NPQ Assessment FAQs
When is my Assessment?
Your assessment is completed in an eight-day window. It is released at 12:01on a Monday or Fridayand needs to be submitted by the following Monday or Friday, before 11:59.
There will be an assessment clinic held on Tuesday of the assessment week. This is an opportunity to speak to our university assessment team if needed.
How do I make sure I am eligible to sit the final assessment?
You must have 90% attendance and engagement across your course in order to undertake your assessment. This means you must have attended 90% of your ACTIVATE and APPLY sessions and you must have completed at least 90% of your TEACH materials (the self-study).
Where do I get the Assessment materials from?
All your assessment materials will be released on Blackboard, just after midnight on the Monday/ Friday. You should be able to access all the materials by Monday/ Friday morning.
It is a good idea to check first thing on Monday/ Friday that you can see everything. If you can’t see your materials, check that you’ve done the evaluation for the last units- as you must do these before the assessment will release. If you complete them it will release instantly (as long as you’re within the assessment window).
If you’ve tried this and you still can’t find them email edutech@churchofengland.org
Please put URGENT ASSESSMENT ACCESS in the subject line so we can make sure your message is prioritised.
What do I need to do to pass?
Assessors are looking for clear evidence that you have:
- Understood the NPQ curriculum you have studied and that you are able to successfully apply knowledge of both ‘learn that’ and ‘learn how to’ statements explicitly and/or implicitly to the given case study scenario.
- Considered both what to apply and how to implement improvement effectively.
- Fully understood the context of the case study and that you are able todemonstrate effective leadership at the level required by your programme.
- Included research literature from your course throughout to justify your response to the case study.
You need to achieve a mark of 60% overall to pass your assessment. The mark scheme for your assessment is at the end of this document.
You must include a reference list- which should be at the end of your main response.
What will the final assessment be like?
Your assessment is an open book case study which means you are free to refer to any notes and documents from the course.The Case Study scenario includes some associated documents (for example, an extract from an Ofsted report, some pupil voice comments, some lesson feedback, sample curriculum overview etc) to give you a clear idea of the context.You should refer closely to the scenario and context pages of the case study document.
You need to write a 1500 word response to these materials to explain how you would move this school forward if you were a leader in that school.
We suggest that you:
- Identify the problem(s) – Define the problem(s) you will address ensuring you use evidence to explain why you have prioritised these areas for development.
- Identify the solution(s) – Explain what you would do to address the problem(s) identified and how evidence supports this.
- Detail how you will implement the solution(s) and use evidence to explain your approach.
The assessment materials will assign you a role (e.g. You are an assistant headteacher responsible for pastoral care and pupil wellbeing). It is important that you write authoritatively in that role, even if it is a different role to the one you currently do. So if you have studied NPQH you should write as if you were the headteacher- even if you’re currently a phase lead.
It is important that you show an understanding of and commitment to whole school improvement, unless the case study specifically saysyou are only responsible for one phase.
How many units should I talk about?
Your assessment will focus on one unit from your course and your understanding of effective implementation. The case study scenario will clearly tell you which unit you should focus on (for example, if it says you’ve been asked to lead on devising a new CPD programme, you’re going to be looking at the professional development unit). There will only be one focus unit.
There will be links with other units (for example, if the focus is professional development there will be links with curriculum and teaching) but it’s important that the focus of your essay is clear so while it’s ok to refer to other things, you shouldn’t spend many words on it.
All the LT or LHT statements you use should come from the focus unit. Avoid listing them as it takes too much of the word count.
One of the things you need to show in every case study response is a good understanding of implementation. You will need to use the information you gained in your implementation unit to do this well but you don’t need to use the LT/LHT statements from the implementation unit itself.
How many Learn That or Learn How to statements do I need to refer to?
What if I choose the wrong ones?
The case study will include UP TO 10 learn that/ learn how to statements in total (not each- so could be 4 LT and 3 LHT or 2 LT and 5 LHT). You will not be marked down for ‘missing’ some or for including others. It is important that you show good understanding of the statements you have highlighted. There will always be at least one LT and one LHT for each case study so it is important that you make sure you are including both.
Rather than spending lots of time trying to identify specific LT/LHT statements in the materials, we suggest participants focus on thinking about the key problems (and providing evidence from the research base to justify your choices), suitable solutions (again, showing how the research base informs your decision making and understanding) and showing how these could be effectively implemented (using a research based model for your implementation process). By addressing the issues within the case study, it should be clear which LT & LHT statements you are working with.
The LT and LHT statements are numbered. Learn That statements are numbered like this LT 2:10 and LHT statements with letters so 2a for example. If you want to flag particular statements, you can use this convention in your piece. It can be helpful to put the LT or LHT number/letter in brackets after the sentence/paragraph about it so it’svery clear for the marker that which one you are referring to- but you don’t have to do this. In text citations do count towards your word count.
You should not write out whole Learn That or Learn How to statements in full or quote long statements from research- as you won’t have the word count. Instead, we recommend you paraphrase or use very short quoted phrases followed by a citation in brackets.
E.G. Low-level disruption and misbehaviour in lessons is a known cause of significant stress for school staff (EEF, 2019).
How many problems/ solutions do I need to include?
Part of the assessment is looking at your ability to synthesise information and work out the real crux of a problem. You can talk about however many problems or solutions as you think are necessary but it’s important that you show yourself as a confident leader and that you use the research and LT/LHT statements to show which problems you consider to be the most urgent.
In a school we can’t ‘fix’ everything all at once, so just as you would have to in school, we would encourage you to prioritise and think about which problems would have the greatest impact if addressed.
We mark each assessment individually based on how well that leader has shown their understanding and knowledge. There isn’t a ‘list’ of correct answers we’re ticking off so you may well have different problems than others on your course. What we are assessing is your ability to make those choices using the evidence base and how well you can explain why you feel those would be the best solutions for this school. It is very possible for two participants to both do well with very different responses.
It is fine to group problems/solutions together if you find common themes. Some people use sub-headings to do this.
What if I go over/ under 1500 words?
There is no 10% allowance for this assessment and any words over 1500 will not be marked. You can be under the 1500 word limit but your answer must fully address the case study and it is difficult to do this in far fewer words. We would expect most submissions to be somewhere between 1400-1500 words.
Your maximum word count is 1500. Assessors will not mark beyond this. You must include a reference list, at the end of your document, which will not contribute to the 1500 words.
Do not include appendices or hyperlinks. You must use in-text citations, for example (DFE, 2012) as footnotes will not be marked. In-text citations are included within the word count.
Do I need to use a Reference List?
All submissions must include a reference list, which should be at the end of your main document.
Submissions without a reference list will fail and, unless there has been a technical error, there will not be an opportunity to add a reference list after the submission deadline.
References should use a consistent referencing system, for example:
EEF (2020) Guidance Report, Special Educational Needs in Mainstream Schools.
There is no preferred referencing system but, for ease, we suggest participants use the conventions shown in their TEACH materials.
Only in-text citations should be included in the reference list and there is no need to include wider reading.
Your reference list does not contribute to your 1500 word limit.
Do I need to write an introduction and a conclusion?
The word count is very tight. You do not need to write an introduction or conclusion.
Examples of how you could start your essay are:
As a deputy headteacher, the first thing I would address is...
The most urgent problem at XX school is...
How do I demonstrate an understanding of effective implementation?
The implementation part of your essay is about showing that you know how to implement changein a way which will have long term impact in a school. It is important to show that your implementation is evidence-led and that you have a good understanding of the research around effective implementation. You might like to use a model from your course do show this, such as the EEF Implementation Guidance.
You can use the research and evidence from the implementation unit of your course to do this- although you don’t need to use the LT/LHT statements from this unit.
Do I have to use a specific font/size/format?
Please use a 12 point font. There is no specific font, format or template. You should write in continuous prose not in bullet points or notes.
You should write your essay in Word and upload it to Blackboard. Please do not attempt to write your essay directly in Blackboard itself.
You should only upload one document (your reference list this needs to be the final page of your submission, not a separate document).
I work in secondary/ primary. Why isn’t my assessment for a secondary/primary school?
The DFE stipulates that all NPQ final assessment materials, across all the different NPQ providers, are non-phase specific. This means that there won’t be a specific case study for your phase so you could be a special school leader answering a case study about a mainstream primary school or a secondary school teacher responding to a case study about a junior school. This is because part of the assessment is looking at how you can apply the learning to contexts which are different to your own.
All of the content across your NPQ programme is generic to any phase of education as is the huge majority of the research base.
We understand you might feel worried that you don’t have the necessary experience in another phase but this won’t be a disadvantage. The qualification demonstrates participants’ ability to work in a range of roles and contexts at that level. [DfE guidance, 2020]
We have now had the first group of people complete their NPQs and there is no evidence that participants who are asked to write about a different phase to the one they usually work in are more likely to pass or fail the assessment.
Can I use abbreviations?
You can use commonly understood abbreviations e.g. SEND, LTD, ECT etc. If it something more unusual then it is best to write it in full the first time with the abbreviation following in brackets and then abbreviate from that point forward.
Where do I get the research materials?
You should use the research materials that have been provided throughout your course.
A good place to start is with the TEACH PDF from the unit that is being focussed on. You could narrow this further by starting with the key takeaways at the end of each research section and thinking which of these apply to the case study you’ve been asked to consider.
You’ll also find a full reference list at the end of the TEACH PDF and also in your course materials that you can use to copy and paste from and build the reference list for your submission.
Remember this is an open book assessment which means you can use these materials during the assessment window to inform your response to the case study.
Can I use other research (e.g. not research from the course)?
This assessment is assessing your understanding of the course you have completed. You should use the research materials that have been provided throughout your course.
It is fine to bring in one or two other sources if you have a strong reason for doing so but you don’t have to and it isn’t advisable to bring in lots of new sources.
If you do use additional sources, you must give a full reference (either in brackets within the text itself) or as a reference list so that the marker can check the source if it’s something they are unfamiliar with.
Where can I find a list of all the Learn That and Learn How to statements (the framework document)?
What do I do if I need more help?
There is a clear video and explanation document within your induction package that you accessed at the beginning of the programme. This can be found on Blackboard in ‘NPQ Induction’ . You may wish to watch this again to remind yourself of the assessment process.
There will be an assessment clinic during the week of your assessment, usually held on Tuesday. You can talk to the university assessment team at this session so you should come along if you have any questions. If you don’t have questions, you don’t need to attend.
You can contact your delivery partner at any point during the assessment process, who will be able to support you. If your delivery partner can’t answer your question, please contact the central team on NPQ@churchofengland.org
If you have tech issues contact edutech@churchofengland.org
How do I submit the assessment?
Complete your assessment and then submit it via Blackboard. You need to make sure it’ssubmitted before midnight on the day of submission.
There is a video showing you exactly how to submit here
Can I get extra time or additional help if I have a disability?
If you have a disability (e.g. dyslexia) and you’ve previously needed extra help with examinations/assessments (e.g. if you had extra time at university) we can, of course, make adjustments to support you with your assessment.
If you need us to organise adjustments for you please email us on NPQ@churchofengland.organd let us know at least six weeks before your assessment. Please put ‘Reasonable Adjustmentsfor Assessment’ in the subject line to help us prioritise your email.
What if I have extenuating circumstances during the assessment window e.g. bereavement or Ofsted inspection?
We have a guidance document which shows when we can offer an extension and when we can’t. You can find a copy of this document at the end of this FAQ sheet.
When will I get my results?
Your assessments are marked by our university partners and their assessors. They then go through a process of external moderation and checking, both with the Department for Education and with our moderation team. All of this takes time to ensure the assessment process is fair and rigorous.
The Department for Education releases all results for NPQ programmes themselves so you can expect to hear directly from the DFE at least 3 months after you took your assessment.We are not given a specific date.
It is important that we have an up to date email address for you so if you have changed your email address please update us using this form: https://churchofengland.tfaforms.net/4903511
What happens if I fail the assessment?
Of course, we hope this won’t happen but if you fail to reach the required pass mark (60%) you will be offered the chance to re-take in the next assessment window for your course. Unfortunately it isn’t possible to retake sooner than this.
You will need to consider a new case study in this window and resubmit this as a new submission. It is not possible to revise and resubmit your initial submission after feedback as each case study is unique.
Before you complete a second submissionyou’ll be given feedback to help you get ready to give it another go. Your delivery partner and the central team will reach out to offer you support if this happens. You will also be invited to attend a small group session with our university partner to offer more support.
You can only retake the assessment once.
Exceptional Circumstances Guidelines (March 2024 onwards)
These guidelines have been written to ensure that we are able to respond empathetically, in line with our values, to participant requests for additional time during the final assessment. We also recognise that the final assessment is a rigorous, academic assessment which carries weight as the NPQ is awarded having successfully completed the assessment. It is important, therefore, that the final assessment is fair; these guidelines are designed to ensure a robust and transparent process which is fair to all participants irrespective of their circumstances.
Basic Principles
The DFE stipulates that participants should be given 8 days to complete their final assessment.
The DFE stipulates that participants should have a maximum of two attempts to meet the pass mark.
Participants can undertake their final assessment in any assessment window and do not necessarily need to complete in the window immediately following their course.
If a participant is unable to complete their assessment within the given window they are able to defer their final assessment to the next assessment window.
Providing that the participant hasn’t opened the assessment materials this doesn’t count as ‘an attempt’ and the participant can choose to defer to the next window at any point.
If a participant has opened the materials, but needs to defer, this will automatically ‘count’ as one of their two attempts at final assessment. If a participant feels that they might need to defer, it is advisable not to open the materials but to contact the NPQ team for further advice.
Participants should undertake their final assessment within two years of the end of their course.
Extensions
We can only offer extensions in the following scenarios:
- Technical error beyond a participant’s control (e.g. if the participant was not added to the final assessment course and so could not access the materials). The usual extension length will reflect the level of delay caused by the error- e.g. if a participant could not access the materials until two days late, the extension given would be two days. The maximum extension length that can be authorised is five days.
- If a participant has an additional need, disability or long term illness (lasting more than 12 months) and requires an extension as a reasonable adjustment. The usual extension length as a reasonable adjustment is one extra day, as recommended by the DFE. We will consider requests, which will usually be to a maximum of two days, given participants individual needs.
- Hospitalisation of a participant during the assessment window. The maximum extension length that can be authorised is five days.
- Ofsted inspection during the assessment window. The maximum extension length that can be authorised is two days.
- Serious incident involving a close family member (e.g. parent, child or partner). Examples of this would be bereavement or a funeral during the assessment week itself, serious accident or hospitalisation. The maximum extension length that can be authorised is five days.
- SIAMS inspection if the participant is a headteacher, senior leader or is the RE lead for their school. The maximum extension length that can be authorised is two days.
We are unable to offer extensions for:
- General illness (including covid or flu)
- Travel arrangements (e.g cancelled flights)
- Workload pressures at school
- Parents Evening/ report writing or staff shortages at school
- Governor meetings or School Improvement days
- Technical issues beyond our control (e.g. laptop not working)
- Blackboard login issues (e.g. not knowing your password)
- Problems accessing the support materials (e.g. I couldn’t find the TEACH summary)
- Participants who did not catch up their course attendance to above 90% at the cut-off point, which is two weeks before the assessment window opens
Extensions due to additional needs, disability or long term illness should always be arranged in advance with Hannah Baker (Hannah.baker@churchofengland.org). If a participant’s circumstances change during the window (e.g. they experience an increase in symptoms which affects their ability to engage with the assessment) they should contact Hannah to discuss support options.
If a participant needs to request an extension in any other circumstances they should email the Programme Lead for their course via:
NPQ Standard NPQ@churchofengland.org
NPQ Small NPQSmall@churchofengland.org
NPQ Flex NPQFlex@churchofengland.org
The Programme Lead will consider the request and respond. If the designated programme lead isn’t available, the request will be passed to Andy Spens, Head of Professional Learning, who will consider it and respond. The decision of the programme lead or Head of Professional Learning will be final and there is no appeals process. Any participant who is unhappy with the decision can always defer their assessment to the next window, providing this is their first attempt.