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__As bags are packed and alarms set this week, many are setting out with the hope for a ‘return to normal’ as teachers return to their classrooms.__

But as we get back into the swing of early mornings, endless marking, new classes, subjects, and exam specs, it’s important that we don’t let ‘normalcy’ return in one area in particular — and make sure we avoid a return to the unsustainable levels of planning and resource creation seen before and during the pandemic.

Oak is remaining open and free to use to lighten the load in whatever ways we can. We want to give you more time to focus on what is most important: teaching fantastic and challenging lessons tailored to the young people in your classroom.

We have your resourcing needs covered with a sequenced curriculum of fully resourced lessons across 28 subjects, stretching from [EYFS Literacy](https://teachers.thenational.academy/subjects/literacy/key-stages/early-years-foundation-stage) to [Key Stage 4 Latin](https://teachers.thenational.academy/subjects/latin/key-stages/key-stage-4), via [Key Stage 3 Science](https://teachers.thenational.academy/subjects/science/key-stages/key-stage-3) and [Key Stage 2 Music](https://teachers.thenational.academy/subjects/music/key-stages/key-stage-2). All developed by fellow teachers and expert organisations to give you everything you need in one place.

However, we know that prepared resources don’t necessarily make planning quick and easy, so we’ve revitalised our Teacher Hub lesson information and curriculum maps in all subjects so that we really can make your lesson and curriculum planning easier.

__Here’s how [our Teacher Hub](https://teachers.thenational.academy/ "Visit our Teacher Hub") and [curriculum map](https://teachers.thenational.academy/oaks-curricula) changes can help.__ 

Curriculum map

### Find the right lessons easily.

We’ve improved the readability, layout and navigability of all our curriculum maps. The structure, style and contents of the documents are consistent so you can easily locate the right information you need if you work across multiple key stages or subjects. We’ve also added lesson by lesson details on both the documents and Teacher Hub so you can find the right lessons without nearly as much searching.

### Understand every lesson’s core content.

Once you have found potential lessons, we want it to be clear and obvious whether the lesson is appropriate for your students. In the lesson overview for each lesson on the Teacher Hub, as well as on the new curriculum maps, you will find a ‘pupils will learn’ summary for every lesson. This summary of core learning, knowledge and content in the lesson makes it easy to select the right lessons for your class. 

### More easily map your curriculum against Oak’s curriculum.

We want you to be able to seamlessly slot Oak lessons and units into your existing school curriculum. Across the Teacher Hub and curriculum maps, we’ve started to include National Curriculum links and recommended prior and future study units so you can decide how an Oak unit fits into your curriculum sequence. We have also included curriculum themes in a number of subjects so you can see how units from different year groups, and even different key stages, fit together and link with each other. 

### Think deeply about a lesson’s place in the curriculum.

As well as a consistent and standardised amount of core information about each lesson, in some subjects we have also added additional information to support your thinking about the subject. In [Key Stage 4 History](https://teachers.thenational.academy/subjects/history/key-stages/key-stage-4) for example, you can find disciplinary knowledge and substantive concepts for all lessons. Along with curriculum themes, this information can help you think deeply about how to get the most out of the lesson.

### Be prepared for the lesson.

Across the curriculum, we’ve provided equipment requirements and flagged extra considerations where appropriate so you are well prepared for the lesson. This will help you know if you need to get some extra materials before the lesson, or whether you need to check whether the lesson content is appropriate for your students.

### Find the curriculum maps easily.

You will now find links to the relevant curriculum map throughout Teacher Hub. Links can be found on every unit overview, lesson overview, subject key stage and subject year group page so you will never be far from the information you need.

We know that our Teacher Hub changes and curriculum map updates are not the finished product so we hope this is a good place to start as we continue to experiment with ways to make planning with Oak a quick and effective thinking process. Over the coming academic year, we’ll be working to add more information to all lessons as well as new features so that your planning can be as effective and hassle-free as possible both in and out of the classroom.

__[Start browsing our curricula maps in Teacher Hub now.](https://teachers.thenational.academy/oaks-curricula)__

Chris Fountain

Using our new curriculum maps to support your classroom planning

It’s been a tough year for teachers, schools and families managing the impact of the pandemic. Here at Oak we’re glad to have played our part, supporting teachers and pupils with over 130million lessons.

While Oak was set up as an emergency response to COVID-19, over the past 15 months teachers have shown their trademark ingenuity in making the best use of our resources in a wide range of ways. 

We’re therefore pleased to confirm that our 40,000+ lessons, slides and resources will remain available and free into next year. Whilst restful summer holidays are deserved more than ever, any teacher that wants to can now plan to use Oak for September.

To help, we’ve created [new planning pages](https://www.thenational.academy/planning "find out more about planning"), so you can get set across 35 subjects, from EYFS to Key Stage 4 and for those in specialist settings.

Since schools fully reopened 30,000 teachers and 150,000 pupils have used Oak every week. Teachers’ innovation has seen them continuing to access our [Teacher Hub](https://teachers.thenational.academy/ "go to Teacher Hub") to save themselves time and ease their workload around:

- [lesson planning](https://www.thenational.academy/free-lesson-resources "find out more about lesson planning with Oak") - with Oak’s lessons mapped against the national curriculum
- teaching in-class - with teachers creating and supplementing their lessons with [Oak’s editable resources](https://teachers.thenational.academy "go to Teacher Hub") or ‘team-teaching’ with our videos
- preparing [cover lessons](https://www.thenational.academy/lesson-cover "find out more about cover lessons") - especially for those teaching outside their subject specialism
- setting [homework and revision](https://www.thenational.academy/revision-homework-and-learning-recovery "more about setting homework and revision")
- providing [lessons for long-term absent pupils](https://www.thenational.academy/high-quality-resources-for-absent-pupils "Oak for absent pupils")

You can read more about our research into [how Oak has been used by teachers since schools fully reopened here](https://www.thenational.academy/blog/how-have-teachers-used-oak-resources-since-schools-fully-re-opened "read our research summary blog").

We’ve also seen how teachers are using Oak beyond the classroom to boost their own professional development. Trainee and early career teachers have been using Oak to observe other teachers’ approaches, whilst experienced teachers have been using lessons for inspiration when covering a new topic or looking for a fresh approach to a familiar subject.

As we head into autumn and winter, we remain hopeful of a smoother term. But we've seen how COVID-19 variants have the potential to cause more disruption. 

We initially saw the spike in infections in the North West of England lead to an increase in Oak’s usage - almost three times higher than usual in Salford and Wigan and double in Manchester and Bolton. As the disruption spread country-wide, the number of pupils using us surged to 300,000 last week. Whilst we hope schools will move closer to normality from September, Oak’s ready to provide contingency support should pupils need to self-isolate. 

That’s why the Department for Education has agreed to extend Oak’s funding, with £2.1 million to cover two more terms. This investment provides national back-up and insurance for the country’s schools at the equivalent cost of £80 per school.

As we look further forward, we’re continuing to look for a sustainable future for Oak. We know there’s significant demand from teachers for our support and we’re committed to keeping Oak open and free to schools as long as possible. 

As part of this, we have been asked by the Department for Education to consult with our partners and stakeholders about transferring the ownership of Oak’s brand, platform and intellectual property to the Department. 

Oak and the Department want to maintain Oak's principle of curriculum independence, being 'of the sector, for the sector', and that our resources would remain entirely optional.

You can keep up to date with our plans by [signing up to our newsletter](https://www.thenational.academy/email-signup "sign up for email updates") - and don’t forget to check out our [planning pages](https://www.thenational.academy/planning "find out how to plan with Oak") and to share with a colleague who might benefit from using Oak. 

Thank you for your continued support for Oak - we look forward to staying by your side into next year.

Read more about the news that Oak's 40,000+ lessons, slides and resources will remain available and free into next year. 

Matt Hood

We’re staying open and free into next year

As the Research and Evaluation Manager at Oak, part of my job is to continuously engage teachers through surveys and interviews to learn more about their needs and make sure that their voices shape any new lessons and improvements. 

During the third lockdown with its nationwide school closures our platform’s usage skyrocketed, seeing almost a million users on peak days. We asked teachers back then about their plans to keep using Oak, and 75% of teachers indicated that they intend to make use of Oak’s resources beyond this school year.

School openings in March brought some uncertainty around whether we are still relevant when schools are almost running as usual, and classroom teaching is again the norm. We are pleased to see that each week still around 150,000 pupils and 30,000 teachers use Oak. 

However, what was the most interesting to learn about in our recent research is that teachers - ever the innovators - started using Oak in various ways other than managing remote learning. 

As the below chart shows, these uses range from in class teaching to contributing to their professional development. Let’s deepdive into each! 

Graph showing the different ways teachers are using Oak

Oak survey graph

Oak survey 2021 graph 1

## 1. Lesson planning & delivery

Most of our lessons come with downloadable slides (copyright permitting) that can be adapted to the style and needs of the teacher and delivered in the classroom. What we were slightly more surprised to hear is that teachers make great use of our video lessons in the class as well.

They ‘co-teach’ or ‘team-teach’ as they described this practice,  meaning that they project Oak videos to the class, pause to check for understanding and initiate whole class discussions.

1. Lesson planning & delivery 

Even for experienced teachers there comes a time when they need to teach a subject, year group, or even just a topic that they are non-specialists in. One teacher told us that despite being a Computing teacher, the programming language Python was not her expertise. She used the videos in class, then felt more confident in teaching Python from that basis. 

[Using Oak for lesson planning](https://www.thenational.academy/free-lesson-resources "find out more about planning with Oak") is slightly more prevalent (71%) than using it for actual delivery (60%). This is expected, considering that some teachers prefer to use videos and slides as inspiration only and deliver their own tried-and-tested materials adapted to the needs of their class there and then.

Save time planning with Oak's high-quality lesson resources

## 2. Catch-up for absent students

Our main use case during the pandemic is now only in third place, still, more than half of surveyed teachers [use Oak to support students outside school](https://www.thenational.academy/high-quality-resources-for-absent-pupils "using Oak to support absent pupils"). 

First, even with the worst of the pandemic hopefully behind us, there will still be occasions when pupils miss classes due to various reasons. 

Second, some pupils might struggle with certain concepts and need more time to gain an in-depth understanding at their own pace. One teacher said she uses Oak like a “doctor prescribing medicine for every individual’s specific needs”. 

Teaching Assistants do tremendous work to help pupils who need more support, however video lessons watched at home can provide additional reinforcement too.  As one teacher put it: “Oak is like having a second teacher in every pupil's home.”

2. Catch-up for absent students

## 3. Cover lessons

Providing materials at speed for cover lessons can be very stressful, as can taking a class at short notice. Almost half of the surveyed teachers indicated that they [use Oak as a ready-made solution for cover lessons](https://www.thenational.academy/lesson-cover "using Oak for cover lessons").

Knowing exactly what will be covered in the lesson can give a sense of control and predictability, and also, there is no lengthy preparation required from either end.  The supply teacher can be directed to the material by sharing just a link to the video lesson, which then can be played to the class, paused for discussion when required.


3. Cover lessons

Using Oak for lesson cover

## 4. Setting homework

Although Oak is probably not a top of mind resource for this purpose, 25% of teachers said that they [use Oak to set homework](https://www.thenational.academy/revision-homework-and-learning-recovery "using Oak to set homework"). 

What we have found in our teacher interviews is that homework takes various shapes and forms these days, from light-touch quizzes to chunkier research projects. 

Having experienced months of online learning, pupils are naturals at using the digital platform independently. 

Oak’s collection of resources can thus be repurposed as homework, from asking pupils to watch a section of a video, complete worksheets or have a go at some low stakes quizzing.


4. Setting homework

Using Oak for catch-up, revision and homework

## 5. Professional development

Understandably, many teachers told us that they prefer not to share the limelight in the classroom with a video version. But even many of those who would refrain from using video lessons in class said that they would watch our pre-recorded lessons to help prepare for and plan their lessons. 

This approach has had particular value for newer teachers. One NQT teacher said that there is never enough time to observe other teachers teaching, so he would watch the relevant Oak lesson and use that as a basis to model his own classes, picking up its flow and structure. 

5. Professional development

Another teacher even revealed she watched the videos at double speed while drinking her morning coffee to refresh her memory on a topic before going to work. 

Still, what we have found is that Oak is not engaged with as a usual, dedicated form of CPD, but is used rather in an implicit way. 

As one teacher said: “When you use Oak, you are doing CPD”, and indeed when teachers adapt the readily available slides, take inspiration from quizzes or observe other teachers teaching, they might all learn something new along the way.

*Reka Budai, Research & Evaluation Manager at Oak National Academy*