Full NPQ scholarships, covering the entire cost of the qualification, are available for all colleagues working in state-funded schools, across all phases. As well as state-funded schools, all state-funded organisations that offer 16 to 19 places in England are eligible for full NPQ scholarships.

There is no limit to how many scholarships a single school can receive but please bear in mind that NPQ participants will attend face-to-face events during term time as part of the course. Online-only NPQ delivery is available to candidates on request.

Scholarships have been confirmed for the Autumn NPQ intake as part of the government’s long-term education recovery plan.

From autumn 2022, organisations eligible to access scholarships include:

• State-funded schools
• State-funded 16 to 19 organisations
• Independent special schools
• Virtual schools (local authority run organisations that support the education of children in care)
• Hospital schools not already included in other categories of eligible organisations
• Young offender institutions

Local authority employed supply teachers will also be able to access scholarships.

The department has updated the Targeted Support Fund offer for the 2023 to 2024 academic year to further incentivise state-funded schools and state-funded 16-19 educational settings in England to participate in NPQs.

For each teacher or leader they employ who takes an NPQ in the 2023 to 2024 academic year:

• State-funded primary schools with one to 150 pupils will receive a grant payment of £800
• State-funded primary schools with more than 150 pupils will receive a grant payment of £200
• State-funded secondary schools and state-funded 16 to 19 educational settings with one to 600 pupils will receive a grant payment of £200

Targeted support funding is not available for participants taking the Early Headship Coaching Offer (EHCO) unless they're also taking another NPQ course.

If you work in a school, you can search the Get Information About Schools (GIAS) database to check how many pupils are recorded for your school.

If you work in a 16 to 19 education setting, you can check the list of 16 to 19 organisations eligible for targeted support funding in the academic year 2023 to 2024.

Outstanding Leaders Partnership is a national, school-led partnership recently rated an ‘exceptional training provider’ by the DfE Quality Assurance Agent.  It is supported by Best Practice Network.

The quality review was based on the DfE National Professional Qualification (NPQ) Quality Framework.  The reviewers examined leadership and governance, face-to-face delivery, online courses, participant, facilitator and tutor support, assessment, organisation, quality control, marketing and recruitment, as well as the DfE metrics and impact. The reviewers identified exceptional performance in most areas of the Quality Framework. 

Read the full summary of our DfE Quality Review results here.

Our Impact

Outstanding Leaders Partnership has trained over 12,000 school leaders since 2017 and together with Best Practice Network is the leading training provider to education professionals in England.

In addition to the National Professional Qualifications, we offer school leader and early years apprenticeships, Early Years Initial Teacher Training, the National Award for SEN Coordination, Higher Level Teaching Assistant status and the level 4 diploma for School Business Managers. 

We are also excited to be able to add training and support for Early Career Teachers and their Mentors to our programme suite as a DfE approved national provider for the Early Career Framework reforms.

 We exceed a 93% pass rate across all our programmes

  We have exceeded DfE metrics for the NPQs for school leaders for the last 5 years – see metrics here

  97% of candidates would recommend us to a colleague

Key Principles of the Outstanding Leaders Partnership

Personalisation and choice

Flexible delivery to focus on the development needs of learners

Quality and relevance of qualification design and delivery

Empowering self-improvement and leadership impact

Contributing to the strategic improvement landscape

The partnership is supported by Best Practice Network (BPN), an accredited and award-winning national organisation that specialises in professional development training for schools and nurseries.

Why choose us?

By choosing us, schools can be confident that the programmes their staff will follow are founded upon the following four pillars:

1. The content of our programmes are based upon the latest research into effective teaching and leadership strategies.
   The processes underpinning our programme design encourage participants to rigorously explore and test these research findings in their own contexts.

2. We know that providing teachers and leaders with evidence of effective strategies for improving outcomes for children and young people is essential, but alone this is not sufficient if planned changes are to become deep-rooted and sustained. Leaders also need to understand the complexities involved when implementing change. Our programmes provide high-quality guidance on the tools and techniques available.
3. We constantly challenge our participants and ourselves to ask 'what difference is this making to children in your school?' This is a theme visited at regular intervals during our programmes and culminates in an individual end of programme impact review. We know our programmes do make a difference as evidenced through our Annual Reviews and through DfE Reviews which commended OLP's 'exceptional performance' against most areas of their Quality Framework.
4. By consistently choosing OLP, schools can be confident that their staff are developing shared understandings and a common professional language which will support, enrich, and enhance their school improvement strategies.