Promising language programme reaches two-thirds of reception classes in England Independent evaluation

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) have published an independent evaluation of the national roll-out of the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI).

The evaluation, conducted by RAND Europe, shows that two-thirds of reception classes in England took part in the programme which aimed to support young children’s communication and language skills as part of Covid-19 recovery efforts.

A process evaluation of the national roll-out, conducted by RAND Europe, found that:

• It was well managed and easy for schools to access.
• However, they did find some schools were unable to deliver the programme as intended due to covid-related disruptions.
• Schools thought that taking part in NELI had been beneficial for their pupils’ oral language skills and confidence with using language.

Almost 11,000 schools took part in a government-funded roll-out of a programme to support four- and five-year-olds who would benefit from additional support with their language skills.

A full summary of the report and its findings can be accessed on the EEF website here.