Schools are complex ecosystems. Whenever we implement a new idea or strategy, we need to allow time for it to settle into this ecosystem.

The pandemic has brought this fact into sharp relief, as we have adapted to new ways of working that were unimaginable only a year ago. Each change made its ripples felt across our communities, and continues to do so as we begin to understand the full effects of three national lockdowns on children’s development.

The measures we put into place to mitigate these effects will bring further change, as we implement new strategies for catch-up.

For instance, school closures may have affected the development of speech, language and communication, and so the announcement that the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) will be available for all primary schools to access is welcome news. This programme won’t be a silver bullet for all our pandemic woes, but it will create ripples of impact that we can perhaps use to our advantage.

But how can we make sure that such interventions are as successful as possible? The Response to Intervention (RTI) model might help us here. This is an approach to school intervention, used most commonly in the US, whereby three tiers of support are woven into the existing structures of a school. The first tier sits at classroom level; the second tier involves small-group additional support; and the third tier draws on further external specialist support, for children who are in need of the most help.

Covid catch-up: Powerful interventions

If we consider NELI through the lens of RTI, it is easy to see where it might sit within the systems and structures of our Reception classes. The first tier is the daily practice that we already put in place. We know what is effective for developing children’s language: responsive conversations, building on and extending children’s language, reading to and with the children, and careful attention to talk.

Research suggests there are three areas to consider so as to improve outcomes (the Better Communication Research Programme, 2012):

The language learning environment: the physical environment and learning context.

Language learning opportunities: structured ways to support language development.

Language learning interactions: the ways in which adults in the setting talk with children.

For the majority of children, providing the right environment, opportunities and interactions will be enough to help them build their language, but some will make slower progress and find it harder to respond to the rich provision in the classroom.

For these children, a supportive intensive programme may be helpful - a tier 2 targeted rocket boost that accelerates their learning and makes classroom provision accessible. This is the job of NELI.

Yet we know that there will be some who need even more support; perhaps their response to the focused intervention highlights a greater difficulty that will need longer-term, tier 3 intervention. This is where we reach out to specialist teams, including speech and language therapists, to work with us - making sure that children, families and practitioners are supported to meet individual needs.

So, if we want to ensure that no child falls through the net, perhaps we need to recognise that good interventions come in threes.

Megan Dixon is director of research at Holy Catholic Family Multi-Academy Trust. She would like to thank Claudine Bowyer-Crane, Rob Newton and Victoria Wadsworth for their input into this article

This article originally appeared in the 11 June 2021 issue under the headline “Why the best interventions come in threes”