NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TEACHING

The National Institute of Teaching (NIoT) is run by the School-Led Development Trust, a charity, founded by four of the country’s leading school trusts: the Harris Federation, Outwood Grange Academies Trust, Oasis Community Learning and Star Academies, and supported by the Department for Education.

The Institute boosts the quality of teacher and leader development nationally by generating and interpreting research, applying the insights to the design and delivery of high-quality teacher and school leader development programmes, and sharing it all with the sector.

We have built a school-led movement, strengthening relationships and collaboration across the system.

Find out more about our National Professional Qualification (NPQ) programmes and how to apply by clicking here.

The new programme frameworks have been devised in collaboration with teachers, school leaders, academics, and an Expert Advisory Group. All frameworks have passed through an independent review by the EEF to verify that they are evidence-based and that the evidence has been interpreted with fidelity.

There are four leadership NPQs, covering senior leadership, headship, executive leadership and early-years leadership. And there are four NPQs for teachers and leaders who want to develop their expertise in specialist areas of teaching practice.

These include:

  • Leading Behaviour and Culture
  • Leading Teacher Development
  • Leading Teaching
  • Leading Literacy

As well as having a specialist qualification for ‘leading teacher development’, all qualifications include a strand dedicated to professional development. This will broaden the impact of the programmes by enabling those undertaking them to effectively develop their colleagues and build capability across their teams and schools.

The reformed suite of qualifications builds on the evidence base in the revised framework for Initial Teacher Training (ITT) and the implementation of the Early Career Framework (ECF). This forms the ‘golden thread’ running from ITT through to school leadership which grounds teacher and school leader development in the same core evidence-base and a shared language.

In contrast to the previous NPQs, the reformed suite of qualifications focus more on the key domains of leadership that teachers and school leaders need to thrive and less on generic leadership styles.

There is no longer an in-school project to complete alongside the training element of the programme. Participants will complete an open-book assessment in an eight-day set window within three months of completion requiring a structured 1000-1500-word response to a real multi-resource scenario/case-study.

As part of the government’s long-term education recovery plan, it was announced in May 2022 that funding for fully funded NPQ training scholarships will be available in academic years 2022 to 2023 and 2023 to 2024.

Teachers and leaders employed in state funded schools and state funded organisations that offer 16-19 places in England will be able to access a fully funded NPQ from Autumn 2021, to support teachers and pupils following the disruption to learning faced as a result of COVID-19.

Access to funding remains conditional on successful validation of participants’ registration information against Teaching Regulation Agency records, so you must ensure that the information supplied to your NPQ provider matches your teacher record. You can check and update your record via the Teaching Regulation Agency’ Teacher Self-Service Portal.

Targeted support funding

From October 2022, state-funded schools and state-funded 16 to 19 educational settings with 1 to 600 pupils will be paid £200 for each teacher or leader they employ who takes an NPQ.

Click here for more.