Consultation on Leading Together for Excellence: A TransformED NI Strategy for Teacher Professional Learning

The consultation lasted for 8 weeks and concluded on 6 July 2026. The consultation report provides a factual overview of responses received and summarises the views expressed by stakeholders.

Teacher Professional Learning Strategy

This renewed professional learning strategy for teachers in Northern Ireland reflects the central, indispensable role of teaching in achieving excellence across our education system.

The strategy is grounded in strong international evidence that no education system can exceed the quality of its teachers, and that high‑quality professional learning is the most powerful lever for improving teaching and pupil outcomes.

It sets out proposals to:

• establish a clear professional learning continuum from Initial Teacher Education through to system leadership;
• modernise the current teacher competences and introduce distinct leadership standards;
• strengthen subject‑specific and curriculum‑aligned professional learning;
• guarantee high‑quality induction and early career support;
• invest in leadership development at every level;
• establish a Northern Ireland Centre for Educational Excellence and Improvement to provide coherence and system leadership; and
• introduce a unified digital professional learning platform to improve access, equity and collaboration.

Together, these reforms aim to move Northern Ireland from fragmented provision towards a coherent, career‑long professional learning system, aligned with the ambitions of the Department’s TransformED Strategy.

A draft of the new strategy entitled, Leading Together for Excellence: A TransformED NI Strategy for Teacher Professional Learning can be accessed below:

• A TransformED NI Strategy for Teacher Professional Learning