Develop as a specialist in your role

Deepen your understanding of the core principles underpinning mastery approaches to teaching mathematics.

Extend your knowledge of how children learn the subject.

Gain practical tools and guidance to lead your school’s approach.

Collaborate with other leaders in similar roles.

Gain the skills for successful leadership

Build the skills to effectively develop others and lead a powerful whole-school mathematics strategy.

Learn to support colleagues effectively

Develop the skills to help colleagues develop mathematics across the curriculum – without creating unnecessary workload.

Learn how to help colleagues develop evidence-informed mathematical teaching, focused on improving classroom teaching and outcomes for all pupils.

Free one-to-one support and coaching

If you work in a school serving disadvantaged communities, you can apply for our free one-to-one support which runs alongside the NPQ in Leading Primary Mathematics (NPQLPM).

This free support comes in the form of an experienced former school leader who will coach and guide you throughout the programme.

You can apply for this extra support in your application.

Join a passionate network striving for educational equality

Share experiences with other school leaders, learn how they’ve faced similar challenges and build a professional network that will support you throughout your career.

Is the NPQLPM programme for me?

This programme is for teachers who have, or are aspiring to have, responsibilities for leading mathematics across a school.

How does the NPQLPM work?

This 15-month programme (12 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, and 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

This cycle repeats throughout the programme, with implementation a consideration in every module.

You’ll also take a module focused specifically on effective implementation. This provides an opportunity to plan a strategic improvement, focused on your context and pupils.

There will be ongoing support through a seminar group and discussion forum.

You’ll be required to put learning into practice and plan the implementation of an improvement in your setting based on the NPQ programme you’re working towards.

You’ll identify the focus, which must be level appropriate. This improvement should be a stretching professional development target within your existing role.

For aspiring specialist and leadership programme members, your school/employer should support you to implement an improvement at the aspiring level.

The allocation of learning time is five hours, so any implementation focus should be feasible within the timeframe.

What will I learn?

You’ll develop the knowledge, skills and expertise that underpin effective leadership of mathematics.

This will include leading and guiding others to develop their approach to ‘mastery mathematics’, supporting pupils to build a deep understanding of concepts, secure number sense, and positive attitudes towards mathematics.

Our content is informed by the best and most recent evidence and developed with input from school leaders and subject matter experts.

Our programmes have a practical focus.

You’ll be supported to make small but important changes to your and others’ practice throughout the programme.

To find out more about the DfE’s NPQLPM content framework, you can download it below.

 

What are the training commitments?

The programme is designed to fit around your teaching and other school commitments.

Over the course of the whole programme (spread over three terms), you’ll undertake around 55 hours of learning.

This includes a combination of seminars, online learning modules, conferences and focused work on implementation.

How will I be assessed?

The assessment process for all NPQs has been refreshed to reduce the workload burden on teachers while still providing an opportunity to apply their knowledge.

At the end of the programme, you’ll complete your summative NPQ assessment during a fixed eight-day window. We’ll share detailed dates with you before the start of the programme.

Your assessment submission is a written response to a case study related to the content covered in your NPQ. It's an opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the NPQ framework.

It will represent a likely situation that a leader might encounter at the relevant NPQ qualification level. The summative assessment is designed to give you an opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of the relevant NPQ framework and how this can be applied to school improvement.

You must pass the summative assessment to pass the NPQ.

To be eligible to complete the assessment, you'll need to have engaged with at least 90% of the course content, both online and in person. Diagnostic tasks contribute 30%, reflective tasks 20%, and attendance at events 50% to this total.

In the eight-day window, you will provide a written response of a maximum of 1,500 words for the case study. It is an ‘open book’ approach, so you can refer to your course materials when completing your response.

A limited number of DfE scholarship funded places will be available to teachers and leaders from:  

• the 50% of schools with the highest proportion of students who attract pupil premium funding  
• the 16 to 19 educational settings identified as having high disadvantage  

Non-funded places: £899