For leaders who are, or are aspiring to be, managers of private, voluntary and independent nurseries, headteachers of school-based or maintained nurseries, or childminders with leadership responsibilities.
Our NPQEYL programme is in partnership with Pen Green Centre.
NPQEYL brochure
Duration: 18 months (plus 3 months for summative assessment process)
Hours of study: 81
Cost: Free to those who meet the scholarship eligibility criteria. The cost for school or self-funded participants outside of the criteria is £1,148
Please be aware that during the 18-month duration of the NPQ for Early Years Leadership, you may be expected to travel to and attend up to four half-day face-to-face events hosted by your Delivery Partner. Your Delivery Partner will aim to schedule these events to be of minimal disruption to your role (and setting, where appropriate). To support them in doing so, we recommend that you detail any preferences regarding training event attendance within your application form (for example, if you would welcome twilight or weekend training events).
Scholarship eligibility criteria:
- Teachers and leaders, employed in state-funded schools in England. This may include nurseries within schools, or local authority nursery schools.
- Early Years practitioners and leaders that work in early years settings in independent schools that provide free early years entitlement places.
- Early Years practitioners and leaders, employed at childcare providers registered on the Ofsted Early Years Register:
- providing childcare on non-domestic premises (people or organisations - providing care for individual children in premises that are not someone’s home. e.g., nurseries, pre-schools, holiday clubs and other group-based settings)
- providing childcare on domestic premises (providers where four or more people look after children together in a home that is not the child’s own).
- Early Years practitioners and leaders, working as:
- Childminders, registered on the Ofsted Early Years Register (where the care takes place in a home that is not the child’s own)
- Childminders, registered with an Ofsted-registered Childminder Agency, caring for early years children.

For school leaders who are, or aspire to be, an executive headteacher or to have a CEO role within a school trust with responsibility for leading several schools.
NPQEL brochure
Duration: 18 months (plus 3 months for summative assessment process)
Hours of study: 87 including 6 hours of 1:1 coaching
Cost: Free to those who meet the scholarship eligibility criteria. The cost for school or self-funded participants outside of the criteria is £3,995
Scholarship eligibility criteria:
- are, or are aspiring to be, an executive headteacher or have a school trust CEO role with responsibility for leading several schools
- work in a state-funded school or a state-funded organisation that offers 16-19 places in England
Please note that our NPQEL programme will be delivered centrally via Education Development Trust, rather than via delivery partners. Our next NPQEL cohort will commence study in February 2023.

For school leaders who are, or aspire to be, a headteacher or head of school with responsibility for leading a school.
NPQH brochure
Duration: 18 months (plus 3 months for summative assessment process)
Hours of study: 81
Cost: Free to those who meet the scholarship eligibility criteria. The cost for school or self-funded participants outside of the criteria is £1,984
Scholarship eligibility criteria:
- are, or are aspiring to be, a headteacher or head of school with responsibility for leading a school
- work in a state-funded school or a state-funded organisation that offers 16-19 places in England
OR:
- are a headteacher or head of school with responsibility for leading a school
- are in the first 24 months of headship
- work in a state-funded school or a state-funded organisation that offers 16-19 places in England
NPQH applicants can also apply for our Early Headship Coaching Offer (EHCO). This programme is tailored to your needs and suitable for any stage of NPQH study.
The EHCO will enable you to apply NPQH knowledge and skills to your own context, thrive through building support networks alongside main NPQH groups and sustain your development using social and psychological resources for leadership. Full funding for the EHCO is available for eligible participants. Click here to find out more about the EHCO.

For school leaders who are, or aspire to be, a senior leader with cross-school responsibilities.
NPQSL brochure
Duration: 18 months (plus 3 months for summative assessment process)
Hours of study: 81
Cost: Free to those who meet the scholarship eligibility criteria. The cost for school or self-funded participants outside of the criteria is £1,148
Scholarship eligibility criteria:
- are, or are aspiring to be, a senior leader with cross-school responsibilities
- work in a state-funded school or a state-funded organisation that offers 16-19 places in England
