Guidance

Leading literacy national professional qualification

A course to help teachers learn how to effectively teach and promote literacy across the whole school, year group, key stage or phase.

From:
Department for Education
Published
20 September 2023
Last updated
16 December 2024 — See all updates

Applies to England

Who this course is for

This course is for teachers and middle leaders who have, or want to have responsibilities for leading literacy across a school, year group, key stage or phase.

Overview

This one-year course will help you gain confidence and develop skills in:

  • running literacy improvement strategies
  • supporting colleagues who want to develop their pupils’ reading

This course will:

  • take 12 months to complete
  • involve an average of 1 to 2 hours of study each week
  • be a mix of self-study and group sessions
  • have a written assessment

Funding 

Teachers and school leaders in many state funded settings in England will be eligible for funding to cover their NPQ course fees, subject to eligibility criteria.

Eligibility for funding does not guarantee a place on a funded NPQ course.

Course content

This course covers how to support colleagues to develop all pupils’:

  • language capability and wider understanding of language
  • word reading
  • reading comprehension
  • writing skills

You’ll also learn how to:

  • contribute to effective professional development linked to teaching, curriculum and assessment across the school
  • design and implement literacy improvement strategies

Benefits for you and your school

Wider understanding of language

You’ll be able to use techniques from the course to help your school’s development of pupils’ language and vocabulary.

Practical skills to encourage reading

You’ll learn how to build a school-wide culture that promotes reading for pleasure.

Making use of existing resources

The course has been designed to ensure teachers responsible for leading literacy don’t need to create new resources.

Help with teaching phonics effectively

You’ll be able to support colleagues to develop all pupils’ word reading by ensuring the school uses systematic synthetic phonics methods.

Course structure

The course covers 6 topics, outlined in the course framework. Providers use this framework to design their course.

The course includes:

  • independent study
  • group coaching
  • face-to-face sessions with other participants

You’ll need to spend 1 to 2 hours a week working on this NPQ.

Providers

You can train with one of the following providers:

They work with delivery partners, such as teaching school hubs, to provide training.

Assessment

To get your NPQ accreditation, you’ll need to complete the course and pass a written assessment (1,500 words).

Apply

Learn how to apply for an NPQ.

Updates to this page

Published 20 September 2023
Last updated 16 December 2024 + show all updates

  1. Updated information about funding and removed one provider.

  2. Removed 'Education Development Trust' from the list of providers.

  3. Updated the funding section and the course start date, to autumn 2024.

  4. Updated the NPQ start date to February 2024.

  5. First published.

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