Why I Completed an NPQ

By David Madden

Having enjoyed mentoring several PGCE and Teach First trainees, the next natural step for me was to complete an NPQ in Leading Teacher Development. There are numerous training providers for NPQ programmes, but as both my mentees and I had trained through the IOE (Institute of Education), it made sense to stay with an organisation I trusted. So, in October 2023, I signed up for the UCL NPQ.

The NPQs were created by the Department for Education to create a framework of professional development courses for teachers and leaders to develop skills, progress careers and improve school outcomes.

Teach West London has a great flowchart that shows where NPQs are in the stages of training courses:

Back to my thoughts - At first, the structure of the NPQ was a little confusing — not helped by the labyrinthine design of the IOE's online learning portal! However, once I became familiar with the layout, the programme itself offered a rich learning experience.

The NPQ covered four main domains:

• Teaching – Developing teachers at all stages in our schools, and building strong professional development systems.
  
  

• Designing Professional Development – Focusing on how to design effective CPD that genuinely improves pupil outcomes.
  
  

• Delivering Effective Professional Development – Exploring ways to model professional learning and build the expertise our pupils deserve.
  
  

• Implementation – Learning how to implement change successfully within our school contexts, using staged, evidence-informed approaches.
  
  

The programme ran over 12 months from November 2023, with most of the learning based on online self-study and research. It was broken down into three modules:

• Culture and Ethos
  
  

• Curriculum and Teaching
  
  

• Organisational Effectiveness
  
  

Each module began with a learning audit, helping us to identify our strengths and areas for development. We then researched specific domains, recording our reflections in a Personal Learning Journal. Each module concluded with two formative assessments tailored to our individual learning needs.

Alongside the IOE portal, my go-to research document was the EEF’s Guide to Effective Professional Development. However, the most impactful aspect of the programme was the Peer Learning Group (PLG). Led by a facilitator, our group of around 12 teachers — from a variety of West London schools — met four times during the year. These sessions truly brought the programme alive and helped deepen my understanding.

Following the PLGs, we completed an implementation project: designing a plan to develop teacher CPD and presenting it to our group. My project focused on implementing the ‘WA Way’.

The NPQ concluded with an eight-day, open-book, summative case study task. My case study centred on improving CPD in a Secondary School MFL department to raise academic outcomes. I must have done something right — I passed the NPQ!

Reflecting on the whole experience, the most challenging aspect was maintaining the self-discipline needed to complete the online elements of the course. It often meant dedicating evenings and weekends to study in preparation for mentor meetings and PLG sessions. Yet, the most rewarding part was undoubtedly the PLGs themselves — meeting other passionate teachers, sharing ideas, and learning from one another. Much like our own Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), it’s through collaboration that we continue to grow as teachers.

In conclusion, I would highly recommend completing an NPQ to anyone who wants to enhance their own teaching practice and deepen their impact in school.

Source for flowchart: https://teachwestlondon.org.uk/national-professional-qualification

What makes a good Do Now? Building a culture of success and student accountability through targeted questioning.

By Mark Rogers

1. I start every French lesson in the same way, by asking three students respectively to give me the day, date and month in French. The questions are graded, with students that need their confidence built asked the day and month, as these are the most accessible. When it’s the first lesson in a particular month, I may ask a higher-attaining student as the challenge to recall the month from over a year ago can be quite high. All this serves to constantly reinforce key vocabulary, such as number formation.

I then promote engagement with the key question, by asking three more students to translate key parts, again graded in this case by bronze, silver and gold. The example here requires the recall of the question word ‘que’ (what), the conjugated verb ‘fais’ (do) and the application of a reflexive pronoun ‘te’ (yourself).

These six questions should take around a minute to facilitate, as students open books and start to title their page before moving on to the Do Now.

2. Here, the base (introduction) task for the Do Now is to unscramble the sentences, which are based on content from the previous lesson and across the term/year so far. They do this independently, allowing me to circulate and check the progress of one or two highly vulnerable students that may need help. This is rare, but when they need it, I write the first letter of each word in their work to scaffold. The development task is to translate the sentence and students that complete this can apply their creativity to continue the final sentence in their own words. A task like this (prepared for a Year 7 group) can be completed in about 5-6 minutes.

3. For assessment, I’ll ask students to switch to green pen. I will then ask a middle-attaining student to give me the English for the first sentence, then a lower-attaining student to give me the French. This pattern is repeated for sentences 2-4 with the increasingly challenging questions reflecting to whom I am asking them. Finally I will ask for an example of the Depth task. In many cases, I will know what the students have written from circulation, so the public questioning is not so much for my own assessment, but more to build the culture of success in the classroom, improving confidence and giving the students a chance to show off what they can do. When it comes to getting students to produce a foreign language, this really is essential.

Critically, all of this also serves to promote student agency and build accountability. Once the Do Now has been assessed, in this case I will have asked 14 different students a question and asked one to show off their Depth task - all within the first 10 minutes or so of the lesson. Notwithstanding circulating to check on their work too. There are no passengers!

Reflection question: How can these principles be transferred to a Do Now in your subject?