BESA CORNER
This month in our ongoing feature highlighting the work of education suppliers’ trade body BESA, we hear from OxEd & Assessment and Sapio.
Why oracy is now at the heart of early years education
Communication and language have always been important in the early years, but recent policy changes have made one thing clear: oracy is now firmly at the heart of education. Across the latest policy developments, oracy (oral language) is increasingly given equal status to literacy and numeracy as a core pillar of learning. For primary schools, this means placing even
greater focus on developing children’s communication skills from the very start of their education.
According to Kindred Squared, an average of 37% of children joining Reception are not school ready, with 25% struggling with basic language skills such as answering simple questions.
Oracy is no longer a ‘nice to have’ – it’s fundamental to giving every child the best start in life. Under the updated Ofsted inspection framework, early years settings are expected to identify children’s oral language needs early and provide evidence-based support that makes a measurable difference. In practice, this means regularly assessing pupils’ oral language skills and delivering targeted interventions for those who need them. The proposed SEND reforms place inclusion front-and-centre by stating children’s needs should be met successfully within mainstream settings wherever possible. A key part of achieving this is developing effective teaching
practices that support oral language from the outset. Policy continues to emphasise evidence-informed practice, with schools expected to use resources shown to have a positive impact on pupil outcomes. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) highlights programmes with the strongest evidence bases, including the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI). Funded by the Department for Education and available to all state- funded Primary schools in England, NELI is one example of how schools can implement evidence-led support to help every child participate, progress and succeed.
The Curriculum and Assessment Review also proposes the introduction of an oracy framework to ensure children are explicitly taught communication skills, while the Government’s Best Start agenda identifies early intervention as a primary driver of improved life chances. This growing focus on oracy reflects what over a decade of research into oral language has shown: strong oral language skills underpin children’s success in school and later life. The vision at policy level is clear. There should be high-quality teaching for all children, early identification of needs, and evidence-based intervention for children who need it the most. Translating this into the classroom is the most important part, so that all children can have the chance to succeed - no matter their background or starting point.
As expectations around oracy, inclusion and early identification increase, language must remain at the heart of early years education. Strong oral language supports learning, reading, behaviour, and wellbeing – helping give every child the best possible start in life.
For more information, visit:
www.teachneli.org/intervention
Leading safe, responsible AI in schools Comment by Laura Knight, Founder of Sapio.
What if the most risky thing a school could do with AI this year is nothing at all – to let habits, products and expectations grow around you without ever deciding what you stand for?
AI is arriving in schools whether leaders feel ready or not, and it is doing so in different ways: visible ones such as pilots, CPD sessions and SLT discussions, and quieter ones such as staff experimenting alone, pupils using tools at home, or
vendors sliding ‘AI-enabled’ features into platforms you already pay for. The task is to treat AI as part of a wider strategic conversation about curriculum, workload, equity and the professional culture you want to build, bringing both the principled discipline to say “no” where it does not belong and the ambition to explore where it might genuinely help pupils and staff to thrive.
I think the leadership work at hand is to decide where AI belongs in your specific context, and what ‘safe, responsible and effective’ looks like in action for your pupils and staff. That takes intention and care – and it also asks us to hold a clear view of risk alongside a cautious optimism about the opportunities in front of us.
A common challenge I see is consumer adoption racing ahead of institutional thinking, with colleagues getting excited about new tools
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www.education-today.co.uk
before deciding what problem they are actually trying to solve. Novelty is understandable, but a sustainable approach starts with familiar questions about high-priority use cases and contextual challenges, and with weaving AI directly into existing strategic work rather than isolating it. In education, we already know how to run plan-do-review; the schools doing AI well are applying that same discipline to technology through time-limited pilots, clear success criteria, comparison of options and a willingness to stop when a tool does not deliver.
Governance structures make a tangible difference, and parking AI with IT or the Computer Science team and hoping they’ll sort it is not realistic. A small, cross-cutting steering group with a named senior lead, a proper slice of staff, DSLs, data protection and governors keeps safeguarding, data and educational value in the same conversation. Policy sits with this too: if your AI-related policies are older than a year, they need a spring-clean, clear boundaries and explicit language about malpractice. The most encouraging work I’m seeing is unglamorous but deliberate: leaders deciding what they stand for, running small, well-framed trials, and then either scaling or shifting with confidence. When AI is handled in that way, it can ease pressure in the right places, create space for richer curriculum and pastoral work, and support a more humane, sustainable professional life rather than undermining it. This is a good moment to capture what ‘safe, responsible and effective’ AI looks like for your community. Hoping for the best is not a strategy; our pupils and staff deserve a safe, responsible approach to AI that is led, not left to chance.
September 2026
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