Two-fifths of primary schools sign up for DfE-funded speech and language programme

Some 62,000 four- and five-year-olds in 6,672 schools will receive the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) during the current academic year, according to data released by the Education Endowment Foundation.

• Related news: Councils to provide 'Start for Life' offer under Leadsom proposals

• Related news: Government urged to fund specialist therapy for deaf children

The fully-funded programme has been offered to state-funded schools by the Department for Education in response to disruption to schooling caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. 

So far two-fifths of such schools have taken up the offer.

DfE has announced additional funding to expand the rollout to more schools for the 2021/22 school year, to be delivered by the Nuffield Foundation.

Developed by researchers at the Universities of Oxford, Sheffield and York, NELI involves scripted individual and small-group language teaching sessions delivered by a trained teaching assistant or early years educator to children identified as being in need of targeted language support. 

So far, close to 20,000 teaching assistants and teachers have received online training designed by the University of Oxford and provided via FutureLearn.com, to deliver the NELI programme to pupils.

The most recent trials of the programme, involving 193 schools, found that children who received NELI made, on average, more than three months of additional progress in oral language skills compared with children who did not receive NELI.

In response to a survey carried out in autumn 2020, 96 per cent of the 57 schools participating in a trial at the time reported being “very concerned” or “quite concerned” about their pupils’ language and communication skills due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Delivery of the 20-week NELI intervention had been planned to begin in January, however, this was delayed due to the third national lockdown.

Professor Becky Francis, chief executive of the Education Endowment Foundation, said: “The impressive reach that NELI has achieved in its first year of delivery shows how teaching professionals are embracing evidence-informed approaches to maximise their pupils’ progress.

“Whilst reported concerns around school starters’ language and communication development are of course worrying, it is reassuring to know that the NELI programme is available to meet pupils’ needs.

“In these challenging times, the success of the intervention constitutes an encouraging reminder that supporting pupils to overcome the detrimental impacts of the pandemic is not only possible, but very much under way.”

Schools can register for the next roll-out of the scheme here: www.teachneli.org/