National Professional Qualification for Leading Literacy (NPQLL)

This is course is for teachers who lead, or aspiring to lead, on literacy in any phase of education. This includes teachers, heads of departments, teaching development leads and senior leaders.

You’ll become an expert leader of literacy and learn its importance in enabling young people to reach their full potential.

• A 12-month specialist qualification
• Access the latest evidence-based learning in literacy development
• Flexible learning to suit your timetable

Who is this NPQ suitable for?

Must be a teacher who has, or is aspiring to have, responsibilities for leading English / literacy in a subject, year group, key stage, or phase.  Example roles could be:

• Middle leader or senior leader in a primary secondary or special school
• Responsibility for leading English, or leading literacy across phase, stage, subject, or across whole school/a group of schools

Benefits for you

• Make a real difference, ensuring that all pupils become confidently literate is an essential responsibility of leaders of literacy. The NPQLL will help you to offer all children in your school access to high-quality literacy in their education.
• Excel at literacy leadership
• Become a true champion of literacy. You’ll develop a thorough understanding of how you can improve literacy in your subject, phase and school, using the latest evidence informed research.
• Impact your whole school: as well as providing the key domains of leading literacy, you’ll build your leadership skills by learning how to share your new literacy expertise through effective professional development and implementation, so you can enact lasting change in your context.
• Designed by experts: benefit from a programme which is designed and delivered by literacy, language, reading and writing specialists and experts from across the sector.
• Invest in your future: ongoing professional development helps you to grow and thrive as a leader. You will follow an evidence-informed framework and gain a professional accreditation at the end of the
• programme.
• Learn to 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 your peers: you will train alongside literacy leaders from similar school contexts. You can share your experiences and build a strong support network.

Benefits for your school

• Build brighter futures: by expertly championing literacy leadership in your school, you can make sure that every young person has the literacy skills to succeed across all curriculum areas.
• Improve literacy at all levels: participants will work on applying learning and improving literacy across your school and different subject areas – and support colleagues to do this too.
• Put knowledge into practice: this programme gives literacy leaders a comprehensive and accessible evidence base. This allows them to bridge the gap between what they know and how to apply it effectively in your school, to improve literacy and outcomes for pupils.
• Create 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.
• Invest in your leaders: by aligning staff professional development with wider school improvement priorities, you can make sure all pupils have access to high quality literacy support in their education.
• Tap into a network: your teachers will train alongside peers from other schools with similar contexts, supported by facilitators that fully understand your needs.

About the course

This programme follows the Department for Education’s National Professional Qualification: Leading Literacy Framework.

On this programme, you will learn how:

• to support staff, of all subject specialisms, to develop pupils’ language and literacy skills
• pupils develop aspects of literacy, including how children learn to talk, how effective spoken language supports literacy development at every age, how children learn to become fluent readers and how teachers can support this across every stage, and explore the importance of subject-specific vocabulary and different strategies to teaching this
• to support pupils’ writing – whether learning to write in primary school, through to writing academically at key stage five
• support, develop and teach pupils literacy using evidence-informed approaches
• lead literacy through curriculum, culture and motivation
• effective literacy education can support your school
• to contribute to effective professional development for literacy, linking it to teaching, the curriculum and assessment across the school.

Our programme structure

Our ‘little and often’ approach means you can engage with our NPQs around your work schedule, with minimal time needed out of school: there is one face to face launch conference to introduce you to the programme, your fellow participants and to meet your facilitators.  There are six 2-hour online facilitated twilight sessions across the year to reinforce your guided self-study online.  Your online study which can be done at a time to suit you and will take around 45 minutes to an hour each week.

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 NPQLL, 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.