Develop as a specialist in your role 

Gain an understanding of the core principles behind developing language, reading and writing, get practical tools and guidance to lead your school’s approach to literacy, and collaborate with other leaders in similar roles.

Gain the skills for successful leadership 

Build the expertise to effectively develop others and lead a powerful whole school literacy strategy.

Learn to effectively support colleagues 

Develop the skills to help colleagues develop literacy across the curriculum – without creating unnecessary workload.

Free one-to-one support and coaching 

If you work in a school serving disadvantaged communities, you can apply for our free one-to-one support which runs alongside the NPQ in Leading Literacy (NPQLL). This free support comes in the form of an experienced former school leader who will coach and guide you throughout the programme. You can apply for this additional support in your application. If you're applying through one of our delivery partners, please check with them whether you're eligible for this support.

Join a passionate network striving for educational equality 

Share experiences with other school leaders, learn how they’ve faced similar challenges and build a professional network that will support you throughout your career. 

Is the NPQLL programme for me?

This programme is for teachers who have, or are aspiring to have, responsibilities for leading literacy across a school, year group, key stage or phase.

How does the NPQLL work?

This 15-month programme (12 months’ delivery and three months for assessment) consists of a series of modules based on the DfE’s NPQ frameworks. Each module cycle features:  

• evidence-based online content to refresh and build knowledge, as well as exemplify what this looks like for your role and level of leadership 
• a formative assessment task to support your learning 
• a face-to-face seminar with a group of peers, facilitated by a serving school leader or Teach First Development Lead – you’ll analyse and reflect on the task and hear further examples of good practice 
• the opportunity to record reflections and consolidate learning

This cycle repeats throughout the programme, with implementation a consideration in every module. Towards the end of the programme, you’ll also take a module focused specifically on effective implementation. This provides an opportunity to plan a strategic improvement, focused on your context and pupils. There will be ongoing support through a seminar group and discussion forum. 

During the Practical Implementation cycle, programme members will be required to put learning into practice and implement an improvement, or plan the implementation of an improvement, in their setting based on the NPQ programme they are working towards. The focus will be identified by the programme member and must be level appropriate.

This improvement should be a stretching professional development target within the programme member’s existing role. For aspiring specialist and leadership programme members, the school/employer should support them to implement an improvement at the aspiring level. The allocation of learning time is five hours so any implementation focus should be feasible within the timeframe.  

What will I learn? 

You’ll develop the knowledge, skills and expertise to lead effective approaches to developing literacy and supporting children’s reading and writing at all stages. This will include leading and developing others to improve children’s literacy. 

Our content is informed by the best and most recent evidence and developed with input from school leaders and subject matter experts. 

Our programmes have a practical focus. You’ll be supported to make small but important changes to your and others’ practice throughout the programme. This will conclude with the implementation module and practical implementation cycle of the programme. 

Tind out more about the DfE’s NPQLL content framework, you can download it below: 

 

What are the training commitments? 

The programme is designed to fit around your teaching and other school commitments. Over the course of the whole programme (spread over three terms), you’ll undertake approximately 55 hours of learning. This includes a combination of seminars, online learning modules, conferences and a practical implementation cycle. 

How will I be assessed? 

At the end of the programme, you will complete your summative NPQ assessment during a fixed 8-day window. Your assessment submission is a written response to a case study related to the content covered in your NPQ, and is an opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the NPQ Framework. Detailed dates will be shared with you before the start of the programme.

In order to be eligible to complete the assessment, you will need to have engaged with at least 90% of the course content both online and in-person. Diagnostic tasks contribute 30%, reflective tasks 20%, and attendance at events 50% to this total.

The assessment process for all NPQs has been refreshed to reduce the workload burden on teachers while still providing an opportunity to apply their knowledge. To pass the programme, you’ll need to evidence at least 90% of the course and pass one summative assessment.

At the start of your training, we’ll also provide you with the dates of the Summative Assessment so you can plan for this with your school. The summative assessment will take the form of a case study. It will represent a likely situation that a leader might encounter at the relevant NPQ qualification level. The summative assessment is designed to give you an opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of the relevant NPQ framework and how this can be applied to school improvement.

You will have an eight-day window to provide a written response of a maximum of 1500 words for the case study. It is an ‘open book’ approach so you can refer back to your course materials when completing your response.

A limited number of DfE scholarship funded places will be available to teachers and leaders from:  

• the 50% of schools with the highest proportion of students who attract pupil premium funding  
• the 16 to 19 educational settings identified as having high disadvantage  

Non-funded places: £899