'It's really important that you don't skip stages of your development.'

'I've always loved being in schools. I love the environment; even as a kid, I loved all TV shows that were related to schools. I loved my languages teachers at school and wanted to be just like them. I moved into leadership to have more of an impact and bigger responsibilities, and that led me to the National Institute’s National Professional Qualification in Headship (NPQH).

I work in a lovely school; it’s a beautiful diamond in the rough. We have 45% of pupils on pupil premium and 25% of pupils with SEND and there’s a grammar school less than a mile away. So, everything is working against the school, and we need a lot of ambition in the building.

Because I lead on teacher training, I thought it was important to lead by example and make sure I’m continuing to develop my own practice. I wanted to be a headteacher from day one of my career, so that’s always been my long-term goal, but I want to feel prepared in the short term in case I need to deputise for any reason.

When I first came into my role, I tried to make a big change and it fell flat and almost blew up in my face. It was really humbling. If I’d have done the NPQ sooner, I’d have managed things completely differently. I learned a lot about how you approach change and how you take implementation step by step and not all at once. I'd kind of just railroaded in when I first got here. If you don’t roll something out properly, it’s wasted time and effort and I’m now more effective in my role as a result.

I've got a supportive SLT around me and have always been afforded time off to go to do external training. The self-study is challenging, but it's about setting time for yourself. I think that's really, really important: you have to give yourself the chance and the permission to prioritise it. I had to be quite strict with myself because I knew if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t get the most out of it.

That’s the benefit of the programme, that even though there are certain things at certain points, there is ongoing self-study that you can catch up on at your own pace here and there if you do fall behind.

I think it's really important to be research informed, and the national institute’s NPQs have great research underpinning them all. I’m a firm believer that we should be lifelong learners. I considered doing a masters, but an NPQ is more rooted in practice and is benefitting my career every day.

We have five members of staff doing NPQs at the minute. Because they’ve been so beneficial for me in my career, I’ve pushed colleagues towards them, especially those who’ve progressed into middle leadership quickly because they’ve showed great talent. It’s really important that you don’t skip stages of your development. We’re finding working on our craft so beneficial.

We’re all keen to do the NPQSENCO to make sure we’re being as inclusive as possible and meeting all the statutory guidance.

The NPQ has given me more confidence as a young senior leader. When we covered reading at a recent session, I felt like I knew what I was talking about because I’ve had some recent success in my reading intervention programme at school. I’d taken into account stakeholders and things like that. So that felt great!

I’m a better leader because of the NPQ. If I’m a more confident leader, that confidence trickles down to others that I work with. I can see their confidence bubbling as a result of the programmes they’re on, and I love that. It’s so positive.'

_____________________________________________________________________________

Register your interest in our NPQs to be the first to know when the November 2026 application window opens.