NPQs
Whether you're at a Church of England, Catholic, state or independent school, and wherever you are in your career, we have the qualifications to help you transform your professional practice and make a difference to your pupils. 99.5% of our Alumni say our NPQs had a positive impact in their role, with participants commenting that "I am better prepared to deal with the challenges of my role", "I now lead more effectively" and within my school "students [are] better supported, and staff also".
The Church of England are a lead provider of a wide range of National Professional Qualifications. NPQs are a suite of specialist and leadership qualifications designed to support teachers and school leaders to develop leadership expertise across a range of areas. NPQs are not recommended for Early Career Teachers.
Start your leadership journey with us and make a difference in education today.
We offer nine NPQs for all stages of your leadership journey. NPQs can:
- Provide training and support for teachers and leaders at all levels.
- Be completed around existing commitments.
- Improve outcomes for children and young people.
- Support staff development.
NPQs are developed in collaboration with the sector, informed by the best available research and evidence endorsed by the Education Endowment Foundation.
NPQ Funding: There is limited scholarship funding available for NPQs in Autumn 24. Please read about the changes to scholarship funding here.
We offer two categories of NPQs:
Specialist NPQs, focusing on classroom teaching and specific areas such as Leading Teacher Development, Leading teaching, Leading behaviour and culture , and Leading primary mathematics .
Leadership NPQs, aimed at developing leadership skills for Senior leadership , Headship, and Executive leadership. Also, new for Autumn 2024, we're introducing a Specialist NPQ for Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCO).
Additionally, if you're within your first five years of headship, you may be eligible for our early headship coaching offer, providing structured support, coaching, and networking opportunities.
Limited scholarship funding is available for NPQs starting in Autumn 2024.
Click below to read more about these:
We have three routes that you can take to complete our full suite of NPQs; Standard, Flex and Small.
- NPQ Standard: It is the most popular option. Participants studying an NPQ via this route attend National webinars, and benefit from regional face-to-face delivery with credible, experienced Delivery Partners.
- NPQ Small: Specifically tailored for leaders in small schools, this route offers fully virtual delivery with flexible session timings. Content includes case studies and examples relevant to small school contexts. For more information about how we can help you make an impact in your small school, please visit: NPQ Small
- NPQ FLEX: This route is by invitation only and is a unique opportunity for teachers and school leaders to develop their leadership expertise with colleagues in their school or MAT. It's a unique opportunity provided by the Church of England.
Regardless of which route you chose to complete your NPQ, you will:
- Learn from an evidence-based curriculum of your chosen qualification, drawing on effective pedagogy, current research and international best practice to give you the knowledge and skills to improve in your current role or take the next step in your career.
- Take part in a mixture of face-to-face sessions, webinars, and self-directed study.
- Answer an assessed case study question (the summative assessment).
How long will it take?
Specialist NPQs take 12 months to complete, whilst Leadership NPQs take 18 months to complete.
You can view an overview of the time commitments here
Specialist NPQs cost £899 to complete, this includes access to Blackboard with courses delivered by expert facilitators and coaches. This also includes the cost of the assessment. Specialist NPQs include:
- NPQ Leading Teaching
- NPQ Leading Behaviour and Culture
- NPQ Leading Teacher Development
- NPQ Leading Primary Mathematics
Leadership NPQs cost between £1134 and £4085 to complete, this includes access to Blackboard with courses delivered by expert facilitators and coaches. This also includes the cost of the assessment.
- NPQ Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator – £1333
- NPQ Senior Leadership - £1134
- NPQ Headship - £1970
- NPQ Executive Headship - £4085
Scholarship funding for autumn 2024
Funding for autumn 2024 will target those teachers and leaders who work in the most challenging schools or educational settings, serving more disadvantaged communities.
Scholarship funding to cover the full NPQ course cost will be available to teachers and leaders from:
the 50% of schools with the highest proportion of students who attract pupil premium funding.
16 to 19 educational settings identified as having high disadvantage
For the early years leadership NPQ, highly disadvantaged early years settings will also be eligible.
Scholarships will continue to be available to all teachers and leaders from publicly funded schools and 16 to 19 educational organisations for the following NPQs:
Leading primary maths
SENCO
Headship
For the early headship coaching offer, funding to cover the course fees will be available if you are in your first 5 years of headship in England in a state-funded school or state-funded 16 to 19 organisation. You should also be doing or have done the headship NPQ.
You can read more about funding eligibility here: Funding for national professional qualifications (NPQs) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
We have a network of local schools, universities, Dioceses and trusts that will deliver face-to-face sessions in a venue in your region. This has the added benefit of allowing you to network and collaborate with peers from your local area who understand your context. Whilst some locations are still to be confirmed, you can expect courses in different locations across the following regions:
- London
- Southwest
- Southeast
- West Midlands
- East Midlands
- Northwest
- Yorkshire and Humberside
- Northeast
- East of England
We are delighted to welcome participants with any form of additional need, disability or access requirement. If you want to find out more about the support available, including how we might be able to implement reasonable adjustments to support you, please email npq@churchofengland.org in confidence.