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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

Rachel Strom

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

## Key findings from our annual report

Since April 2020, Oak has grown to become a trusted national resource supporting millions of teachers and pupils.

We supported teachers in 54.1% of all state schools in England throughout the 2020/21 academic year, delivering 110 million more lessons — figures beyond anything we could have anticipated. 

With help from research conducted by ImpactEd, we’ve taken an in-depth look into not just the numbers, but how usage has translated into continued positive and measurable impact on pupils and teachers.

Here are just a few of the highlights from the [full report](https://www.thenational.academy/annual-report-2020-21 "Annual report for Oak National Academy").

## Impact on teacher workload

Nine in ten teachers said their overall workload increased sharply from September 2020 when schools fully reopened. This increase was largely due to implementing stringent new safety requirements, managing remote learning for increasing numbers of pupils, getting to grips with new technology and also dispatching food parcels to families that needed them.

61% of teacher-users said Oak’s platform and resources saved them valuable time during these difficult months.

When asked validated questions based on the National Teaching Survey, responses showed that Oak users felt more positive about their workload and that having Oak resources had a notable impact on the amount of time they spent planning and resourcing lessons, allowing them more time to focus on identifying and supporting more vulnerable pupils during lockdown.


## Impact on teacher wellbeing

September 2020 brought with it an assumption teaching would be notably less stressful — school reopenings meaning the majority of pupils would be in school whilst small numbers isolated. 

We now know, of course, that this wasn’t the case. On top of everything else, many teachers were essentially operating two schools as isolations increased in the autumn term: for those in the classroom, and those at home. 

Strongly related to workload, the report also shows that Oak users reported statistically significant higher levels of wellbeing than non-users(1).

ImpactEd looked at the wellbeing of Oak users compared to both non-users and the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS) national benchmark from 2020. Their finding was that Oak users had a statistically significant higher wellbeing score than non-users and scored on par with the pre-pandemic national average benchmarks.

## Impact on quality of teaching

Our Education and Technology teams have worked hard to make sure that  content, design, production and user experience of every lesson is continuously improving, and research shows us that 92% of teachers who used the Oak platform were satisfied or very satisfied with the quality of the content available. 

This is reflected in the use of Oak both in and outside the classroom. 
72% of teachers said that having Oak’s curriculum and resources improved the quality of their remote lesson delivery, while over half (56%) of teachers who use the platform said Oak helps improve the quality of their in-person teaching. 58% also said that Oak’s helped to improve in-person lesson planning.

## Impact on pupil outcomes

88% of Oak user teachers said they were satisfied or very satisfied with the learning experience that Oak provides.

Research shows early promising signs around pupil progress. Teacher-users have told us that Oak has supported pupil outcomes. When asked what proportion of the pupils they taught were behind, on-track or exceeding expectations, 22% of Oak users, compared to 16% non-Oak users, reported pupils exceeding expectations  — a statistically significant difference.

Impact on pupil outcomes

'Proportion of pupils behind, on track, and exceeding expectations (accounting for exceptional circumstances)'. 

Table: proportion of pupils behind, on track, and exceeding expectations

Proportion table

## Supporting schools in areas of high deprivation and social mobility cold spots

Committing ourselves to providing access to a quality education for all pupils during the pandemic meant we needed to actively address the existing imbalance of those already at a disadvantage. 

We used the Social Mobility Index (SMI) to track Oak’s use in areas with lower and higher expected educational and life outcomes for young people — ‘cold spots’ vs ‘hot spots’. 58.7% of teachers said their pupils in these cold spots used Oak compared with 54.1% in hot spot areas. Further to this, Oak lessons were chiefly used by pupils in the 40% most deprived areas.

These children were helped by Oak's successful campaign to secure a zero rating of the site by mobile networks, meaning children could take part in learning without racking up big bills for mobile data. 

Supporting schools in areas of high deprivation and social mobility cold spots

## Continued use of Oak and new use cases

Since April 2020, pupils have taken part in 130 million Oak lessons. 59% of state school teachers have used the site and its resources. Almost all teachers who use it (92%) said they were satisfied or very satisfied with the quality of the content, and 73% per cent would recommend it to fellow teachers. 

We asked teachers how they felt about using Oak in the future, and three in four of those teachers told us that they plan to carry on using our resources this term and beyond, with many pointing to how the platform has improved their teaching in the classroom. 

Further research into how Oak is being used in the classroom found that [lesson-planning](https://www.thenational.academy/planning "Free resources for lesson planning") is by far the most popular task, followed by [using resources in the classroom](https://www.thenational.academy/free-lesson-resources "free lesson resources for the classroom"), setting work for [absent pupils](https://www.thenational.academy/high-quality-resources-for-absent-pupils "using Oak to support absent pupils") and for [cover lessons](https://www.thenational.academy/lesson-cover "how Oak can help with cover").

Further information on the [different ways teachers are using Oak can be found here](https://www.thenational.academy/use-cases "different use cases for Oak resources").

Do you use Oak for any of the below now schools are open again? (Choose all that apply).

How teachers using Oak (with title)

% of teachers using Oak for different use cases once schools opened in March

## And what next for Oak?

Our research shows Oak helped saved teachers valuable time and improved their wellbeing during a particularly difficult time.

But it also shows that, now that they've taken on and conquered technology over the pandemic, teachers intend to carry on using our resources now they're back in the classroom.

We want to continue with our aim to free teachers up to focus on working directly with pupils – by sharing high-quality, curriculum-aligned materials, created by fellow colleagues.

Oak was built by teachers, for teachers, and this will continue to be the case as we develop and evolve.

We will always make sure to share updates when we have them. You can subscribe to our mailing list to ensure you're using our latest features.

Full details of all the research and impact report are in the Annual Report. [You can find the full report here](https://www.thenational.academy/annual-report-2020-21 "Find our annual report for 2020/21").

Matt's quote

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##### Footnotes
*(1) Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale. Oak-users’ well-being was scored at 45.9 using this standard national testing system. A score of 45-59 represents average mental well-being. This compares with  non-Oak users scoring 43. The pre-pandemic figure was 45.7*

*(2) Using the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) The largest group of Oak users were in the second most deprived quintile and the second largest group of users in the most deprived quintile, widely regarded to be the most difficult to reach and engage*

Oak supported teachers in over half of all state schools in England throughout the last academic year, delivering over 110 million lessons. Find out more about the impact from Oak principal Matt Hood, drawing on research from our annual report.

Matt Hood

What impact did Oak have in 2020/21?

__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)__