NPQEYL (National Professional Qualification for Early Years Leadership)
- Programme starts: Autumn 2025 (date TBD)
- Duration: 18 months
- Cost: £2,250
Interested in enrolling in this NPQ programme for Autumn 2025?
The first step is easy. Just let us know your interest by completing the NPQ Interest Form, and we will take you through the journey step-by-step.
This programme is for:
- Teachers and leaders aspired to lead a nursery as a manager of a PVI nursery, a headteacher of a school-based or maintained nursery or a childminder with leadership responsibilities.
What you will learn:
- Culture – you will establish and sustain an effective nursery culture by setting the strategic direction within a climate of mutual trust and respect, underpinned by evidence-based practice.
- Child development, curriculum and assessment – you will learn how to establish and support high quality early education in your nursery, underpinned by formative assessment and tailored to children’s needs.
- Additional and special educational needs and disabilities – you will learn how to ensure all children experience success, enabling colleagues to identify and meet individual needs.
- Professional development – you will ensure that colleagues engage in effective and supportive professional development, making use of existing frameworks (including mentoring and coaching) to build upon existing knowledge and skills to improve outcomes for children.
- Organisational management – you will learn how to ensure the protection and safety of children and colleagues through the establishment of effective systems and processes, managing human and financial resources and fulfilling all statutory duties to enable a sustainable and thriving nursery community.
- Implementation – you will learn how to plan, deliver and sustain change successfully within your context by understanding the stages of implementation and aligning it with wider nursery improvement priorities.
- Working in partnership – you will effectively work in partnership with all stakeholders, including parents carers, external agencies and services.
Interested in exploring other NPQ Leadership Programmes?
Click on any of the programmes below to learn more.
NPQH (NPQ Headship)
Teachers and leaders spired to lead a school as a head of school or headteacher.
Cost: £3,250
What’s unique about our programme:
In addition to the DfE required content, our programme includes an Implementation Project which provides you with a great opportunity to reflect on and apply what you have learned throughout the programme in the context of your school, aligning to the EEF process model for school improvement (not assessed).
Programme route map:
Interested in the detailed structure, timeline and the hours you can expect to invest in the programme? Click on the below route map to learn more.
Assessment and accreditation:
To receive the DfE accreditation, you will need to (1) ensure 90% engagement in the programme throughout, and (2) pass the open-book summative case study task scheduled for an eight-day period following the programme completion.
Interested in exploring other NPQ Leadership Programmes?
Click on any of the programmes below to learn more.
NPQH (NPQ Headship)
Teachers and leaders spired to lead a school as a head of school or headteacher.
Cost: £3,250
Benefits to you:
Our participants have outlined many benefits to studying for an NPQEYL. Overall, they outline how the programme has given them professional confidence, time and space to reflect on themselves about the kind of leader they want to become and increased knowledge in their chosen area of study.
You will be able to:
- Develop the skills, confidence and knowledge to implement new professional development initiatives successfully through a supported implementation project.
- Learn how to promote a culture of a collaborative environment through understanding relational leadership.
- Support staff through coaching and mentoring skills.
- Cultivate leadership skills which are responsive to the needs of children, families and adults you work with in your own unique early year's context.
- Assess your current knowledge on child development and identify areas in which you need to develop your understanding.
- Learn about the skills of being a good early year’s leader and understand how leaders adapt to different situations.
- Access research and materials and have many opportunities to discuss a variety of pedagogical approaches and models with other colleagues.
Benefits for your nursery:
We know that all children need early years professionals who are committed to their care and education and are confident learners themselves. Our programme has been developed with early years experts to:
- Create professionally confident early years teachers, practitioners and leaders.
- Grow the next generation of early years leaders with the skills and knowledge to use the evidence-base for the benefit of their children and families.
- Retain the best early years professionals who are excellent, collaborative role models for their nurseries and communities.
- Inspire early years leaders who can harness the power of rich learning environments for all children no matter the current circumstances.
Watch: Laura Yandell, Deputy Head, AISL Harrow Hong Kong International School, discusses how NPQ programmes help develop a strong leadership pipeline for the school.
Interested in exploring other NPQ Leadership Programmes?
Click on any of the programmes below to learn more.
NPQH (NPQ Headship)
Teachers and leaders spired to lead a school as a head of school or headteacher.
Cost: £3,250
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