New independent evaluation of Programme for four- and five- year olds
The national roll-out of a programme to support young children’s language skills in response to the COVID-19 pandemic had a positive impact on their development, according to an independent evaluation published by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) today.
The Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI), created by the founders of OxEd and Assessment, was offered to all state-funded schools in England with Reception classes across three academic years (2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23), funded by the Department for Education. Over 6,500 schools registered to take part in the first year, while a further 4,000 signed up across the second and third years of delivery.
The independent evaluation, conducted by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), found that children who took part in the programme made on average four months’ additional progress in their language skills, compared to children in participating schools who didn’t receive the intervention. The study looked at data from 10,800 children in 350 schools who registered for the second year of the national roll-out (2021-22).
