National Professional Qualification for Early Years Leadership

This course is designed for leaders qualified to at least Level 3 with a full and relevant qualification 1 who are, or are aspiring to be, managers of Private, Voluntary and Independent nurseries, headteachers of school-based or maintained nurseries, or childminders with leadership responsibilities. 
 
If you aren’t sure if this is the right NPQ for you look at the pages for the other courses or contact us for a personal chat via enquiries@llse.org.uk 

The course is comprised of four modules. As part of each module, you will undertake some face-to-face training and tutoring (approximately 4 hours), some online training (approximately 5 hours) and carry out some self-study (approximately 11 hours). 

You will be expertly guided through your modules by your facilitators.

The key topics covered in the course are: 

• Culture
• Child development, curriculum and assessment 
• Additional and special educational needs and disabilities
• Professional development
• Organisational management
• Implementation
• Working in partnership

Throughout the course, there are opportunities for you to complete formative assessment activities which will enable you and your facilitator to reflect on and evaluate the progress you make whilst completing the qualification.  

Formative assessment takes place throughout the programme, helping you to understand the progress you are making, and facilitators to adapt your learning experiences. 
There are two overall criteria to achieving the qualification:

• Engagement with a minimum of 90% of the course 
• Successful completion of the summative assessment

Summative assessment takes the form of a 2500-word response to a case study, completed in a single 8-day window at the end of your programme. The assessment will give you the opportunity to demonstrate how you would deploy the knowledge, skills and understanding gained through the NPQ to lead and implement a specific aspect of change. 

Recruitment for the autumn 2025 NPQ cohort has now closed.

Details of the next cohort will be shared when available. Guidance on funding for the autumn 2026 NPQ cohort will be published by the DfE in spring 2026 and will be updated here.

LLSE is delivering the NPQEYL in partnership with Education Development Trust.

As with any professional development the more you put into the process of learning the more you will be able to take from it. This qualification requires commitment and time as well as a willingness to try new things, make mistakes and extend your knowledge, skill and understanding. We have designed the course with flexibility in mind and whilst you might complete the online elements of the course on your own and at a time which best suits you and your wellbeing, you will be part of both a local and national cohort of other teachers and leaders studying exactly as you are, we refer to this as your community of practice. You will gain most from the course by seizing each opportunity to engage with your community of practice – an enquiring mind is a must.

We recognise that each school and college, whilst similar to others will operate with its own unique culture, set of strengths and challenges, it is for this reason that we have engaged with practitioners across the country to provide contextualised case study input and allow you to see how the ideas covered in the course work in the real world. This means we welcome collaboration with you as the course participant to create new content for others to learn from, so, as you complete the course, if you think you have a case study within your own school or college, get in touch and let us celebrate what you and your colleagues are achieving.

In short we expect that participants are teachers and leaders who will be able to meet all of the following criteria:

• Active engagement in every aspect of the programme - face-to-face and online elements 
• A commitment to accurate, evidence-informed self-evaluation and reflection                       
• The ability to proactively arrange and participate in coaching sessions                                 
• A commitment to submit a 1,500-word assessment within 8 calendar days of it being set at the end of the programme   
• A commitment to thoughtfully engage with evaluations about their entire programme learning experience that will support our continued quality improvement 

The taught elements of your course will take place over a 12-month period. This will be followed by the completion of your summative assessment which must be submitted within an 8-day period following completion of your course. The whole of the assessment process including submission of your summative assessment, marking and moderation will take a total of 3 months. 

We will share our feedback with you very soon.

Recruitment for the Autumn 2026 Cohort is now open.

Applications to join this cohort, either with a funded/non funded place are now open. Funded places are limited, and we would encourage you to start your application early by following this link.

DfE registration
All NPQ applicants are required to register with the Department for Education (DfE). This service is now open,  and you can start your registration here. *Please ensure that you select Teach First as your Lead Provider when registering with the DfE for this pogramme.

Everyone applying for an NPQ (regardless of funding pathway) will be required to have a One Login account. We recommend people set this up now to avoid any delays in the registration process. You can do that by visiting  Register to get started with GOV.UK One Login - GOV.UK One Login