CT4L Professional Knowledge Examinations (Leadership)

Suitable for: School leaders in a senior leadership position. (Classroom teachers and middle leaders may opt to undertake the Professional Knowledge Examinations and school mentors may opt to undertake the Professional Knowledge Award (Mentor) instead).

The Professional Knowledge Examinations are for senior leaders working towards Chartered Teacher (Leadership) Status.* This unit provides access to the three examinations that form part of the Chartered Teacher (Leadership) pathway and have been designed to assess your professional knowledge across key areas of evidence-informed practice.

The three examinations are:

• Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) Examination: Multiple Choice Question Exam: This examination consists of 30 multiple choice questions designed to assess your knowledge of evidence-informed teaching, learning, curriculum and assessment.
• Objective Structured Teaching Exercise (OSTE): This is a scenario-based examination, designed to assess your knowledge of formative assessment. In the examination, you will respond to a simulated teaching scenario and demonstrate how you would support a teacher in developing a specific aspect of their teaching practice.
• Written Examination: The written examination is designed to assess your knowledge of effective leadership and school development within your school context. You will choose one of four possible school development themes as the focus for your examination and answer three questions linked to this theme.

This flexible unit can be undertaken at any point during the school year and can be completed alongside other Chartered Teacher (Leadership) units or fit around your existing professional learning. You can choose to spread the examinations across the year, for example by completing one each half term, or take all three within a shorter period, depending on what works best for you.

All examinations are completed online, allowing you to choose a date and time that suits you. Each examination takes approximately 45 minutes to complete.

Exam access arrangements are available for individuals who require reasonable adjustments. You’ll find more information about this on the course.

*A school leader undertaking this assessment unit would typically be an executive headteacher, headteacher, deputy headteacher, assistant headteacher, director, head of school, or other similar role, where they have either whole-school or cross-school responsibility.