National Professional Qualification for Headship

This course is designed for school leaders who are, or are aspiring to be, a headteacher or head of school with responsibility for leading a school. 
 
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. Each of the modules takes 12 weeks to complete. As part of each module, you will undertake some online study (approximately 2 hours per week of the 12 weeks), participate in two live interactive webinars (90 minutes each), and attend a face-to-face session (half day).  
 
As part of the online learning, you will have the opportunity to engage with relevant research and evidence, learn how leaders in other schools carry out their role and participate in discussion forum activities with everyone else completing the same qualification as you. You will also complete a series of activities to build a personal online learning journal. This will record your progress, help you to reflect on the new knowledge, understanding and skill you are acquiring and act as a repository for all of the key information you don’t want to forget.  
 
You will be expertly guided through your modules with support from your two facilitators and your in-school coach. 
 
The key topics covered over the course of the four modules are:

• School / college culture
• Teaching 
• Curriculum and assessment 
• Behaviour
• Additional and special educational needs and disabilities
• Professional development
• Organisational management 
• Implementation
• Working in partnership
• Governance and accountability

With each explored through the lens of the work of a headteacher. 
 
Within each module 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. 

Find out further information about assessments

UK - £1975 + VAT

Funding Information Autumn 2026 - Scholarship funding is available for the NPQH programme for teachers and leaders in publicly-funded schools (including maintained nursery schools) and 16 to 19 educational settings in England.

Funding for these courses is also available to:

• hospital schools
• young offender institutions
• local authority virtual school headteachers, staff in a defined deputy headteacher role and staff in direct teaching roles
• other local authority staff in direct teaching roles - for example, local authority supply or peripatetic teachers

Full guidance on funding for the Autumn 2026 NPQ cohort can be found here.

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 18-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. 

"I have been working on our behaviour policy as a result of the course. My coach has sat with me to understand the research that we have looked at, and to discuss what needs to be adapted on our very old policy. She has enabled me to use the knowledge from the course to enhance the school. "

"The quality of the face-to-face sessions and the webinars is fantastic, both from the facilitators and their content."  
 
"I am better informed about evidence-based research to implement change and about managing change carefully."
 
"The face-to-face sessions have been invaluable. I have enjoyed the professional dialogue with many different leaders on the course. The online platform is a good learning tool and has some rich reading material that has really made me reflect on my skills and abilities as a leader." 
 
"Overall, the course is encouraging me to develop my leadership styles. It is helping me to see school growth and development from a different perspective which is helping to create a path into the future for our school."

" It has been really useful to go back into school and discuss aspects of what we have been covering with the head. He even commented that an NPQH refresher course would be something he'd be interested in as I'm going back with thoughts and ideas and discussing things that help us to keep at the forefront of good leadership and he is keen to know more about these."
 

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. 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