OxEd & Assessment Partnership Announcement

Pearson Australia and OxEd & Assessment join forces to bring the highly evidenced early language program available globally to Australia and New Zealand 

Oral language skills are fundamental to every aspect of education and are an indicator of healthy learning and development from early schooling right through to employment. Despite this, many students in Australia and New Zealand move through primary school with unidentified oral language difficulties. 

When students facing difficulty with their oral language development are identified and supported, they have greater opportunity for progress with literacy, mathematics, socio-emotional development and communication which result in overall greater wellbeing and opportunities for a bright future. 

Pearson Australia is dedicated to assisting schools in Australia and New Zealand to recognise students who require additional oral language assistance. This commitment extends to equipping educators with training and resources, ensuring that necessary support for these students can be provided more readily and with confidence.  

As a cornerstone to this commitment, Pearson Australian is proud to partner with OxEd & Assessment (OxEd) to deliver research-led assessments, interventions and training to schools in Australia and New Zealand. 

OxEd is the provider of the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) program, a highly evidenced early language program available globally. OxEd has worked with over half a million students in over 10,000 primary schools, identifying 100,000 students who would benefit from additional support through targeted intervention.  As a University of Oxford spinout company, research is at the core of everything OxEd do.   

OxEd’s Founder, Professor Charles Hulme acknowledges the widening language gap resulting from the pandemic’s impact, emphasising the importance of supporting students with the “right provision”.  

“By using evidence-based educational assessments and targeted early intervention, schools can quickly and easily identify students who have language or reading challenges and are in danger of falling further behind,” Professor Hulme said.  

OxEd provides a suite of tools to ensure that every child has the best possible support. Their oral language assessment, LanguageScreen, and reading skills assessment, ReadingScreen help educators to quickly and easily obtain accurate data to inform intervention and track progress throughout primary school.

For those students identified as needing additional language support, the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) program, and on-demand online training, support educators to close the language development gap in primary schools.

NELI Whole Class, a companion to NELI, complements and enhances NELI so educators can deliver oral language enrichment to all students in the class, as well as further boost the skills of those who are receiving intervention. 

Pearson Australia is proud to be working with OxEd and looks forward to working alongside educators in Australia and New Zealand. Together, we bring local knowledge and expertise with highly evidenced, and effective resources to support oral language and reading development.