A Post 16 perspective on our NPQs

From NPQ Leading Teacher Development to NPQ Senior Leadership: A Post 16 College Perspective

East Manchester Teaching School Hub delves into the transformative journeys of participants who have made the leap from Specialist NPQs to Leadership NPQs, sharing insights into how these programmes benefit emerging leaders and contribute to school-wide successes, succession planning and retention.

We spoke to Nicola Barthorpe at Ashton Sixth Form College to discuss her journey through her NPQLTD onto an NPQSL and how this supported her development and confidence in a college setting.

“I sit on the T & L team, but since completing my NPQ have played a much bigger role in the SEP process where we complete “deep dives” of departments, this has seen me carryout observations of colleagues as well as student focus groups.”

Why did you choose an NPQ programme with UCL and East Manchester Teaching School Hub?

I wanted to develop my awareness and ability to work at a strategic level across college. My focus has always been around Quality of Education and new teachers. This course started just as I had picked up my new role as well as the introduction of the new statutory ECF. We also have a large number of non-statutory ECT’s and as a college we wanted to ensure there was a programme in place for them too, completing my NPQ allowed me to focus in on designing and implementing a successful programme for them as well.

What impact has the NPQ programme had?

“I have become more confident in my abilities as a manager due to this programme. I have definitely become better at sharing my thoughts and now feel I am well placed to discuss them. I am much more confident about my abilities to progressing towards a senior leadership role after this programme”

What did you learn from the programme?

I really enjoyed collaborating with other colleagues, teaching can often feel quite isolated and the programme allowed me to share experiences with peers. It’s really nice to be able to step out of college for a while and have some dedicated time to discuss issues, concerns and how things are going. I think my biggest lesson from the whole programme was around taking time to reflect on how things are going. As a manager it can sometimes be difficult to see where you are in the process, but the programme taught me about the need to stop and look at how things are progressing involving my colleagues before moving forward.

What was the focus of your Specialist NPQ Implementation Plan/Project?

My implementation project focussed around the delivery of the ECF to ECT’s who have QTS and those who do not. We now have a programme that supports both types and allows us to continue working closely with the provider as well. This has seen all ECTs being supported and a body of mentors also established to help us do this. After this I have also re designed the ITE provision here now, to provide greater opportunities for the ECTs and ITE to work together and feel supported in these early stages.

“I was quite apprehensive about doing the programme however the facilitators were amazing and put me at ease. I also worked hard to “protect” an hour a week to just being able to reflect on how I was doing and keep up to date with anything that I needed to do for the qualification. It’s not as consuming as it feels it might be and once you start, the workload is really manageable around work commitments.”

With special thanks to Louise Astbury, for speaking with Nicola about her experiences with the Teaching School Hub.

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