In July we hosted three webinars for primary, secondary and specialist schools to explain Oak’s plans for the 2020/21 year and answer some of the questions our users have. You can rewatch these below if you missed them – and please feel free to share this page with any colleagues too.

## Primary curriculum for 2020/21

Watch Curriculum Director David Thomas and Primary Headteacher Tilly Browne as they discuss Oak’s primary curriculum plans for 2020/21.

Primary: How to make the most of Oak in 2020/21

Join Oak’s Curriculum Director, David Thomas, and Secondary Principal, Jo Facer, as they discuss Oak’s secondary curriculum plans for 2020/21.

Secondary curriculum for 2020/21

Secondary: How to make the most of Oak in 2020/21

Join Oak’s Specialist Curriculum Lead, Anne Heavey, and Subject Leads, Roseanna Gooder and Alistair Crawford, as they discuss Oak’s specialist curriculum plans for 2020/21.

Specialist curriculum for 2020/21

Specialist: How to make the most of Oak in 2020/21

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Watch our webinars to find out more about our plans for primary, secondary and specialist curricula in the 2020/21 year.

Matt Hood

2020-21 Oak curriculum webinars

Mia O’Gorman, Science Teacher at Hammersmith Academy, spoke to us about how using Oak National Academy to support revision has been beneficial for both pupils and teachers.

Like so many teachers, Mia and her colleagues have been helping their pupils with exam preparation. With many students having isolated or falling sick themselves, there’s been inevitable disruption to their learning - which is now making their revision planning across the three science topics more challenging.

As Mia says: “For GCSE science, students do six papers so it can get a little bit overwhelming for them to try and map their revision because they might have missed topics when they were isolating.”

To help her students figure out themselves what they need to relearn and what they need to revise, Mia has used Oak’s lessons to create a simple but highly organised ‘independent learning pack’ which has been shared with her pupils over the school’s learning platform.

## Oak’s sequence of lessons provide ready-made revision resources

Mia explains: “We say to students that we obviously know there's been a little bit of lost learning and here we’ve brought all these amazing resources together for you so that once we've helped you identify these gaps in your knowledge, you've got this resource to go away and revise or relearn whatever you need.”

The learning pack consists of all of the relevant Oak quizzes, lessons and resources that align to the chemistry, biology and physics GCSE papers. Mia also includes links to other resources in her pack - and links to past exam papers.

Mia explains: “Now we've had advanced information from the exam boards on what’s to be covered, it’s been really easy to update the pack and let students know topics that are going to be a main focus.”

## Oak quizzes are a great way to identify gaps in knowledge

For each of the topics, Mia has linked to Oak’s quizzes. Before students start revising each topic, Mia directs them to take the quiz so they can identify their level of learning - and from there they decide whether they need to relearn the topic or just revise.

Mia says: “We find the unit quizzes really useful especially to pinpoint whether there’s a need to catch up on lost learning or to just revise. For example, if a pupil gets less than 20% on a unit quiz, you know that’s a unit they need to relearn.

“If a student does better on a unit quiz, then we tell them to watch the review lessons.

## Using Oak has reduced workload

Thinking about how Oak helps with her workload, Mia says: “Oak’s helped us with our planning at a time when there's been so many other things that have taken priority.

“We've been showing the pack at the start of every lesson and just reminding students it exists. It's constantly available on SatchelOne as homework, so they've always got access.

“And we just hammer the availability of the resource home in every lesson - whenever they ask us a question I ask, have you been on the independent learning pack?”

---

## Don’t spend hours creating revision plans from scratch

Take inspiration from Mia and check out our [new revision pages](https://www.thenational.academy/gcse-and-sats-preparation "View our pages"), or head straight to [Teacher Hub](https://teachers.thenational.academy/ "Go to Teacher Hub") to get started.

Find out more about how using Oak to support revision has been beneficial for both pupils and teachers at Hammersmith Academy from science teacher, Mia O’Gorman.

Rachel Strom

How using Oak for revision has helped personalise revision plans for pupils and reduce workload for teachers

Children’s Mental Health Week returns for 2022 from 7th-13th February, with the theme of ‘Growing Together’. 

We’re really proud to be supporting the incredible charities [Place2Be](https://www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk "Place2Be") and [BAFTA Kids](https://www.baftakids.org/ "BAFTA Kids") to bring you a [free assembly](https://classroom.thenational.academy/assemblies "Oak assemblies") at 8am on Monday 7th February. This year we’ll be hosting two versions: one for primary pupils, and one for secondary pupils.

The primary assembly features special guests Lindsey Russell from *Blue Peter* and Oti Mabuse from *Strictly Come Dancing*. Television presenter Emma Willis and actors Kia Pegg and Kit Young will be joining the secondary assembly.


Join the Children’s Mental Health Week assembly 2022

CMHW assemblies 2022

### Check out the work of our partner Place2Be

The virtual assemblies kick off a week of activities and events to shine a spotlight on the importance of children and young people’s mental health. [Place2Be](https://www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk/ "Place2Be"), which does incredible work all year round, has created some wonderful resources to help families and schools take part.

During Children’s Mental Health Week, Place2Be is encouraging everyone across the UK to get involved through a series of activities, including: an interactive map of events across the country, a dress up day ‘Dress to Express’ to encourage children to express their personality, free school learning resources and a social media campaign on the theme of Growing Together. For more information, head to [childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk](https://www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk "Childrens Mental Health Week ")

### An exciting opportunity from our friends at BAFTA Kids

During the assembly, BAFTA Kids will also be launching their annual Young Presenter Competition, which aims to find exciting new on-screen talent aged between 10-18 years, encouraging young people’s self-esteem and confidence.

Previous winners of the competition have gone on to host at BAFTA red-carpets and events throughout the year, so tune in to the assembly to find out how budding presenters can enter. More information is available on the [BAFTA website](http://www.baftakids.org/competitions "BAFTA Kids competition ").


CMWH 

Rachel Watkins, Head of English at St Thomas á Becket secondary in Wakefield, spoke to us about how using Oak National Academy for lesson cover has relieved stress, improved pupil behaviour and given families peace of mind during school disruption.

Rachel and her colleagues at St Thomas á Becket have been using Oak since November 2020. In the early stages of the pandemic they were spending a lot of time pre-recording lessons to send to pupils and planning for lesson cover on a case-by-case basis. She talked to us in detail about how introducing Oak has been a huge relief and was a turning point in the way staff plan for disruption and provide consistency for pupils.

### Oak takes the pressure off when teachers are isolating

Since Covid hit, more members of staff have been off, sometimes too unwell to set work from home. Ten day isolation periods have also meant significant cover at short notice. 

Rather than trying to set day-to-day cover that’s adapted from the normal scheme of work, we look in advance at where specific modules from Oak map against our existing curriculum. Oak lessons and resources are free for us to use inside or outside the classroom with little additional planning needed.

If somebody calls me tomorrow and says ‘I’ve tested positive’, I can look at where they’re up to in the scheme and pick the next Oak lesson in the series. Alternatively, if that Oak lesson doesn’t quite fit, I can search for another standalone Oak lesson that I know they can really benefit from and fits our wider teaching and learning plans. All of this takes very little time and then the cover supervisor is set up.


Once the Oak lesson is found it’s simple. The cover staff member can download the relevant Oak resources – slides, worksheets, and quizzes – to use themselves. And they can even ’team-teach’, using the Oak teacher-led video playing alongside them as needed. 

Alternatively, if we have access to internet connected devices for all students, we can send the students to Oak’s online classroom to complete the lesson independently, with staff supervising behaviour and checking for understanding.

### Using Oak for cover lessons improves engagement and behaviour

With the increase in staff who are non-specialist or external cover providers  it can mean these lessons don’t lead to the same learning of a regular structured lesson with a subject specialist or experienced teacher. But Oak is providing structure and consistency that leads to positive outcomes for both pupils and staff. 

Cover teachers really like Oak. It makes lesson cover so much more manageable. The lessons are so straightforward and easy to follow. They are sequenced and structured so that cover teachers can ‘team teach’ with the Oak teacher in the lesson video. The natural pauses in the video lessons leave space for questions and discussion. This is especially powerful when the person covering is non-specialist or unfamiliar with the topic and it’s definitely improved pupil engagement.

Using Oak, we find that the students are much more focussed. It’s so easy for students to feel, when they’ve had two or three lessons of cover, that they’ve achieved nothing. With Oak it’s different – It’s work in their books, relevant and structured and they feel accountable.


In traditional cover lessons, if they’re not structured like a normal lesson, pupils are often left to their own devices which can have a negative impact on behaviour. I feel a lot safer leaving Oak as a cover lesson than I would leaving pupils making notes or reading. They pay better attention to it and it’s easier to see if they’ve completed the work properly.

### Provides peace of mind for families

Understandably, parents have shown concern when teachers are absent from school, especially for a prolonged period of time or if teachers are out across different subjects. 

When we speak with parents we’re able to say we’re using Oak lessons led by an expert teacher with a member of staff in the room to help check understanding. We can share that the lessons are structured in a way that keeps pupils on track and offers opportunities for supply or cover teachers to check in and offer support.

How using Oak for lesson cover has improved outcomes for pupils and teachers blog

2020-21 Oak curriculum webinars

Primary curriculum for 2020/21

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How using Oak for revision has helped personalise revision plans for pupils and reduce workload for teachers

Join the Children’s Mental Health Week assembly 2022

How using Oak for lesson cover has improved outcomes for pupils and teachers