Professor Becky Francis: Evidence-Based Approaches to Developing Children's Communication Skills

Professor Becky Francis, Chief Executive of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), has outlined practical evidence on how schools and early years settings can best support children's speech, language and communication development. The research demonstrates that systematic approaches to teaching oracy—encompassing physical, linguistic, cognitive and social elements—can significantly improve attainment when embedded across the curriculum. High-quality classroom dialogue, where teachers facilitate rather than dominate discussion, proves particularly effective in building confidence and capability. The findings carry important implications for closing language gaps that often emerge before school entry and widen over time. For children from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with special educational needs, targeted interventions and vocabulary-rich curricula provide essential scaffolding. By prioritising communication skills alongside literacy and numeracy, settings can ensure foundational competencies are established during the crucial early years and sustained throughout primary education. Local authorities and school leaders are encouraged to review how oracy features within their improvement strategies, including through professional development and curriculum design. As the evidence base grows, there is increasing recognition that investment in communication skills pays dividends not only for academic attainment but for social mobility, employability and civic participation, aligning with broader efforts to improve life chances for all children.