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NELI Whole Class

NELI Whole Class is a brand-new companion to the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI). The programme has been developed to be used alongside NELI, delivered by a teacher to the whole class.

NELI Whole Class complements and enhances NELI to support you in delivering oral language enrichment to all the children in your class as well as further boost the skills of the children who are receiving intervention.

Programme structure

NELI Whole Class sessions follow a similar structure to the NELI sessions, with each including an introduction (3 minutes), a section on narrative or vocabulary (15 minutes) and a plenary (2 minutes). We recommend schools deliver three 20-minute Whole Class sessions per week.

NELI Whole Class closely follows the content of NELI, using the same six topic areas. It provides a bank of activities designed to be delivered by the teacher, with the freedom and flexibility to choose the most appropriate activities in each session.  

How does NELI Whole Class integrate with the NELI Programme?

Schools first assess with LanguageScreen to measure the language skills of all children and identify those who would benefit from targeted intervention.

Schools then begin to deliver the weekly group and individual sessions for those children who require the targeted intervention.

Alongside these targeted sessions schools also deliver related whole class enrichment activities.

Schools reassess all children again at the end of the year to measure progress over the year and as children move up through the school.

NELI and NELI Whole Class Programme Structure

Comprehensive online training

NELI Whole Class includes comprehensive CPD-certified training which can be completed at a time and a pace that suits learners. There are two courses required, the first providing an overview of language fundamentals and the second providing practical guidance for delivering NELI Whole Class. The two courses take around 8-10 hours to complete. The training package also includes access to our Delivery Support Hub which provides additional information and resources.

Programme Materials

The NELI Whole Class programme includes all the core materials needed to deliver the enrichment activities. It includes a Teaching Handbook (providing comprehensive session guidance, a bank of session activities, flashcard games, and photocopiable record forms and activity sheets), colourful digital slides, printable narrative sequencing cards to use in class and at home, songs and audio stories.

Programme Development

NELI Whole Class was developed directly as a result of the feedback from schools using the NELI Programme. While there are significant benefits to NELI, many educators wanted a way of bringing the evidence-based NELI activities into the wider classroom.

Working with educators and Speech and Language Therapists, NELI Whole Class is designed to be used alongside the NELI programme, allowing a teacher to provide language enrichment activities for the whole class. The activities are related to, but distinct from, those in the NELI intervention programme. This means that all children will be exposed to the vocabulary knowledge and narrative skills introduced in NELI; and that the children in the intervention group(s) will have additional opportunities to consolidate and extend their knowledge and skills.

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