Is there an exam?
No, there is no exam. There is an assessment visit where an assessor visits you at school. The visit lasts for 3 hours and the assessor talks to you, one or two witnesses and your headteacher or their representative.

What happens after the assessment visit?
After the visit, the assessor completes the paperwork, makes a recommendation about whether you should be awarded the HLTA status and sends everything s/he has about you and your assessment back to the Eastern Leadership Centre (ELC).

Once at ELC, the paperwork is checked to make sure that everything has arrived and then the assessment goes to Pre-Moderation Scrutiny. At the scrutiny, a senior assessor checks your assessor's work to ensure that the processes laid down by the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) have been followed. The assessor's recommendation is then sent to the TDA.

After scrutiny comes moderation. At moderation a small group of senior assessors check in more detail that process has been followed and ensure that all assessors are working to the same standard. All assessments from new assessors, those which have been difficult to resolve and a few assessments picked at random by the TDA are moderated. The final recommendations are then sent to the TDA.

Two to three weeks after moderation, the TDA sends the letters of achievement to ELC: these are then sent by first class post to your home address.

How long before I get my results?
This varies from as little as 4 weeks up to about 16 weeks. This is because we can only hold moderations at times set by the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA): there are 11 each year - one every month except December. If you just miss the cut off date (set by the TDA) for December, you will have to wait until the following month for moderation, even if your assessment is not one of the ones actually looked at during the meeting.