NPQH: National Professional Qualification for Headship

Spring cohort 2025

About the programme

• Why join UCL?
• What will you learn?
• What are the benefits to you?
• What are the benefits for your school?
• Is this programme for me?
• How long will it take?
• When will it start and how much will it cost?
• Are scholarships available for this programme?
• Programme route map
• What do participants say?

Why join UCL?

The UCL Centre for Educational Leadership looks forward to working with you on their newly designed NPQ supporting you to deepen your knowledge of Headship within a collaborative and open learning environment.

Based on the latest research and evidence this new programme will enable you to take your new learning and develop your skills and put them into practice.

Our programmes put you and your school at the heart of the programme through a professional learning group approach that helps you to share your thinking and understanding within a well-planned framework. You will experience a blended approach of face to face, self-directed study materials and in school support to enable you to progress professionally and develop networks to enhance your career.

What will you learn?

• School Culture – you will establish and sustain an effective school culture by setting the strategic direction, managing human and financial resources and fulfilling all statutory duties to enable a sustainable and thriving school community.
• Teaching – you will learn how to establish and support effective teaching across your school to develop and embed your teacher’s pedagogical knowledge and classroom skills to enable the best outcomes for all children and young people no matter what their starting point is.
• Curriculum and Assessment – you will learn how to support and sustain high quality planning, teaching, learning and assessment by ensuring the implementation of effective and coherent policies. Appropriate and well-designed professional development for the teachers in your school will align with these priorities.
• Behaviour and Support – you will be able to establish and sustain high standards of behaviour and learning across the whole school community, including liaising with and training key stakeholders to ensure a safe, inclusive learning environment for all.
• Implementation – you will learn how to implement change successfully within your context by understanding the stages of implementation and aligning it with wider school improvement priorities.

What are the benefits to you?

Our participants have outlined many benefits to studying for an NPQH. Overall, they outline how the programme has given them professional confidence, time and space to reflect on themselves and the kind of leader they want to become and increased knowledge in their chosen area of study.

You will be able to:

• Develop the skills, confidence and knowledge to implement new professional development initiatives successfully through a supported implementation project.
• Challenge pre-conceived ideas.
• Understand how to develop a culture in a school and know how to model it as school.
• Strengthen and affirm your thinking and understanding of high-quality leadership approaches.
• Learn how to provide a framework that encourages a safe, sustainable learning culture for pupil progress.
• Access research and materials and have many opportunities to discuss a variety of professional development approaches and models with other teachers.

What are the benefits for your school?

We know that our children and young people need teachers who are committed to their education and are confident learners themselves. Our programmes have been developed with teachers and leaders to:

• Create professionally confident teachers and leaders.
• Grow the next generation of leaders with the skills and knowledge to use the evidence-base for the benefit of their children and young people.
• Retain the best teachers who are excellent, collaborative role models for their schools and communities.
• Inspire leaders who can harness the power of rich learning environments for their children and young people no matter the current circumstances.

Is this programme for me?

Yes, if you aspire to leading a school as a head of school or headteacher.

How long will it take?

18 months followed by an eight day open book summative case study task.

When will it start and how much will it cost?

The programme will start in April 2025. There will be an induction conference taking place in May 2025.

Scholarships may be available for this programme.

The programme fee is £1,885 (+VAT) for schools and participants in England required to pay for the programme. The same fee applies to independent schools in England.

British International Schools: please follow the links to your preferred International Delivery Partner for fee information.

Are scholarships available for this programme?

Information for scholarship funding will be available soon.

Programme route map

Route map (text version)

*Please note, NPQ Mentors will be asked to complete a short School Impact Report at the end of module 2 and 3 to gauge how engagement with the programme is supporting School/Improvement. This is separate from the Line Manager/Mentor Check-in which is more participant focused.

Runs over 18 months: Implementation Project: Work-based reflective learning, integrating research with practice and aligned to the EEF process model for school improvement (not assessed).

After 18 months: Final Summative Assessment (October 2026/January 2027). 

What do participants say?