NPQ Case Studies

National Professional Qualification in Leading Teacher Development (NPQLTD) 

In this article, we focus on a current cohort of NPQLTD – they are halfway through the course and have just completed the second of the three face to face days.

This session, preceded by Implementation on Day 1 and followed by Delivery on Day 3, focused on Designing Effective Teacher Development and was based around these session statements from the LTD framework:

Learn That:

• Teaching quality is a crucial factor in raising pupil attainment
• Effective professional development is likely to involve a lasting change in teachers' capabilities or understanding so that their teaching changes.
• Professional development should be developed using a clear theory of change, where facilitators understand what the intended educational outcomes for teachers are, and how these will subsequently impact pupil outcomes. Ideally, they should check whether teachers learn what was intended.
• More effective professional development is likely to be designed to build on the existing knowledge, skills and understanding of participants.
• The content of professional development programmes should be based on the best available evidence on effective pedagogies and classroom interventions and aim to enhance capabilities and understanding in order to improve pupil outcomes.

Learn How to:

Select evidence-based approaches and design effective professional development by:

● Breaking down complex CPD objectives into constituent components and scaffolding tasks around them, whilst ensuring that teachers can reconstruct the components back into a whole through their understanding of the underlying principles behind a particular approach.

Avoid creating unnecessary workload by:

● Making use of well-designed frameworks and resources instead of creating new resources (e.g. sources of subject knowledge, the Early Career Framework and associated core induction programme for early career teachers, ITT Core Content Framework, suite of National Professional Qualifications).

This is what three of our delegates fed back after today:

Within my current leadership role and in preparation for the increasing responsibilities of my role as an ITT mentor, I embarked upon NPQLTD. I have found the resources and human interaction of the face to face sessions valuable in understanding the active ingredients of teacher development opportunities – Amanda, Primary

Having engaged in the course, I developed a better understanding of how to plan effective CPD. I have relaunched CPD in school and have developed my own confidence in leading this area. I felt able to apply for a Deputy Headship in which part of the role was leading inspirational teaching and learning. The learning from the course so far gave me additional knowledge and confidence and I secured the role - Kate, Primary

The course allows for protected time to engage with the research and to network as it is so useful to hear about different settings. NPQLTD has been vital in supporting my role as Deputy Head of ECT and ITT teachers – Tracey, Secondary

Please find the course flyer below for further information.