NPQ Early Years Leadership
Early Years Leadership – for leaders or aspiring leaders of Early Years
Generate Teaching Hub is proud to be working with Teach First to deliver this National Professional Qualification in Early Years Leadership to colleagues across Halton, Warrington and Wigan area.
The NPQ in Early Years Leadership is designed for leaders qualified to at least level 3 with a full and relevant qualification who are, or are aspiring to be:
- managers of private, voluntary and independent nurseries.
- headteachers of school-based or maintained nurseries.
- childminders with leadership responsibilities.
Visit the Teach First site for more detailed information.
Generate Teaching Hub is coordinating local cohorts of teachers to complete the NPQ, using experienced school leaders from our trust local school partners as facilitators. This means you get to learn alongside your peers and build local links of support, advice and ideas.
The frameworks for the NPQs from the very latest evidence and research into pedagogy, behaviour, curriculum and more. To best address the broad range of responsibilities of current and aspiring middle leaders, this is one of the suite of specialist NPQs that have been introduced which support alternate career development.
Key information on the NPQ in Early Years leadership includes:
- A 21-month programme (18 months’ delivery and three months for assessment) consists of a series of modules based on the DfE’s NPQ frameworks.
- Each module cycle features:
- Evidence-based online content to refresh and build knowledge, as well as exemplify what this looks like for your role and level of leadership
- A formative assessment task to support your learning
- A face-to-face seminar with a group of peers, facilitated by a serving school leader or Teach First Development Lead – you’ll analyse and reflect on the task and hear further examples of good practice
- The opportunity to record reflections and consolidate learning
- Towards the end of the programme, you’ll also take a module focused specifically on effective implementation, providing an opportunity to plan a strategic improvement, focused on your context and pupils.
What will teachers attending Early Years Leadership Learn?
You’ll develop expertise in the knowledge, skills and concepts for leading an Early Years setting. These include best practice around child development and additional and specialist educational needs, as well as culture, organisational management and partnerships you may make as the leader of an Early Years setting. Our content is informed by the best and most recent evidence and developed with input from serving leaders and subject matter experts.
With a practical focus to the programme, you will be supported to make small but important changes to your and others’ practice throughout the programme. This will conclude with the implementation module and practical implementation cycle of the programme.
Funding
There is some funding available for this NPQ for Spring 2025. The recent funding announcement, listing all available scholarships and eligibility, can be read here.
For this NPQ, teachers and leaders from state funded schools with the highest 50% of pupil premium pupils will be eligible for fully funded places, as well as early years and 16 to 19 educational settings identified as having high disadvantage.
There will be a cap on how many funded places will be made available, so we recommend submitted an application early to improve your chances of securing a funded place.
DfE messaging, including a list of eligible schools (made available early 2025) can be found here: Funding for national professional qualifications (NPQs) – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
How to Apply
1. To apply individual applicants must complete the application form here:
To confirm your application form you will be required to complete your registration on the DfE portal. The portal is currently closed and will re-open in summer 2024. Following successful receipt of an application, we will invite you to register on the DfE portal once it reopens.
