NPQEL

National Professional Qualification for Executive Leadership.

Learners First – a Department For Education accredited provider of the National Professional Qualification for Middle Leadership

NATIONAL PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATION FOR EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP

Learners First is delighted to be one of a small number of providers accredited by the DfE to offer this exciting new qualification. In choosing Learners First as your NPQEL provider you will connect into an established school led partnership that has a strong track record of high quality delivery over many years. You will have access to a national network of partner organisations that provides a wealth of outstanding, serving leaders with whom you can work.

Who is NPQEL for?

About NPQEL

Taking both a practical and pragmatic approach, the Learners First NPQEL programme offers an exceptional leadership development opportunity designed to support leaders in any phase of education to:

Reflect on their own leadership challenges in an executive role and further develop the essential leadership skills to successfully navigate the transition into the CEO role;
Be better prepared to deliver continuous improvement across their MAT or group of schools recognising the increasing complexity and change within the education system;
Analyse strategy, practice and emerging leadership in other sectors as well as within the education sector to bring about improvements;
Connect to booth local and national networks that will sustain and continue to develop high quality leadership.

Programme Content

The suite of NPQ qualifications are built around the six core Content Areas.

At each level of the NPQ framework, the knowledge and skills associated with each content area progressively increases in sophistication, depth and breadth. The six content areas are:

Strategy & Improvement

Manage and analyse performance data to evaluate progress, identify trends, define team priorities and develop improvement strategies (for example, in relation to disadvantaged pupils or those with particular needs)

Implement successful change at team level

Teaching and Curriculum Excellence

Grow excellent, evidence-based teaching in a team and a curriculum that develops pupils academically and prepares them for adult life

Improve the progress, attainment and behaviour of all pupils, including those who are disadvantaged or have particular needs (for example, Pupil Premium, SEND, EAL or the most able pupils)

Leading With Impact

Anticipate other peoples’ views or feelings and moderate your approach accordingly

Adopt different leadership styles to ensure the team meets its objectives

Present, communicate or defend challenging messages confidently and positively to a range of audiences

Working in Partnership

Realise the benefits of collaborating with others, including teachers, teaching assistants and non-teaching staff, other schools, parents/carers and other organisations

Support their team to build and sustain relationships with others which develop and share good practice and improve performance

Managing Resources and Risks

Deploy staff, financial and educational resources within a team efficiently, to enhance pupil progress and attainment

Manage risks within a team effectively (for example, in relation to staffing, finances or teacher workload), using a risk register

Deliver a safe environment for pupils and staff

Increasing Capability

Hold others to account, line manage and evaluate performance effectively

Support all members of their team with appropriate, targeted opportunities for professional development, including newly-qualified teachers, teaching assistants, and stronger or weaker performers

Leadership Behaviours

Although not directly tested through the assessment, there are also seven Leadership Behaviours which set out how the best leaders operate. Participants will be supported to reflect upon these behaviours throughout the programme.

The seven leadership behaviours are:

Commitment

The best leaders are self-motivated and take a creative, problem-solving approach to new challenge

Collaboration

The best leaders readily engage with, and invest responsibility in, those who are best placed to improve outcomes

Personal Drive

The best leaders are self-motivated and take a creative, problem-solving approach to new challenge

Resilience

The best leaders remain courageous and positive in challenging, adverse or uncertain circumstances

Awareness

The best leaders will know themselves and their teams, continually reflect on their own and others’ practices, and understand how best to approach difficult or sensitive issues.

Integrity

The best leaders act with honesty, transparency and always in the interests of the school and its pupils

Respect

The best leaders their respect the rights, views, beliefs and faiths of pupils, colleagues and stakeholders

Programme Delivery and Overview

The Learners First NPQEL programme has been designed to be both practical and pragmatic with opportunities to work with leading industry experts within and beyond education. The year-long programme will consist of an induction and four separate one and a half day sessions, each taking place as a residential. Sessions will encourage leaders to consider a range of pertinent areas such as those outlined below and all will have a focus on ‘leading with impact’. Between each face to face session participants will be expected to be involved in a peer review process of each other’s organisations using techniques developed during the programme.

Induction: This session will help set the national and local context within which the participants’ MATs or group of schools operate. There will be an opportunity to shape and influence the programme in response to individual assessment feedback.

Participants will use a range of techniques to compare and contrast different approaches to strategic planning including those from other sectors. This will involve exploring:

emerging accountability frameworks for MATs
ethical leadership and managing significant change
translating an inspiring vision into strategic action
approaches that might help shape and influence your partner organisations

Participants will look at examples of developing excellence in curriculum delivery, teaching and learning and the use of data across groups of schools. This will involve a study of national and international research evidence into effective teaching and learning and will use the evidence from our first MAT Peer Review exercise.

Participants will consider and study models of financial sustainability including:

considerations of income and resource generation
MAT growth plans
Current and emerging accountability mechanisms.

The sessions will involve a consideration of governance and risk management as well as a review of safeguarding and health and safety across groups of schools.

This session will consider effective ways of working with Directors, DfE/EFA, Teaching Schools and other potential partner organisations that could contribute to the continuous improvement in participants’ schools. This session will involve considerations of effective delegation, internal and external contracting and your own ‘brand management’.

Assessment

To graduate from the programme and gain the NPQEL award participants will need to complete a final assessment which requires them to:

design a sustainable business development strategy for their organisation, analysing the benefits, costs and risks of different options; and
lead a project to improve progress and attainment in several schools

Through these two projects participants should demonstrate their competence linked to the knowledge and skills set out in the six content areas.

The assessment for NPQEL is conducted externally on behalf of Learners First by NPQ Online an experienced assessor for quality leadership in education.

Programme Costs

The cost of NPQEL with Learners First is: £2,995

For any participants from schools subscribing to Learners First, 25% of the costs will be met through the subscription.

NPQ Scholarships

The Department for Education has currently suspended access to scholarship funding for new applicants for NPQs. Updates will be provided here should the DfE position change.

Applications

Applications for the 2020/21 academic year will open in the Autumn for a Spring Term 2021 start.

Queries

If you have any queries regarding the new NPQEL please email:- teachingschool@learnersfirst.org

Quality Assurance

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