with your busy working role. Training is delivered in bite-sized chunks, which is useful for retaining knowledge, and you can learn at a time and pace that suits 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.

Get peer-to-peer support

Learn from a network of like-minded peers and have the share insights with colleagues in your own school setting.

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'll 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

The programme is delivered through blended learning. This includes a mix of face-to-face conferences, real-time, interactive online sessions and self-guided modules to complete in your own time. You'll put what you learn into practice in your school, tracking your progress and getting feedback as you go.

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.

There are two assessment windows every year, and you can sit the assessment twice, if needed.

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.

NPQs are currently fully funded to eligible participants. The criteria for DfE-funded scholarships can be found here.

To apply, you must be, or are aspiring to be, a senior leader with cross-school responsibilities. For example, you might be an assistant or deputy headteacher, or a head of department or faculty.

Find out more by getting in touch with us or 

Apply here