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Fast facts about the National College

  1. The National College was the first organisation in the world dedicated to the professional development of school leaders. Our mission is to develop and support leaders with the talent and vision to change lives. We support leaders through a range of strategic initiatives, leadership development programmes and policy and research activities to enable them to develop into outstanding leaders.
  2. Our role in helping to deliver further improvements in schools was underlined in March 2011 when the Education Secretary Michael Gove confirmed the National College’s remit.
  3. Teaching schools; the expansion of the national and local leaders of education programmes; the implementation of proposals for specialist leaders of education; the review of the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH); training for chairs of governing bodies and support for leaders of early years’ education were all identified as key aims for the year ahead.
  4. Schools involved in our leadership development programmes achieve faster rates of improvement in exam results.
  5. The number of national leaders of education (NLEs) is set to double from 500 to 1,000 by 2015. We continue to see a strong trend of above average improvement in both the supported and supporting schools.
  6. Over the last two years, the rate of improvement among secondary schools supported by NLEs has been almost twice that of schools who did not have NLE support. Primary schools supported by NLEs improved their KS2 results by 7.9 per cent over the same period, while the results of those who had not had this support remained unchanged.
  7. Our research has shown that deployed school business managers can free up to 30 per cent of a headteacher’s time, as well as releasing additional funds for schools, enabling heads to focus on leading teaching and learning.
  8. The National College has a growing membership - there are currently over 95,000 active members with access to world class leadership development opportunities.
  9. Over 150,000 places have been taken up on our leadership development provision since the College opened in 2000.
  10. An independent survey carried out in March 2011 told us that 99 per cent of headteachers are aware of the National College and of these 86 per cent agree or agree strongly that the National College helps to improve the quality of school leadership.