School Leader Programme

This programme focuses on the holistic development of the appropriate skills, knowledge and behaviours, designed in partnership with cross-sector industries, to ensure bespoke coverage of all the relevant requirements of leading and managing at a senior level at your setting.

The School Leader Programme makes use of a blended delivery model consisting of Face-to-Face events, online study, webinars and coaching.

Face-to-Face

NPQSL participants will attend 4 face-to-face events via the blended delivery model. Our nationwide delivery partnership network allows us to bring face-to-face training to a school near you and facilitated by local school leaders.

Online Learning

Participants access online learning and support via our virtual learning environment (VLE) Canvas. Through Canvas, participants are able to engage with their learning communities of peers and access multimedia content. They can also access research and expert-led school practice aligned to the curriculum content for the qualification, receive high-quality feedback from experienced performance coaches and submit work for assessment.

How do I access the funding?

The School Leader Programme with NPQSL can be funded through your school’s apprenticeship levy. Schools will be able to access the funding through their apprenticeship service (AS) account.

If your school needs help setting up your AS account, just let us know and we’ll guide you through it.

The School Leader Programme with NPQSL costs £7,000 from Apprenticeship Levy funds or co-investment for non-levy payers where the government pays 95% (the NPQSL standalone cost is £1140).

The level of funding depends on each candidate’s learning needs, with a maximum allocation of £7,000 to cover the cost of the apprenticeship.

What is the Apprenticeship Levy?

The levy is paid by large employers with a wage bill of over £3 million. These employers pay 0.5% of their total annual pay bill into the levy. Most state-maintained schools and multi-academy trusts pay into the levy.

The levy is designed to create long term sustainable funding for apprenticeships and to give employers more control to provide their staff with a range of training opportunities.

Apprenticeship funded training is designed for both new and existing staff members.

• Candidates must be able to evidence level 2 English and Maths prior to undertaking end-point assessment. If you do not already hold exemptions, you will need to complete Functional Skills as part of the programme.
• Applicants must be in a middle leader role as a minimum and have completed 2 full years of teaching.
• All applicants must have either QTS, QTLS, a Level 5 (or higher) qualification (any subject), or an international equivalent (see below). You must be able to evidence this with a copy of your certificate.
• For those with QTS, you can download a copy of your certificate here https://teacherservices.education.gov.uk/SelfService/Login.
• For those with QTLS, you can download a copy of your certificate here https://set.et-foundation.co.uk/my-set/my-profile. If for any reason you are unable to provide a copy of your certificate, you will need to ask a representative from the school where you are teaching to contact Capita Teachers' Pensions. Your employer should know how to do this via the Capita employer portal https://www.teacherspensions.co.uk/
• If do not have QTS or QTLS, you will need evidence completion of a Level 5 qualification (any subject). For International applicants, you will need to apply for a UK ENIC Statement of Comparability https://enic.org.uk/Qualifications/SOC/Default.aspx to demonstrate your Level 5 qualification is comparable to UK qualifications.

Laura Saunders, Lead Facilitator, delivered a webinar consisting of a 30 minute presentation about the School Leader Programme followed by a Q&A session.

The presentation looks at:

• Who the School Leader Programme is for?
• What will you learn on the programme?
• How is the programme delivered?
• What are the benefits of completing the qualification?
• The Apprenticeship Levy funding available

The slides used during the presentation can be downloaded here.

Our School Leader Programme dual award includes the National Professional Qualification for Senior Leadership (NPQSL). For more information about NPQSL click here.

Best Practice Network is one of the leading providers of NPQSL nationally and the quality of our provision is rated ‘Exceptional’ by the DfE’s external quality assurance agent.

You can view our performance against the national metrics here.