Thousands of primary schools across England are delivering another year of the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme.
NELI is aimed at four and five-year-olds starting school who need extra support with speech and language development. The Department for Education is funding the catch-up programme for a fourth year to support Reception-age pupils who were toddlers during the Covid pandemic.
At the same time, a new evaluation by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) shows just how effective NELI is. Their research found that the programme boosts young children’s language skills by four months, and that children eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) made up to seven months’ additional progress. This means NELI could help to close the language development gap between socio-economically disadvantaged pupils and their peers.
Children starting school in September were at a critical stage of language development during the various pandemic lockdowns, so the need for NELI is greater than ever. I’m also delighted to see the results of the EEF’s evaluation. It’s rare to see an intervention operating at scale with such solid evidence for narrowing the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged children, and shows the power of grounding programme design in high-quality research and developing and adapting it for roll-out through rigorous trials.”Josh Hillman, Education Director
Professor Becky Francis CBE, Chief Executive of the EEF said: “Time and time again, NELI has proven its effectiveness in boosting young children’s language development. It’s hard to overestimate how exciting it is to see a programme have an impact on a national scale. This gives early years educators a programme that they can trust to support children who might need additional support with their communication and language skills, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.”
Developed by researchers at the Universities of Oxford, Sheffield and York, NELI is a 20-week programme that is usually delivered by a specially trained teaching assistant. Small-group sessions feature ‘Ted’, the NELI puppet, for games that help children concentrate on their speaking, listening and learning. Eleven thousand state-funded primary schools in England will be using NELI this year, with 90,000 pupils benefitting.
