'I found this to be one of the best leadership programmes in terms of work-life balance.'
'I’ve been at Blackburn College for nearly 10 years. Throughout that time, they’ve showed me that they valued me by supporting me to engage with continual professional development (CPD) and the best CPD you can do is a National Professional Qualification (NPQ).
I wanted to go on the National Institute’s NPQSL because of its local reputation and because it’s based in Blackburn. The schools involved in setting it up are known for their leadership focus and are some of the flagship schools in the country.
The Further Education (FE) sphere can feel quite separate from primary and secondary contexts, and not that many colleagues have heard of NPQs so they tend to look at different qualifications, but you can’t beat an NPQ. They’re fantastically well recognised both nationally and internationally and great for your own employability.
FE is a little bit niche too, but the NPQSL was totally applicable to me. In my experience, our facilitator knew the cohort so well and went out of her way to tailor content, even if it was just making the examples or discussion points about colleges. Whether primary, secondary or colleges, we’re all facing the same challenges, particularly if we’re working in some of the most deprived areas of the country.
I enjoyed my NPQSL so much that I hadn’t even had the results before I started my NPQH. I decided to do the programmes back-to-back because I felt like I had the capacity to do it, and the zeal. When you go on these programmes, everyone involved has that zeal, so when you’re in that learning environment it supercharges it. Also, I’m very aware that funding is getting tighter, so I didn’t want to risk missing my chance. I’d like to do NPQSENCo next.
To be honest, I found this to be one of the best leadership programmes in terms of work-life balance. You can choose how you learn: you can do the self-studies bit by bit or all in one go. There’s only one assessment within a two-week period so the only time I felt any pressure was right at the end. I thought it was very, very manageable.
If you read education research online it can be quite abstract, but the national institute brings it to life. It contextualises all the theory and brings it to life, making it so much easier to understand and then apply in your school. I’ve taken part in other programmes where the theory is dry, but this was far from it. The leaders facilitating the programme gave me so much wisdom and advice, some of them had 30 years’ experience and I learned a lot from them.
Although there was a lot to learn on the programme, it was all digestible. We didn’t spend hours combing through the research, it was snippets, short and snappy bullet points and key strategies. You leave the sessions with a clear focus of what you need to do, it isn’t like your head’s spinning. It’s all really clear.
For me, the biggest impact the programme had was knowledge gained. There’s so much to learn about governance. It removed glass ceilings for me and raised my aspirations. Then there’s sharing ideas with the group and going back to school with things you can use immediately; I went back and looked at our targets based on our quality of internal education review and I’ll use that data to look at what else I can implement to bring about improvement.
The National Institute’s NPQs have allowed me to create an educational context where I can have more impact in terms of progress. Working in one of the most deprived areas of the country, that improves children’s life chances, their opportunities and their employability.
I’ve already encouraged more leaders in our college, and in our local area, to engage with NPQ programmes because these are the learners that need it the most. I would 100% recommend them to everyone and tell them not to delay. Get on these quick while they’re still funded!'
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