Everything you need to know...
-
What is the fee?
Home: £3,650 for 60 credits or £7295 for 120 credits
-
How long will I study?
23 Months
-
Where will I study?
-
When do I start?
September 2026
Course summary
- Designed for Teach First graduates building on your PGCE or PGDE experience.
- Develop leadership skills rooted in real classroom and school practice.
- Study flexibly alongside your teaching role through part-time, practice-based learning.
- Use evidence-informed approaches to improve outcomes for children and young people.
- Prepare for progression into leadership, policy, research, or wider educational roles.
You’ve already proved you can make an impact in the classroom. What’s next for your leadership in education? The Teach First MA Leadership in Learning at Sheffield Hallam University supports you to move from classroom influence to wider educational leadership. You’ll deepen your understanding of learning, critically explore challenges facing education locally and globally, and build the confidence and credibility to lead change. Throughout the course, you remain grounded in your purpose, developing leadership that stays focused on making a lasting difference for children and young people.
How you learn
This course is delivered through blended learning, combining face-to-face teaching with online study. Each module includes three in-person seminar days, supported by online sessions across the year. This structure offers flexibility alongside the opportunity for discussion and support through face-to-face delivery. Attendance is monitored, and you’re expected to attend all scheduled sessions.
You’ll learn through:
- tutor-led seminars and workshops
- participant-led activities, group and peer discussion
- self-directed study, reading and reflection
- work-based learning
- digital resources, including the Blackboard virtual learning environment
- resources and academic skills support from Student Learning Services, including the Library and Learning Centre
Assessment is practice-based and linked to your professional context, supporting you to apply learning within your own educational setting.
Key themes
If you’re a Teach First PGCE graduate, year one focuses on developing your understanding of leadership alongside practical research skills. You’ll complete 60 credits across two modules, preparing you for the applied research project in year two.
In year two, open to Teach First PGCE and PGDE graduates, you’ll complete a 60-credit applied research project with individual supervisory support. Teaching sessions are structured around the stages of completing a research project, responding to participants’ needs as they introduce and design their project, analyse data and write up findings within their educational setting.
Applied learning
The course takes a reflective and critical approach to professional practice. You’ll link theory to your own experience, using research and policy to inform your thinking and decision-making within your role. This applied focus supports you to examine your practice and consider how learning can be used to inform leadership and change in educational settings.
Course leaders and tutors
Modules
Important notice: The structure of this course is periodically reviewed and enhanced to provide the best possible learning experience for our students and ensure ongoing compliance with any professional, statutory and regulatory body standards. Module structure, content, delivery and assessment may change, but we expect the focus of the course and the learning outcomes to remain as described above. Following any changes, updated module information will be published on this page.
Year 1
Compulsory modules
To develop your ability to engage with, interpret and apply relevant academic and professional literature in the context of a curriculum subject and to use this insight to help you to identify innovative practice and reflect on the outcomes of your own teaching activities in order to develop and improve your own professional practice. The approach is underpinned by collaborative practice.
You’ll study topics such as:
- Professional frameworks for lesson planning, preparation and implementation in a subject area linked to phase
- Pedagogical approaches in specialist subject - Which approaches are subject specific? Can we learn from pedagogical approaches in other subjects and across the curriculum?
- Strategies to make subject curriculum accessible to all learners
- Strategies and rationale for formative and summative assessment in curriculum specialist subject
- Awareness of wider curriculum content and emerging issues in curriculum specialist subject
- Design, development and use of resources and their impact on teaching and learning
- Research–informed teaching: Selecting and using appropriate academic sources to underpin planning, implementation and evaluation of lessons in curriculum specialist subject
- Reflective practice
You will be asked to consider your vision for addressing educational disadvantage and to identify the barriers to achieving that vision. You will then design, implement and evaluate a piece of action research to overcome the barrier identified and to support your placement school's development and improvement.
You will be asked to consider their developing vision and to identify the prominent challenges they face in achieving that vision. You will then design and implement a piece of action research to overcome the barriers identified. You will conduct a critical literature review of the research around both the barriers and potential interventions and implement a series of actions that demonstrate your commitment to achieving your vision. You will evaluate this research-informed practice and draw evidence-based conclusions following implementation. You will consider how to influence others in the wider sharing (and embedding) of your findings and present your findings to an identified audience. Developing the skills of leadership is a central component of this module on leadership, and the elements covered include an understanding of influence, high-level communication, gaining support and investment from others; therefore, it will involve an aspect of change leadership and how this can be done effectively.
Final year
Compulsory modules
To develop your ability to engage with, interpret and apply relevant academic and professional literature in the context of a curriculum subject and to use this insight to help you to identify innovative practice and reflect on the outcomes of your own teaching activities in order to develop and improve your own professional practice. The approach is underpinned by collaborative practice.
You’ll study topics such as:
- Professional frameworks for lesson planning, preparation and implementation in a subject area linked to phase
- Pedagogical approaches in specialist subject - Which approaches are subject specific? Can we learn from pedagogical approaches in other subjects and across the curriculum?
- Strategies to make subject curriculum accessible to all learners
- Strategies and rationale for formative and summative assessment in curriculum specialist subject
- Awareness of wider curriculum content and emerging issues in curriculum specialist subject
- Design, development and use of resources and their impact on teaching and learning
- Research–informed teaching: Selecting and using appropriate academic sources to underpin planning, implementation and evaluation of lessons in curriculum specialist subject
- Reflective practice
You will be asked to consider your vision for addressing educational disadvantage and to identify the barriers to achieving that vision. You will then design, implement and evaluate a piece of action research to overcome the barrier identified and to support your placement school's development and improvement.
You will be asked to consider their developing vision and to identify the prominent challenges they face in achieving that vision. You will then design and implement a piece of action research to overcome the barriers identified. You will conduct a critical literature review of the research around both the barriers and potential interventions and implement a series of actions that demonstrate your commitment to achieving your vision. You will evaluate this research-informed practice and draw evidence-based conclusions following implementation. You will consider how to influence others in the wider sharing (and embedding) of your findings and present your findings to an identified audience. Developing the skills of leadership is a central component of this module on leadership, and the elements covered include an understanding of influence, high-level communication, gaining support and investment from others; therefore, it will involve an aspect of change leadership and how this can be done effectively.
In this module, you will undertake an original piece of research related to your own professional and personal interest in leadership in learning. The module aims to deepen your understanding of research concepts, tools and applications within the context of developing your knowledge of leadership. By undertaking a largely autonomous, substantive research-based project, you will be enabled to develop your own research and leadership practice. The research must have a strong subject or phase emphasis. The module is designed to offer you the opportunity to follow your individual professional or personal interests relating to leadership in education; we recognise that participants will have different interests and motivations for undertaking this research. The concepts (below) that are taught will be appropriate to all participants who will apply their own area of interest to these overarching concepts. All participants will undertake a piece of research.
You’ll study topics such as:
- The role of leadership in educational settings
- Leading a research/leadership project
- Positionality in social research
- Developing meaningful research questions
- Data collection and analysis
- Writing a critical literature review
- Completing the ethical review process
- Relating findings to literature and other evidence
- Disseminating findings and implementing recommendations
Future careers
The primary purpose of this course is to support the development of teachers as leaders of learning. Employability-related transferable attributes such as leadership are embedded to support transition to other roles as careers progress.
This course prepares you for a career in:
- teaching
- education policy
- public sector work
- management positions
Equipment and facilities
On this course you work with:
- the BlackBoard Virtual Learning Environment
- industry standard specialist computing hardware, tools and applications
- four specialist labs for cyber security, digital forensics and computer networking
Where will I study?
You study at City Campus through a structured mix of lectures, seminars and practical sessions as well as access to digital and online resources to support your learning.
City Campus
City Campus is located in the heart of Sheffield, within minutes of the train and bus stations.
City Campus map | City Campus tour
Adsetts library
Adsetts Library is located on our City Campus. It's open 24 hours a day, every day.
Learn moreEntry requirements
All students
Teach First graduates who have completed a PGCE or PGDE.
Additional information for EU/International students
This course is not open to international students who require a student visa to study in the UK. If you are an international applicant but do not require a student visa, email our Admissions Team to find out whether you’re eligible to apply.
Fees and funding
Home students
Our tuition fee for UK students starting part-time study in 2026/27 is £3,650 for 60 credits or £7295 for 120 credits . The tuition fee displayed above is for the full course. If the full course is more than one year in duration, the fee will be divided into annual payments which will then be rounded. This may mean the total fee you pay is slightly higher than the fee stated above. If you take a break in study or have to re-take part of the course, you may also be charged an additional fee and will be notified of this at the time.
If you are studying an undergraduate course, postgraduate pre-registration course or postgraduate research course over more than one academic year then your tuition fees may increase in subsequent years in line with Government regulations or UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) published fees. More information can be found in our terms and conditions under student fees regulations.
Scholarships and financial support
Find information on scholarships, bursaries and postgraduate student loans.
International scholarships up to £3000 ›
Alumni scholarships up to £2000 ›
Postgraduate loans for UK students ›
Additional course costs
The links below allow you to view estimated general course additional costs, as well as costs associated with key activities on specific courses. These are estimates and are intended only as an indication of potential additional expenses. Actual costs can vary greatly depending on the choices you make during your course.
General course additional costs
Additional costs for Sheffield Institute of Education (PDF, 154.2KB)Legal information
Any offer of a place to study is subject to your acceptance of the University’s Terms and Conditions and Student Regulations.
