We’re all facing the same barriers: Jenni Roe on the relevance of NPQs for further education colleges
“I did the NPQ in Leading Literacy because literacy has been my passion for many years. Many of our students haven’t opted into English- they’re doing resits- and I strongly believe that if all staff speak positively about literacy, students are more likely to engage with our lessons positively too.
It was interesting to see through the course that the same barriers exist in other settings, even in primary and secondary schools where there’s a bigger focus on English; I realised the barriers and challenges are similar.”
What was your experience of the programme as someone working in FE?
“At first, I didn’t quite know where to put myself. In the first few sessions, there was a lot of group discussion and people on my table were surprised I was FE. Some had never encountered teachers from FE before, which was fine as it was good for me to share my experiences and get new perspectives on them.
Being able to network and talk to other teachers was really valuable. It made me think about how I could approach things differently to work for FE. I remember sitting with a woman from a design tech background who was setting out her plans, and I realised I could implement a similar plan because I was facing the same barriers.
That was really positive and reassuring because I feel like FE is sometimes on the outskirts in the education world and when we do incredibly important work to give people of all ages an opportunity to re-enter education, move on from previous negative learning experiences and develop essential skills for life and work.
What was really interesting was learning about the jump in literacy teaching from year six to year seven and what can get lost. I could relate, because our college had just been given funding to work with local schools in a deprived area to bridge the gap in literacy from school to college. Schools almost feel like they've failed their students when they come to us, but the work we have done with the schools has highlighted we all deal with the same challenges in developing literacy skills in young people.
Learning more about the earlier key stage curriculum, which I’m not as familiar with, was valuable. It didn’t matter that I was from FE because other teachers' experiences were interesting and it's always good to speak to other teachers, because it’s such a tough job!”
Were there many other people from colleges on the programme? Did you find all the course content applicable?
“There are a couple on the course I’m on now, but in my first NPQ course it was just me. In terms of making it applicable, it was kind of down to me to make that fit. I know schools and academies are top-down and they all follow the same path. But in my job, I can influence the top-down, and every college is different. That's the beauty of FE.
A lot of the time, we decide what we do as a department with our students at the heart of any curriculum development we carry out, and we ask the senior management team (SMT) to support us. So, on the course, while others were saying ok, they’re all going to do this, I was trying to think “Where does that then fit in my college and how can we be supported in this?”
In one activity, we had to script what you were going to say to staff or to SMT, and that was really good because I listened to examples from others and I thought about how I could word that to suit our college, because we are still facing the same barriers and it's still the same skills we are trying to develop. I just have to factor in our priorities as a college, because they vary from department to department.”
How did you balance it with your workload in your college?
“I just worked around what I could do because I'm still teaching. That’s the reason why I've done these courses; I’m going to apply what I’ve learnt to my own teaching and also to support my team. I just made it work and would use half terms to catch up. When the assignments were coming up, I blocked off time to work on them.
The days where I go to the seminars were fine, it didn't impact anything, and I have the full support of my SMT. So yeah, just make it work as best you can. Once I understood how the modules work, I realised how flexible they can be - I downloaded the PDFs and I could work at my own pace and then register that I had done them online. That really helped and made it flexible for me.”
What impact did you think the NPQ had on you and on your pupils?
“It helped me look at different strategies in a different way, and it's always good to get out of work and focus purely on continuing professional development (CPD). It felt like ring-fenced time, where I could go to the seminars and I could do the online modules. I like doing strategic work so that was really positive, it freshened my push for it. Going forward, while in some ways it's still a long road, I've got lots of ideas that I’m planning to implement.
In terms of the students, we’ve changed things on a micro level and trialled them before rolling it out once we had evidence. For example, we brought in reading rulers, which have made a difference. And the bigger picture is coming slowly, starting this academic year, so by the summer 2026 we should see more of an impact.”
What motivated you to do a second NPQ?
“I did the first NPQ 2023-2024 and I’m coming to the end of a the second one in Leading Teacher Development. I just love supporting teachers. I love watching teaching. I think it's fascinating.
My thing has always been that if you think you're the ‘finished article’ at any stage of being a teacher, you just need to leave the profession because there’s always things to be learnt, always things you can improve on!
I think teacher development is just constant. I've got such diversely experienced teachers in my team, from someone teaching for 20 years to someone who literally qualified in the summer - and I love that because I get them working together and sharing their perspectives and experiences to ensure everyone always has a network of support in their peers.
Our college has a ‘teaching comes first’ culture, which is so important. Our teaching and learning department are incredible and we like to ‘grow our own’ - if you spot talent, you want to keep them, because it's so hard to retain staff.”
Would you recommend your NPQs to other FE colleagues?
“I think some people in my network are aware of funded places but it's mostly schools that know about it. I think staff feel ring-fenced trying to find CPD for FE. But then what I've learned through my experiences is you can make NPQs fit because the principles of it still apply regardless of where you work.
I found the NPQ in Leading Teacher Development easier to fit my role and sector, because teaching is teaching, regardless of age group. It's also been a good refresher on the fundamentals of teaching because what they talk about in the sessions is a lot of the time similar to what my Early Career Teacher (ECT) and Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) teachers are or have been covering on their qualifications, and so that reminder coming through in the discussions we have is really important for the whole team.
I would recommend them definitely, but I don’t think they're widely known about in the FE sector, most teachers probably just associate them with schools.
The flexibility is really important, plus networking is key; that's the bit I get the most out of. The master classes and the school visits might not be in a FE college, but watching people teach is still valuable because you're still able to critique and reflect and review.”