In 12 months this programme will support you to gain knowledge to become a teacher educator and successfully support teachers in your school to expand their skills.
This course is designed for those who lead on the professional development of other teachers.
Become an expert teacher educator and learn how to successfully support your teachers to improve their own teacher practice through carefully sequenced professional development.
- A 12-month specialist qualification
- Specialise in teacher training
- Flexible learning to suit your timetable
Who is this NPQ suitable for?
To apply, you should be a member of staff who has, or is aspiring to have, responsibilities for leading the support or professional development of other teachers in your school. You could be a mentor for an ECT or an trainee teacher (ITT) or lead CPD / teacher development across your school in a subject or phase
Example roles include: Head of teaching development/CPD; Induction Tutor, Year group leader; Key stage/phase leader | Head of department, trust subject leader; assistant/deputy head | Headteacher | Head of ITT | class teacher; mentor
- You may indirectly manage a team of mentors or coaches and their work is focussed on supporting ITT, ECTs as well as wider development of all colleagues across the school
Benefits for you
- Become a teaching expert: the NPQLTD is designed to give you the ability to implement high quality professional development in your school. If you lead on teacher development including trainee teachers, those early in their career or across a school, this is the NPQ for you.
- 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 /trust the best it can be.
- Designed by teaching leaders: benefit from a programme which is designed and delivered by teacher development specialists and experts from across the sector.
- Invest in your future: ongoing professional development helps you to grow and thrive as a teacher educator. You will follow an evidence-informed framework and gain a professional accreditation at the end of the programme.
- Learn at your pace: 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 development leads on the programme, sharing your experiences and building a network
Benefits for your school
- Improve your school’s/ trust’s teaching: drawing on cutting-edge research, our NPQLTD programme is designed to support your
- teacher educators to identify areas for development, nurture best practice, and create the conditions for learning that will support teachers to develop their skills and lead to improved pupil outcomes.
- Designed for teacher development leads: Leading the development of teachers is complex. This NPQ is designed for those leaders who are supporting trainees through their Initial Teacher Training, mentoring Early Career Teachers, or designing CPD for experienced teaching staff.
- Create confident leaders: teachers and leaders who complete this programme will be able to successfully oversee staff development, leading to better teaching at your school and improved pupil outcomes.
- Develop a golden thread: the 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.
- Increase staff attainment: by investing in your teachers and leaders, 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.
- Tap into a network: your leaders will train alongside peers from other teacher educators, supported by expert facilitators who fully understand their needs.
About the course
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 developing their 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
- contextualise teacher development based on a variation of school, pupils and teacher needs.
- contribute to a programme of professional development for mentors, trainees and early career teachers.
Final assessment
Our NPQ courses no longer include a large project at the end. Instead, you’ll sit an ‘open book’ style assessment in which you respond to a short case study.
The assessment window starts at the end of the 12-month programme.
During this time:
- You’ll be given an eight-day window to complete the case study.
- There are two assessment windows every year, and participants can sit the assessment twice, if they need to.
- You need to pass the assessment and engage with 90% of the course to qualify for the NPQ accreditation.
- We will offer two webinars and live clinic in advance of the assessment window to support you.
Costs and scholarship funding
New funding arrangements for NPQs – applications open on 1st July 2024
The DfE have announced that NPQ funding from Autumn 2024 will be targeted to those teachers and leaders serving more disadvantaged communities.
There will now be a capped number of funded 10,000 places nationally. Funding for the April 2025 cohorts and beyond has not been confirmed.
Scholarship-funded places are extremely limited on each NPQ programme, so access to funding will be subject to availability.
To have the best chance of claiming a funded place, please apply as soon as possible to the DfE AND Ambition Institute via our application process once applications open on 1st July 2024: participants from eligible schools identified below will be prioritised on a first come first served basis. Other places are available at a cost to schools and settings.
For the NPQLTD, funded scholarships will be available on a first come first served basis for those who meet the following criteria:
- Work in the 50% of schools with the highest proportion of students who attract pupil premium funding or early years settings identified as having high disadvantage in England
If you’re unsure whether you will qualify for this ‘pupil premium’ based on funding, please use Ambition Institute’s online eligibility check tool. Some nurseries are not available yet on the tool. If you work in a nursery and / or you cannot see your school or setting, please contact us directly at [email protected]
Scholarship-funded places are limited, so access to funding will be subject to availability. To have the best chance of claiming a funded place, please apply as soon as possible once applications open.
Costs for others, such as those in independent schools or those who do not meet this criteria is £899 + VAT
How to apply
Applications close in early September in readiness for an October start.
How to apply