Research School Network: Sustaining oral language approaches as the foundation for literacy and learning A focus on speech and language development

Martin Cumming is the Assistant Head teacher and Inclusion Leader at St Paul’s Nursery School in York. He has previously been a primary school teacher within the city. He has a special interest in SEND and Speech and Language development, especially within the Early Years. He also supports other settings and schools within the local authority in developing SLC and SEND practice.

The EYFS framework (2024) suggests that Communication and Language underpins all seven areas of learning. Therefore, if we get this key aspect of learning correct it can have a positive impact on the other areas. We need to ensure a creative, language rich environment that helps deepen, support and develop Speech, Language and Communication (SLC).

​‘Early Talk for York’ (ETFY) is an approach that has been developed out of the need to close the disadvantage gap with regards to SLC in the early years.

St. Paul’s Nursery has been part of the ETFY approach since 2020, joining just before the Covid pandemic.

Firstly, as a leadership team we took the decision to make SLC a priority. All activities, group times and mealtimes have a strong communication focus. Supervision and performance management have SLC targets ensuring it is at the forefront of staff minds.

We focus on six main areas, as shown in the diagram above.

- Upskilling Staff – as part of ETFY we became a Communication Friendly Setting, creating Elklan Level 3 and Level 4 trained practitioners who oversee cascading of training.
- Assessment – the Wellcomm Assessment toolkit assesses the starting point of all children, as part of each child’s benchmark, and then termly.
- Early intervention – if the assessment flags any children with SLC needs, we ensure a swift response and targeted intervention (usually within a week of identification) in the form of 1:1, small group or whole class.
- Early Referral – if we identify children that require specialist intervention, we contact the Speech and Language Therapy Team via their Request for Help Line. The service also has a wealth of information on their website for practitioners and parents.
- Communication with Parents – Parents do not always know where to get information and support for aspects related to SLC. We ensure that parents are aware of the support put in place in setting, through our app and termly communication newsletter which signposts parents to information and support available.
- Whole setting approach to language – all interactions can be a teaching point, especially around SLC. As part of supervision, staff observe interactions between practitioners and children and feedback any development points. We use interaction strategies such as the ShREC model to deepen the level of interaction and immerse children further in a language rich environment.

We use quality texts as part of our book inspired curriculum, learning two focus words of the week, and three Makaton signs to develop other forms of communication, especially with a high proportion of SEND in setting.

This integrated response has had success. In the first year, we have turned 54% working below the expected level to over 80% working at or above by the end of the year.