Helping children to develop their communication and language in the early years is crucial. As the EEF’s Preparing for Literacy guidance report states:
‘Language provides the foundation of thinking and learning and should be prioritised.’
Some children may need additional support – perhaps because they have experienced fewer sustained and supportive interactions before coming to nursery. Research evidence suggests that a blend of implicit (e.g. play-based interactions, open-ended questions) and explicit (e.g. teaching new words directly) approaches leads to the best outcomes.
Introducing Concept Cat
At Goodway Nursery School, we’ve enhanced our provision by combining both approaches through the Concept Cat programme. Now in our second year, we’re excited to share our journey.
Concept Cat helps children learn early verbal concepts (like empty, long, hard) through fun group sessions, followed by reinforcement in play. It’s part of the Word Aware 2 book and backed by strong research evidence.
Planning for success
When we were given the chance to take part in the Concept Cat programme, we jumped at the opportunity – we are always keen to further our continuous professional development (CPD). However, we knew that careful planning would be key to success. So we built Concept Cat into our School Development Plan and Performance Management objectives. Before we even started, we gave a lot of thought to how we would implement Concept Cat and maximise its chance of success.
Training
As the lead practitioner for Concept Cat in our school, I booked myself onto the main training. This was live, online training that gave an in-depth account of what the programme entailed — all my initial ‘whats’ and ‘whys’ were answered, and I felt ready to implement the programme. There was also a box of resources, including Concept Cat soft toys, puppets, word cards, and a helpful handbook.
However, I also needed to think carefully about how the wider team would put Concept Cat into action. We booked all of our teaching assistants, who lead group times with the children, onto the online training as well. This required careful planning to make sure that we met the required ratios in nursery whilst releasing staff for training. In addition, some staff needed support to log onto the training and missed parts due to not being able to access the IT.
Despite these challenges, most staff found the training helpful. In addition, some teaching assistants watched me model lessons to a group of children so that they could see Concept Cat taking place in ‘real life’. We found that implementing the programme was a positive experience, but it took time, needed careful planning, and some staff needed additional support at times.
Getting started with the children
We began with the first concept on the list, using morning sessions to introduce it and then reinforce it throughout the day. Staff found the sessions engaging and easy to resource. Concepts often linked to our core books and supported maths learning (e.g. positional language, capacity, time).
We also:
- Used ‘Activate’ ideas to embed concepts in play, indoors and outside
- Shared weekly home-learning ideas with parents
- Used one of the weekly sessions to recap and review a concept we had previously taught: repetition and reinforcing knowledge are key to the children remembering more
Children’s enjoyment of Concept Cat
Children loved the sessions — especially singing the Word Rap and watching Picky Puppet pretending to eat objects that related to that week’s concept. For example, if the concept was ‘hard,’ he would eat a wooden block but not a cushion. The children soon began using new vocabulary independently:
“It’s long!” exclaimed one child, unravelling their fruit winder at lunchtime.
Another child broke up dried spaghetti and sorted it into “long” and “not long” pieces.
We placed cards, with words and symbols, around the environment to prompt use of concepts like first, behind, and between — words often used in routines but rarely taught explicitly.
The impact of Concept Cat
The EEF’s evaluation found that:
- Children in Concept Cat settings made 2 months’ additional progress in conceptual vocabulary
- EYPP-eligible children made 3 months’ additional progress
- There was also 2 months’ additional progress in early numeracy
Our own positive experience of Concept Cat has encouraged us to embed it fully into our school life – it is an integral part of our routine and day-to-day provision. Staff are confident to teach the concepts at group times and then use them throughout the day. Children are highly motivated to join in with the adult-led sessions and use the verbal concepts in their play.
Our key takeaway is that by embracing Concept Cat across your setting, you can maximise its impact – share the word of the week with all staff and parents, use a multisensory approach including signs and visuals and revisit concepts regularly through play.