npqsl application personal statement examples

Special Education and Inclusive Learning

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NPQSL: Final Project

Completing the npqsl final assessment.

Updated June 2019: Following the completion of my NPQML (after 2 attempts) In April 2018 I began the National Professional Qualification for Senior Leaders (NPQSL) . I didn’t find the NPQSL activities or face to face days as engaging as the NPQML but the process overall was very similar.

During the NPQSL I only wrote one post whilst this whole blog was set up because of the ML. I did write a case study and a lot of posts are outcomes of the project I completed for the NPQSL. At Canterbury Christ Church University’s SNIPCC conference I presented part of the underlying research

A lot was re-covering aspects of leadership roles from the NPQML. One session that was particularly challenging was a grilling by a panel consisting of a headteacher, a finance guru and a governor on a fictional school improvement plan. This, as it turned out was good training for a recent OFSTED inspection. People will find a hole in your plan and hammer you! I have since undertaken this exact task during a “Goldfish Bowl” task during an interview process so that was useful practice. I have had three interviews (1 successful fortunately) no one has asked about the NPQSL . It is listed on my CV so may have been a factor in selection for interview.

The Project

The focus of the NPQSL course is very much on your project, planning and driving it. The aim is to enhance your leadership in education and it does allow you to focus your efforts on a project that can have a real impact on your school.

After 18 months of working on the project, I completed and submitted it, and waited. I checked my email Friday night and there it was:

Dear Participant, Following your recent assessment, your result and feedback are now available. You can access your result and feedback on the EMLC website ( www.emlc.co.uk )

The outcome of this opening could ruin my weekend. I text my colleague to say the results were in and she said she was going to wait until the morning. As I like to live life on the edge with pounding heart and fuzzy vision (I’m only mildly over-dramatising this) I logged in to the NPQSL website.

No Blog Post would be complete without top tips so here are my top 11 tips for completing your NPQSL:

Top Ten Eleven Tips for Getting your NPQSL Completed.

Have a clear aim to your NPQSL project.
Adapt the Plan if needed.
Reflect on mistakes.
Don’t hold back on celebrating successes.
Collaborate outside your school.
Keep evidence as you go.
Evidence of every impact, charts, emails, tables.
Choose a good team to support your project and prove buy-in.
Don’t shrink evidence below standard font.
Your leadership drove the improvement. No modesty.
Your sponsor comments are vital reinforcement.

The Project Submission

I want to share my completed NPQSL project. Examples online are few and far between. I have had to redact some parts and evidence for obvious reasons and being a SEN provision my focus is unlikely to be the same but I hope the content and style should give you some pointers. All I ask is that you take the time to share Inclusiveteach.com with your colleagues. If you click the affiliate link below and buy anything from amazon it helps pay for hosting costs!

Download my Redacted Final NPQSL Project submission

Infographic Completing your NPQSL NPQML project final assessment

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National Professional Qualification for School Leadership

Author biography.

@TeacherToolkit

How do you know what you are doing, if you are not supported or know what to do?

It is a common approach in our classrooms that when teaching pupils, we share success criteria and exemplar work to support the learning. However, it appears that it is hard to find the same support when teachers are conducting their own action research…

Several years ago I was supporting about 20 middle leaders achieve their (NPQSL) national professional qualification for school leadership . At the time, it was hard to source any exemplary material to share with colleagues, to support and guide them on their journey. My networks at the time did not have the answers, so I took it upon myself to ask this question on social media. Almost 4 years later, I still receive requests from readers seeking the same advice …

You can read more about the content and assessment framework on the Department for Education website, and I would suggest this is your starting point if you have no support from your school or provider! The document is 51 pages long and you will need a thoughtful CPD leader in your school to be able to understand the details.

You will need to be able to evidence a range of knowledge and skills (page 18 onwards).

Strategy and improvement

Analyse performance data to identify the causes of variation within a school and against comparative schools
Ensure data collected is necessary, proportionate and manageable for staff
Work with the governing board effectively to identify and agree approaches to school priorities
Design and implement sustainable change across a school

Teaching and curriculum excellence

Use a range of techniques to gather evidence on teaching quality and the impact of interventions across a school
Reduce variation within the school and against comparative schools by improving pupil progress, attainment and behaviour
Develop and maintain a rich, high-quality school curriculum

Leading with impact

Lead, motivate and influence others, including beyond the line management chain, to deliver whole-school objectives
Develop a communications plan that promotes or defends the school’s performance, policies or decisions effectively

Working in partnership

Identify a range of local and national partners that can support school improvement
Put in place systems, processes or structures which facilitate knowledge transfer and shared best practice
Identify the most effective partnerships for improving pupil progress

Managing resources and risks

Deploy resources across a school effectively and efficiently to deliver school priorities
Monitor the use of resources across a school, identifying opportunities and pressures
Systematically identify, manage and mitigate risks to the school, its pupils and staff

Increasing capability

Identify excellent professional development practice
Identify talent within an organisation and put in place arrangements or tools to develop and retain it
Design professional development strategies, which engage all staff and anticipate future CPD needs

Health-warning

Sharing one example here could be perceived as best practice, so please take this example document as just an example, and not the best example. Although this example passed the NPQSL qualification, it is shared as a first-step in terms of understanding the dialogue and depth of evaluation required. I have only included the main document and not the supplementary evidence or annotations from the mentor.

I have attached an example below that you can download to use as a framework. I have much more behind-the-scenes, but I am reluctant to share them because achieving such a qualification should come from the support of the provider itself and your school mentor, and not from me.

What to plan for?

The greatest challenge I found in organising this across a large secondary school was ensuring that each individual selected the appropriate research – and that it was aligned with a suitable person within the school to regularly meet with them – on top of the usual appraisal and line management processes. Whether you choose someone outside of these remits, it is dependent on your own context and the resources available.

What I managed to achieve is written in more detail and was largely subject to a group of hard-working school leaders who could commit some additional time to meet with these middle leaders. We also built our own shadow-leadership team for professional development purposes – how do you know if you will be good at the next stage of your career if you don’t get to ‘have a go’ at the job itself?

Your success will be conditional on ‘how dogged you are’ as a middle leader, to pursue regular discussions, and of course how willing the school leader will be to support the individual in around the busy nature of school life …

I hope at least from sharing it here, it helps some teachers get started who may not have any support at all.

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NPQ application advice

When applying to one of the NPQ courses you will need to demonstrate your programme readiness and explain your motivations. We appreciate that it can be challenging to pinpoint this within 400 words and would like to share with you the elements that could be included in a strong response.

Programme readiness :

Please provide a specific, recent example to show how you are ready for the next step in school leadership.

Within your answer please consider:

How this example demonstrates your readiness to take the next step in school leadership
What skills you will focus on developing

A strong response will cover:

A specific and detailed example of why you are ready for the next step in leadership or if in post, clear reasons for what skills you want to improve in your current leadership role.
Clear links to how you want to use the NPQ to improve your practice and expand your personal impact to improve outcomes for children.
Examples of specific skills you’d like to develop.
Demonstrate your commitment to professional development; reflecting on the timing of the programme in relation to your progression; and recognises that the programme will accelerate your impact and address gaps in your knowledge.

Curriculum choice:

Throughout the programme, you will develop knowledge and skills in leadership to enable all pupils to succeed. You can see more information on these in the NPQ curriculum frameworks. From the list below, please choose one area you consider most important for you to develop in your role and explain how this will impact on pupils and staff at your school.

Teaching and learning (including curriculum and assessment)
Developing others
Behaviour and SEND
School and trust culture
Organisational management and leadership
Detailed reasons why you would like to develop one of the areas and how it will impact on pupils and staff at your school.
A reflection about your professional development and how your chosen area will develop your leadership.
Explore in-depth, detail how you are eager to develop an area and how you will be able to translate this learning at school to instigate positive change, explaining the practical impact you envision your completion of the programme will have on pupils and staff at your school.

Understanding and motivation :

Why would you like to complete the NPQ programme with Teach First? Please include details of how you will ensure you are able to fulfil the commitments of the programme as outlined in the form introduction. Within your answer, please consider:

Your understanding of the structure of the programme.
How taking part in the programme will impact on your development and progress.
The impact that you would hope to have on the Teach First vision.
Detail why you would like to complete a Teach First NPQ, showing a detailed understanding of what is included in the structure of the programme and how you would use this professional development opportunity to improve your practice and expand your personal impact to improve outcomes for children.
Specific examples of which stages of the NPQ programme they are interested in and ambitions to develop and progress their career in education.
How you are committed to staying in education.
Willingness to share good practice with others in the profession.
How you can impact on educational inequity (which links to the Teach First vision).

Apply here! We look forward to reviewing your application

If you would like to discuss your application further or your suitability for one of the NPQ courses, it would be a pleasure to assist. Please email Louise Crookshank at [email protected].

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