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Without doubt, it’s been a hard year with schools and pupils constantly rising to the challenges and changes before them. 

As we move towards the summer break there is - if you choose - the chance to consider what teaching and learning you might offer in school and at home in July and August to help your pupils prepare for the next academic year.

With the DfE offering funding for one to two weeks of teaching in school over summer, Oak has developed a specific [set of resources to save you time](https://www.thenational.academy/summer-learning-support "Summer Learning Support") should you wish to run a summer school, set work for home learning or share resources with parents and pupils to use over the summer.

From 7th June, we’ll be offering [Summer Learning Support](https://www.thenational.academy/summer-learning-support "Summer Learning Support") through:

- priority units and lessons curated in English, Maths, Science, Geography and History for EYFS to Key Stage 4
- newly designed unit quizzes as a formative tool to help identify gaps in knowledge
- creative, active and wellbeing resources from a range of partner organisations, signposting pupils to vital wellbeing support

In particular, we’re keen to help your work preparing your pupils as they move stages, particularly transitioning between Years 6 and 7 and also supporting Years 9, 10 and 11. 

As ever, our resources have been created by teachers, for teachers and can be used as they are or adapted to meet your pupils’ needs.

We also know the importance of pupils’ wellbeing and the ongoing impact the pandemic has had, so we’re balancing our academic content with creative, active and wellbeing resources provided by some brilliant organisations. You can signpost pupils and their families to activities from partners like BAFTA, Place2Be, National Literacy Trust and Youth Sport Trust.

Since we began creating and sharing lessons in April 2020, we hope that Oak’s been by your side, offering you resources whenever and however you’ve needed them. We regularly hear how schools [use Oak to set cover](https://www.thenational.academy/lesson-cover "Resources for lesson cover"), to [provide lessons for absent pupils](https://www.thenational.academy/high-quality-resources-for-absent-pupils "lessons for absent pupils"), and for [homework and revision](https://www.thenational.academy/revision-homework-and-learning-recovery "resources for homework and revision").

We’re proud to have delivered an amazing 125 million lessons since we launched, with 750,000 resources downloaded from the [Teacher Hub](https://teachers.thenational.academy "Teacher Hub") for use in classrooms.

So as well as our Summer Learning Support, we’re keeping our 40,000 teacher-led resources across 35 subjects from EYFS to KS4 available for you to edit and adapt — including [600 resources covering a range of therapies and developmental skills](https://teachers.thenational.academy/specialist "Specialist lessons and resources") for children who attend specialist settings.

Whatever you have planned for the summer, I want to say thank you for your work in another tough year where you’ve shown, once more, the resilience and ingenuity of the education profession. And thank you for your continued support for Oak.

New resources to support your summer learning planning

Find out more about new resources to help support you and your pupils if you choose to offer teaching and learning in school or at home this summer.

Matt Hood

New resources from Oak: Everything you need for summer learning


*Matthew Audley is Lead Trainer for Place2Be, responsible for quality assurance of training delivery across the UK. He is a UKCP registered psychotherapist and clinical supervisor, with 25 years’ experience. He also works as an organisational consultant, trained through the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust and is currently training as a Group Analyst at the Institute for Group Analysis.*

## Teaching is a relational task

At the best of times teaching is a challenging and potentially stressful task. It not only involves conveying information but building the intellectual and creative capabilities of children while managing the individual and collective behaviour of the class. 

Beyond this, attachment theory emphasises that teaching is primarily a relational task: that authentic learning can only happen where there is trust and consistency established between teacher and child over time.

As a charity supporting the mental health of children in school settings, Place2Be has long recognised the importance of supporting teaching staff to manage the impact of working with children with mental health needs. 

Throughout our decades of school-based provision we have noticed how teachers regularly experience the vicarious trauma of working to support these needs through their day-to-day, hour-to-hour practice.

## ‘I haven’t got the time to think’

Right now we are experiencing a collective trauma. We are all struggling to process and adapt to significant loss. This loss is felt particularly keenly in areas of society where there continues to be close human contact. Like Hospitals. And Schools.

A teacher recently declared in the middle of one of our group wellbeing sessions - “But I haven’t got the time to think”. She was feeling so geared up to performing tasks and reacting to relentless challenges (whilst forever on her feet) that it felt almost impossible to pause and take time to reflect on her experience. Sadly for her, the opportunity to reflect has become so unfamiliar it becomes almost frightening.

Teachers absorb and digest the emotional psychological impact of working with vulnerable children often without knowing. If not given the chance to process and reflect on this experience they risk becoming psychologically blocked. This can begin to seriously compromise a teacher’s mental health. 

The consequent stress generated impinges on their ability to focus; it questions their self-confidence and invites self-doubt. Like the children they work with, teachers can become vulnerable to generalised anxiety in relation to their ability to perform the very task that they have made their life’s vocation.

## ‘Breathe between the thoughts’

Teachers need dedicated time to ‘breathe between the thoughts’ of their unrelenting performance and experience. This is not a luxury. It is a basic need.

When a counsellor works therapeutically with children it is an ethical requirement that they receive ‘supervision’ for an hour at least once monthly. It has long astonished and shocked me that teachers do not receive the same support to process their work experience.

We are letting down our children if we don’t properly support teachers to reflect on their experience. It supports and builds resilience in their own well-being, and therefore reinforces their capacity to build secure and trusting working relationships with the children they teach.

## The role of Place2Be

In response to this priority need, Place2Be has developed an online group wellbeing service known as [Place2Think](http://www.place2be.org.uk/supervision). Teaching staff at all levels, from head teacher through to mid-day supervisor, are given the opportunity - in small groups relevant to their role - to process the emotional impact of their work, step back from the psychological demands of continuous performance and make sense of what they have learnt. 

This not only informs better practice. It also ensures they are better able to manage and sustain their own mental health. We are fortunate to have funding to be able to offer this service for free to all Education professionals in [London](http://www.place2be.org.uk/supervision) and [Scotland](http://www.place2be.org.uk/Place2Think).

In addition, we are delighted to be able to offer our online [Mental Health Champions – Foundation Programme](http://www.place2be.org.uk/foundation)  for free to all UK based teachers and school staff. The 5-week programme not only focuses on the mental health of children and young people, but also crucially on the adults around a child including teachers.

During this traumatic time when teacher resilience is key to sustaining the mental well-being and resilience of vulnerable children, a ‘whole school’ approach to mental health should be part of the working fabric of every school throughout the country. This cannot wait until tomorrow when the pandemic has waned. Teachers need time to ‘breathe between the thoughts’ right now.

Place2Be blog

Matthew Audley

Breathe between the thoughts: Why mental health support for teachers is not a luxury but a basic need

Schools continue to do the most incredible job to support students and families. I’m very much in awe of colleagues who are offering high-quality teaching and support not only to students in school but through their remote learning offer to those at home. The professionalism, expertise and resilience exhibited under these circumstances is inspiring!

Students who rely on SEN support are potentially facing some of the greatest disadvantages in this latest lockdown period. Many of them are less likely to have a place to remain in school as a ‘vulnerable child’ compared to their peers with an EHC plan, and in many cases are finding remote learning more difficult to access and engage with this time around. This blog explores some ideas and strategies including how you can best make use of the Oak offer to meet the needs of students working at SEN support.

Inclusion lies at the heart of the Oak National Academy offer, with all lessons and resources designed to be accessible for all students. Our lessons have all been through robust quality assurance processes and have been tested by leading SEND practitioners and other organisations in the SEND community of practice.

Our accessibility features include:

-   Closed captions for all videos

-   BSL interpreted English & Maths lessons for our younger students (Y1 - Y3)

-   Considerations to colour palette / contrasts & font size

-   ARIA hints throughout the website to support navigation

-   Visual support & Makaton signs in specialist lessons

-   Full transcripts available for all lessons

SEN support learners will likely require a more personalised remote offer and additional support to access online lessons, which in turn can add pressure and workload for their teachers. With thousands of high-quality lessons available that can be matched and aligned with your own curriculum, our advice is to not reinvent the wheel. Instead, consider how Oak resources can be personalised to best meet the needs of your students when they can’t be in the classroom with their usual support.

To help you tackle the issue of supporting SEN learners, here are ten top tips on inclusive remote learning from our amazing community of practice:

1.  Compare your curriculum with Oak National Academy, and wherever you can, pick out the resources and lessons that match. Don’t reinvent the wheel.

2.  Year group references have been taken out of all lessons, so students working a touch behind their peers can access lessons without impacting on their confidence & self esteem. Use this to select materials for you pupils to personalise how you are meeting their learning needs.

3.  Consider the pace of learning e.g. break lessons down and spend more time concentrating on fewer lessons. Screen fatigue and concentration issues are becoming very common barriers to learning.

4.  Taking quizzes or test elements out of lessons can help reduce anxieties for some learners. Consider any anxieties that may be reducing their engagement. You can turn quizzes on or off when you share a lesson from the [Teacher Hub](https://teachers.thenational.academy/).

5.  Feedback has told us that repetition & overlearning has worked really well for many students with SEND (and in a number of cases has led to accelerated learning). Build this into lessons to establish routine and embed new learning.

6.  Oak’s lessons can be downloaded and adapted via the [Teacher Hub](https://teachers.thenational.academy/), providing opportunities to scaffold and develop further resources and activities to support students working at SEN support. Where you need to, use ready-made resources as a starting point to adapt for a learner’s needs.

7.  Using the C-STEP principle (see below) can help to further personalise Oak lessons.

8.  Using Oak lessons has allowed teachers to focus more of their time on giving feedback, checking wellbeing and connecting with students and families. Instead of spending too much time planning from scratch, make time to focus on the important things that only their own teacher can accomplish.

9.  Remote learning is very much a partnership in which student and family voices are key. Work with them to create the best remote offer for their context.

10.  Encourage families to make the most of serendipitous learning. Helping around the house, daily exercise and even playing in the snow has lots of educational value!

Hopefully our Oak resources and the ideas shared in this blog are able to support you in making your remote offer accessible and engaging for all students. Find the [specialist lessons](https://classroom.thenational.academy/specialist), [mainstream classroom](https://classroom.thenational.academy/) (without references to levels or year groups) and [Teacher Hub](https://teachers.thenational.academy/) on our website, as well as further support and guidance at [support.thenational.academy.](https://support.thenational.academy/en/)

SEN Support - Accessible remote learning & making the most of the Oak offer

C-STEP Principle 

Inclusion lies at the heart of the Oak National Academy offer, with all lessons and resources designed to be accessible for all students. We take a look at how you can make the most of Oak's SEN lessons and resources.