Graph showing the different ways teachers are using Oak

Oak survey graph

Matthew Audley

Reka Budai

Tom Rogers

David Thomas Profile Photo

Chris Fountain

Emma McCrea

Children's Mental Health Week Virtual Assembly

Tom Rose

Curriculum map

Matt Hood

C-STEP Principle 

John Blake

## 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


One of the hardest decisions we make in education is what to teach. This is always a decision that we make, whether we make it consciously or not. Even in the most standardised subjects we decide what angle to take on each topic and what context to present it in.

Bennie Kara wrote excellently in [Schools Week](https://schoolsweek.co.uk/diversity-cannot-be-a-curriculum-bolt-on/) about how our decisions have led to a curriculum that is unacceptably lacking in diversity. She picks out both the need to improve our school curricula, and the risk that we end up with diversity as a bolt-on. This blog is an attempt to clarify my thinking on how we do so.

I know that how we decide what we teach is incredibly controversial, especially in the current climate. But I also think it’s too important for us not to be transparent about. My hope is that being transparent about this draft we will get the challenge and feedback that helps develop a better approach.

In my thinking there are five reasons for selecting what knowledge to teach: two that we are used to applying, and three that we aren’t.

## It gives you access to society

This is the classic Hirsch argument - that there is some knowledge assumed by society. Not knowing it limits your ability to understand the world around you. Our journalism, literature and conversations are littered with references to assumed prior knowledge. There is a strong social justice case for making sure all children receive this. To do otherwise is to disenfranchise them.

## It has influenced the world today

Young says that knowledge is powerful "if it predicts, if it explains". There is knowledge that has had widespread influence on our modern world. We should teach this knowledge because of its explanatory power. Possessing this knowledge unlocks much more of what there is to learn.

These two reasons for selecting what knowledge is powerful are well rehearsed. Many of us have spent hours debating what to include in our curricula based on these criteria. They lead us to pick Oxbow lakes, the Norman Conquest and Shakespeare.  
However these two reasons give us a very static view of what knowledge is powerful. They select content on the basis of what was taught and valued in the past. The knowledge that is assumed in society is generally assumed because it was taught to the last generation when they were at school, or because it is passed through the more advantaged sections of society. If we only follow these criteria we constrain future generations to the knowledge and misconceptions of past ones.

## It challenges common misconceptions

Just as society holds some knowledge in common, it also holds some misconceptions in common. Many of those misconceptions will have arisen because of what was historically omitted from our teaching. We can choose to select some knowledge because it dispels those misconceptions. Learning about the great non-European civilisations, for example, dispels the misconception that white western Europeans are pre-ordained to be more economically advanced than other peoples. Learning about the Kingdom of Benin and the Mali Empire dispels the misconception that the only world-leading civilisation in African history was the Ancient Egyptians.

## It introduces diversity

Young writes that powerful knowledge "takes [students] beyond their experiences". Very often this is interpreted in the social justice context of taking socio-economically disadvantaged children to experience the world of the white British middle classes. Whether we like it or not, being able to understand and be comfortable in that world still confers material advantages in today’s society. But this is only one angle. All children should be taken beyond their experiences - including the white British middle class. All children should admire the richness of other cultures and see them on a par with their own. And all children should see a recognition that their own culture is worthy of teaching.

As we continue to plan our curriculum at Oak we are going to have all of these criteria in mind. We won't reject the first two, as we have a duty to introduce all children to the seminal knowledge that has influenced the world today. However, we also have a duty to give them an accurate picture of the world, and to take them beyond the knowledge that has been taken for granted by previous generations.

In debating the thinking behind this piece with colleagues, I’ve come to the view that there is also a fifth reason.

## It helps children find, and be proud of, who they are

Our lives are situated in very specific contexts. Our identities are shaped by the history and culture of our communities, and by the social context we grow up in. As educators we should give our children the knowledge to understand and articulate who they are, where they come from, and how they fit into the story of their community and our country. This is inherently local. Individual schools will need to make decisions for their context about what is the important history, geography, literature, art, music and citizenship to teach. It cannot be done effectively at a national scale. At Oak we’re not going to try and select this knowledge, because we’re not in schools’ contexts. I think it’s important for us to recognise that we cannot do this, and to encourage schools to emphasise it in their curricula.

Teaching and curriculum, at its best, helps shape and inform the next generation. Our task is to make them powerfully informed of the world as it truly is today, and with the knowledge to shape its future.

__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.__ 

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

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We’re excited to share that our specialist curriculum lessons are now live. Our amazing team of teachers and leaders from across the country worked hard throughout the summer break to produce 600 lessons which you can now use in our Teacher Hub and Classroom.

All of us at Oak National Academy are pleased that most students have been able to return to their schools this year. But we know the uncertainty and challenges that teachers and pupils are facing. Self isolation periods, groups and bubbles, and local lockdowns are all likely to impact attendance across the autumn term and beyond.

## Learning from our first term

Our initial offer last April was built at speed and we are incredibly proud that approaching 100,000 specialist lessons were accessed.

It has been brilliant to hear how families and schools have engaged with our offer and we’ve valued your feedback. This has shaped some key changes to our 2020-21 curriculum offer:

-   Curriculum map – Families and teachers shared how being able to see the ‘big picture’ would be valuable to help them plan and personalise the Oak materials. So we’ve now [published our plans](https://www.thenational.academy/oaks-curricula) for the whole year.
-   Lessons for the year - We’ve released 600 lessons, covering the whole year. We hope this will help schools to align the Oak materials to their own curriculum and allow families to ‘pick and mix’ high interest lessons that really motivate their child.
-   Family focused - Whilst our initial lessons were aimed at the child themselves, we heard it was usually a parent who would support, translate and adapt the activity. And we heard heartwarming stories of siblings' support too. This year’s lessons therefore now include a wider range of resources for families to support learning (activity cards, downloadable etc), which can be used as a standalone material or to compliment the video lesson.
-   Offline working - We also heard the challenge of poor internet connection and too few devices. For 2020/21, wherever copyright allows, our resources are fully downloadable, allowing them to be personalised to meet the needs of individual children and to be printed for use in school or at home.

## Inclusion, Accessibility & Aspiration

A key focus has been making sure there are a variety of access points for learners at different stages. Our lessons are structured around three stages; Early Development, Building Understanding and Applying Learning. And we’ve now introduced new masterclass sessions in Creative Arts and Physical Development.

We’ve also used Makaton, widget symbols and resources that can be found in any home to make our lessons fully accessible to all learners. Content has been selected to motivate and inspire, and to provide opportunities for students to initiate, anticipate and explore new activities and display persistence and realisation in their learning.

All specialist schools are unique learning environments and the diversity of curriculum approaches is something that we should celebrate as a sector. We’ve been fortunate to work with subject experts from across the sector, providing rich and robust discussion that has created a broad, inclusive and ambitious curriculum (which covers Communication & Language, Numeracy, Independent Living, Creative Arts, Physical Development and Therapies). We hope that having video examples of this curriculum will spark exciting conversations, collaboration and sharing across the sector, and indeed with our mainstream colleagues.

## Next steps

Oak’s mainstream and specialist resources are now live and available for use in our Teacher Hub and Classroom.

We believe that nothing like this has ever been done before in the specialist sector and are excited to offer teachers and families accessible and ambitious learning opportunities.

We’ve been particularly encouraged that over summer our specialist curriculum map was downloaded almost 1,000 times. Schools are already sharing ideas about how they might use it as a contingency, to enrich their own curriculum, or to support staff development and learning. In the coming weeks we look forward to sharing further information and detail through blogs, Q&A sessions and more. [Sign up to our newsletter](https://www.thenational.academy/email-signup) or follow our social channels so not to miss out on updates.

We wish you all a successful, safe and happy first term of school, and we are here to support in any way we can.

There aren’t many creatures more innovative than teachers. A drive to find resourceful ways to deliver the best for pupils has always been at the foreground of the profession..

Oak was set up to help teachers with contingency plans for potential remote learning in a challenging year. But ever the innovators, teachers are telling us about the new and unexpected ways their schools are using Oak to support their work.

## Catching up on missed learning

After months away from classes, teachers are using Oak lessons and units to address any gaps identified in pupils’ understanding. They’re able to make sure that catch-up work is easily tailored to individuals whilst pushing forward with the new year’s curriculum.

Donna Lewis, head of Broken Cross Primary in Macclesfield, is mapping missed learning against [Oak’s curriculum](https://www.thenational.academy/oaks-curricula) in the same way her school has for remote learning. This will then go home for parents to support their children.

She says, _“I believe there will be a real benefit in using Oak to go back on missed learning from the summer, even if it is only light-touch. We can’t cover it the same way, but this will give pupils the opportunity to have exposure to concepts they’ve missed.”_

## Cover work

Increasingly, schools are facing scenarios where teachers are having to isolate whilst their classes or bubbles of pupils remain in school. Setting cover is difficult at the best of times, becoming almost impossible whilst ill or managing family commitments. We’re learning how Oak can make it easy to set a fully planned and resourced lesson to support the cover teacher, so pupils don’t miss a beat in their learning. If Oak’s curriculum is close to your own, we’re seeing teachers simply share a link to the next relevant lesson, making it simple for colleagues picking up topics at short notice.

One secondary Head of Science let us know they’d be doing just that, “*The lessons are of a level of quality that a non-specialist could still take the class through, so I fully intend to plan to use them to save us having to create large volumes of cover work at short notice*”.

I think that I speak for all teachers, parents and pupils when I say I’ve never had a back-to-school run up quite like this.

Schools’ doors are re-opening for the Autumn term. And there’s no question that pupils being back in class with their teachers is the best thing for their learning, development and sense of routine. But the coronavirus pandemic continues to present challenges for every teacher and school.

With classroom bubbles, pupils and teachers shielding, and the uncertainties of local lockdowns, it’s not going to be a normal school set-up.

The ask on teachers is tough. They need to keep their pupils, and themselves, safe. They have to have a back-up plan in case they are required to provide remote learning. They need to help pupils transition back to the physical classroom. For many there’s extra support needed to catch up on missed learning. Oh, and they need to deliver a full, normal year’s worth of lessons too.

It’s not going to be easy. Teachers have really raised the bar to support pupils with remote learning. Now we need to help them prepare as best we can for whatever the year brings.

To support, today we’ve launched our new teacher hub. It will have nearly 10,000 free, high-quality lessons and resources to complement remote and in-school teaching.

## Thousands of new video lessons and resources

A team of 300 teachers spent a chunk  of their summer holidays creating and recording the video lessons and resources, ready for you to use however you wish.

We’ve learnt a lot from our first term and have listened carefully to feedback from teachers. You told us you needed:

*   A broader curriculum
*   More lessons upfront to ease planning
*   More flexibility in how to order materials
*   An ability to download, edit and adapt resources

We’ve taken this all on board and worked hard to improve our offer so we can better serve teachers. If we can help lighten the workload for teachers as pupils return to class, then we’re happy.

## An (unfinished) national resource

Before I outline the specific changes we’ve made, I want to acknowledge that, whilst brilliant, I would be a fool to claim they’re perfect.

Across the year we’ll review and improve any lessons that aren’t working as well as they could. We’ll need teachers to feedback – providing positive, constructive suggestions. Recording and publishing a lesson for the world to watch is hard, so we’ll ask for equal measures of kindness and expertise.

Most importantly, we want this to be an ongoing effort, with the profession leaning in to create something every teacher has a stake in – a shared national resource to support teaching, learning and workload.

Now, with that important caveat, here are some of the changes we’ve made to our resources.

## Expanded range of lessons

We’ve got more lessons covering a wider range of subjects in the most popular topics, from reception through to Year 11. An online version of the national curriculum like this, covering every age group, has never been done before. But I also know that a curriculum is, and should be, a school’s choice. So this has shaped the rest of our approach.

## Download and edit resources

Each school and each pupil is different. So wherever copyright allows (which is about 70% of the lessons), teachers can now download, edit and adapt slides and worksheets. They’ll know what’s best, so we should let them decide how to support their pupils. We’ve also removed reference to year groups on videos so teachers can match lessons to pupils based on ability, rather than age.

## Reorder lessons

The situation in schools could change at a moment’s notice, so teachers need flexible resources which can fit in and complement their plans. Our new lessons will work in any order that suits you. Teachers can also access our online classroom to follow a suggested weekly schedule as we did last term.

## Share resources

Many schools have their own existing learning management system, our job should be to make it easier for you to share Oak’s resources within those.  So teachers will now be able to share units, lessons or individual resources with colleagues or pupils – each has a link you can send on email or through your existing virtual learning platform.

## Improved accessibility

We know some pupils struggled with internet access and a lack of digital devices over lockdown. These should not be reasons for any child to miss out on a high-quality education. So, where we have suitable copyright, our resources can now be printed off to support those without devices at home. We’ve also continued with captions on all lessons and British Sign Language for the youngest. The ability to edit resources also means teachers can adapt and tailor lessons to individual pupil needs.

The generous advice and support of subject associations, unions and hundreds of teachers has enabled us to create a more inclusive and collaborative offer.

Our specialist lessons will also be launching in early September. We’ve expanded our offer and you can [read about the innovative approach we’ve taken](https://www.thenational.academy/blog/our-plans-for-new-specialist-lessons). We want to make sure specialist and SEND learners get the full focus they deserve and our offer is made widely available.

## More to do

But there’s always more to do. We’re planning to add more mainstream subjects, resources and functionality throughout the year so Oak can be as useful as possible to teachers and pupils.

We’d particularly like to explore PE, DT, Drama, secondary RHE, primary Art and primary MFL. We’re talking to schools and subject associations but if you know a partner who could develop lessons do let us know via our social channels. Our hope is to establish partners and develop a curriculum in subjects in the autumn term, so we can produce lessons ready for January.

## Supporting a consistent education for all

Teachers face a challenge year ahead. As they’ve provided time and again, I’m confident they’ll rise to the occasion despite the uncertainty.

Whatever scenarios Covid-19 presents for schools in the weeks ahead, we hope Oak National Academy can be here to ease a little of the pressure and be a useful resource by teachers, for teachers.


One of the risks of any launch is hubris. You’re so excited about what you’ve done, and so keen to share it, that you oversell what you’ve done. You then disappoint against expectations, or worse, anger and frustrate people. We launch Oak National Academy tomorrow, and so in the spirit of avoiding hubris I thought I’d tell you what’s wrong with it.

First though, what are we doing and why? Schools are being asked to do more than ever, with fewer resources than ever. We don’t mind stepping up. It’s a national crisis, and we’re important civic institutions. But it’s hard. We are trying to teach online lessons, care for vulnerable children in school, deliver meals whilst vouchers still don’t work, check in with at-risk children at home, etc. This is at a time when many of our colleagues have caring responsibilities at home, are looking after ill relatives, or are unwell themselves. Teachers are stepping up more than ever before.

When Teacher Tapp asked teachers what would most help them help pupils, two thirds of them said two things: an online resource hub, and devices for pupils to be able to access these. At the start of the Easter holiday a group of teachers came together to try and set up that online hub. We talked about the idea on Monday 6th, we knew it needed to launch on Monday 20th, and there was the Easter Bank Holiday in the middle. This was going to be tight.

Tight timing meant we couldn’t do everything we wanted to do. As such, there are a number of things wrong with what we’ve done. Rather than pretend we got it all right and wait for people to stumble upon the problems, I want to be upfront about them. Here’s what’s wrong with the Oak National Academy.

## 1. Our mainstream curriculum isn’t broad enough

We don’t yet teach Music, DT, PE, Computing, Citizenship or PSHE (and many more). We don’t teach any KS4 options except MFL. Our Year 10 curriculum doesn’t have separate tracks for Foundation and Higher tiers in Maths, Science or MFL. Nobody would ever consider opening a school with these gaps, and I’d never pretend it is right to have these holes in a curriculum. We just couldn’t get all of this done in six working days. The “yet” at the start of this paragraph was intentional – this needs to change, and it will.

## 2. Our specialist curriculum isn’t up and running yet

There is nothing on Oak yet for children who usually attend specialist settings, and so may need either or both of an alternative curricula offer and a therapeutic offer. These children need education as much as anyone else, and their schools are likely under more pressure than many mainstream schools. We are working on a specialist curriculum, and hope to have this up as soon as possible.

## 3. We don’t have anything on wellbeing

We knew from the start that there was no way Oak could replace a school. We make and host online lessons. We don’t have relationships with children, and it would make no sense to pretend we are more than what we are. We’re not in children’s communities and don’t know their situations. We’re not the right people to try and support their wellbeing – only their schools can do this. Our hope is that if we can make life a little bit easier for teachers then it will free up time for them to support their pupils’ wellbeing without burning themselves out.

## 4. This isn’t going to change the world

I think we’ve come to expect that any new thing, especially any new thing that involves technology, believes it’s going to change the world. Every tech unicorn has a mission statement about revolutionising things. Oak won’t change the world. It’s not supposed to revolutionise teaching. We just want to make life a little bit easier during one of the most difficult periods in our lifetimes. If we can do that, then it’s mission accomplished.

_This blog first appeared on [David Thomas' blog](http://davidthomasblog.com/2020/04/whats-wrong-with-oak-national-academy/) on April 19, 2020._

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


*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

## 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

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.

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

Using Oak for catch-up, revision and homework

We have been on a journey with Oak’s approach to EYFS. It is an area that is particularly difficult to translate into an online format and we have not always got it right. We have taken on board lots of the feedback we have seen online around it needing more encouragement of extended, independent learning around the lesson content. In addition, we know that our initial labelling conflated EYFS with Key Stage One, and that this was an issue going beyond just semantics. We believe it’s important to ensure that our learning for Reception stays true to the breadth of learning of the EYFS framework and so we wanted to set out some of our key thinking below.

## Organisation of our Reception curriculum

We know that the division of learning into subjects can sit contrary to the EYFS framework, in which one task can engage the child in developing in multiple areas. We organise the Reception learning by the specific areas of Literacy, Maths and Understanding the World, ensuring that Physical, Social and Emotional and Communication and Language are developed across all these areas and are embedded in all our lessons. Expressive Arts and Design will regularly be part of the learning across these three specific Areas of Learning. In addition to this, there will be discrete Music lessons taught by a specialist. We are also planning specific focuses on Social and Emotional Development. Whilst acknowledging that this prime area is always important and will continue to be embedded throughout our teaching, we are aware that it is even more necessary during this current climate so we wanted to create some focused lessons around this as well.

## Approach within lessons

Within each lesson, there is a short period of teaching that explicitly introduces key concepts and important vocabulary. There is then a modelled follow-up activity. This activity is intended as a suggestion for follow up learning rather than a dictated task. This latter activity can therefore be used as small group work, or as an option for children to engage with as part of their continuous provision. It is designed with minimal resources in mind so that it could be easily carried out in the home environment.

## Limitations of the approach from an EYFS perspective

We know that the development and embedding of learning is, ideally, facilitated through purposeful provision and play. As this is difficult to demonstrate on an online platform, our aim is to teach key knowledge and skills and then to facilitate further activities which build upon this. We know that learning in the EYFS is driven by a combination of adult-led teaching and the facilitation of embedding learning as part of continuous provision. In this way, we endeavour to present videos that provide options for further independent learning and high quality play.

We're developing our lessons now, but if you have advice and ideas to help us keep improving, please do let us know at [eyfs@thenational.academy](mailto:efys@thenational.academy). We may not be able to reply to every email, but we'll read them all.

_Tilly Browne is one of Oak’s primary curriculum leads._

With the uncertainty ahead, like all schools, we are hoping for the best but planning for the worst. So we’re keeping Oak National Academy open for all of 2020/21 as a free, optional, resource. You can read about our plans in our [blog from our Principal](https://www.thenational.academy/blog/continuing-oak-next-year).

We have a simple aim: **to be available to any school that wants us, and make it easier for them, by better aligning with their plans**.

When we first started Oak, it happened in a matter of days. We’ve had feedback that that speed meant we worked with who we already knew, and were not collaborative enough. This feedback is absolutely fair. So we’re acting on it to change.

To achieve this we need to make some decisions about how we change Oak and, the trickiest of questions, what we teach.

If we’re going to be a back-up plan for many schools, these shouldn’t be our decisions alone. This should be a collaborative effort, informed by schools and experts from across the country.

But we do have restrictions, as we are again working at speed. To help planning for next year, we want to agree and publish our full year’s curriculum map by early July, and to have the majority of lessons available by September.

With the help of the Department for Education, we have set up three groups of advisory bodies. We are delighted by the generosity of such a range of teachers, academics and experts who have all volunteered to shape our work.

## Sector advisory group

Our sector advisory group has been set up to help steer our overall work and make sure we meet the needs of as many schools as possible. Members include representatives from unions, sector groups and membership bodies:

*   ASCL
*   NAHT
*   NASUWT
*   NEU
*   Confederation of School Trusts
*   Chartered College of Teaching
*   Teaching Schools Council.

We’re also talking to local authorities and unions representing teaching assistants (Unite, GMB and Unison).

## Curriculum advisory group

We simply can’t teach every possible option across the curriculum, so we need to make choices. To do this we’ve enlisted the support of a broad group of curriculum experts who will help steer our content and identify the most common choices for the lessons we teach.

These will be listed in our curriculum map. And, with their support, we’ll structure Oak’s content into a series of ‘building blocks’. We’ll set out clearly which of the blocks within a subject can follow a sequence and which can go in any order to give schools maximum flexibility. Our curriculum group members are:

*   Ian Bauckham CBE (chair), Chair of Oak National Academy
*   Cat Scutt, Director of Education and Research at the Chartered College of Teaching
*   Christine Counsell, Independent Education Consultant
*   Dylan William, Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment at University College London
*   Mary Myatt, Education adviser, writer and speaker
*   Sam Twiselton, Director of Sheffield Institute of Education, Founding Fellow and Vice President of the Chartered College of Teaching
*   Shahed Ahmed, CEO of New Vision Trust and Executive Head Teacher at Elmhurst Primary School

## Subject advisors

To really dig deep into the detail of each subject, we’re enlisting the support of specific subject advisors. Teachers, subject associations, academics and other experts will help each of Oak’s curriculum leads to understand the choices to make our offer as broad as possible. In many subjects we are also receiving support from colleagues in the Ofsted curriculum team. This doesn’t mean that the curriculum plan is “Ofsted-endorsed”, just that we have been lucky enough to learn from their experience of what is being done in schools across the country.

Our subject advisers are:

*   Alan Kinder
*   Alex Quigley
*   Anne Watson
*   Dr Arlene Holmes-Henderson
*   Bennie Kara
*   Bruno Reddy
*   Carol Knight
*   Carole Kenrick
*   Craig Barton
*   Dave Gibbs
*   David Shanks
*   Debbie Morgan
*   Emma McCrea
*   Fiona Moss
*   Gilroy Brown
*   Jenny Barksfield
*   Julien Violette
*   Katharine Burn
*   Lauren Mcleod
*   Lauren Thorpe
*   Lincoln Abbotts
*   Liz Moorse
*   Lucy Marcovitch
*   Margaret O’Shea
*   Marianne Cutler
*   Mark Enser
*   Matt Burnage
*   Michele Gregson
*   Paul Anderton
*   Rachel Hartley
*   Rob Orme
*   Ruth Walker
*   Steve Brace
*   Steve Rollett
*   Teresa Cremin

## Specialist advisory group

To help us develop our specialist offer, we’re enlisting the support of a specialist advisory group. We’re delighted to have experts from across the sector to input and feed into our specialist curriculum.

Our specialist advisers are:

*   Angela Holdsworth
*   Margaret Mulholland
*   Simon Knight
*   Susan Douglas

David Thomas

## Remote learning and beyond

However Oak is being used, a reduction in workload in any way that’s needed during one of the most daunting eras of education is undoubtedly welcomed; extending those benefits into and beyond the classroom is even better.

Oak is here to share the load of planning remote lessons as a contingency – but being **by teachers, for teachers**, it’s perhaps unsurprising that tales of other beneficial ways to use the resources are being shared all the time.

If you’ve found new and interesting ways to use Oak to support your school, we’d love to hear about them. Please tag us **@OakNational**.

Tag us on social media


The new [Oak National Academy](https://www.thenational.academy/) has, on the whole, been a success. Launched in haste by a team of volunteers with under two weeks’ preparation, it has been broadly welcomed by learners, teachers, and parents. Since the 20th April, over four million lessons have been accessed.

But Oak is not perfect, and nor does it claim to be. In his [blog](http://davidthomasblog.com/2020/04/whats-wrong-with-oak-national-academy/), Oak’s Director of Curriculum, David Thomas, shared how he wished he’d been able to launch an online classroom that was as inclusive as possible and included a specialist curriculum. So it is fantastic that just 14 days later we are launching our first week of specialist content.

There is much to be celebrated; our team of volunteer teachers and leaders have achieved a massive amount whilst in many cases, simultaneously running their own schools. However, like David we want to avoid hubris and talk about what’s wrong with our specialist offer.

## Rapid improvements for accessibility

It is not a coincidence that Oak’s logo is an acorn. We are starting small and growing quickly. In just three weeks, much has changed. A comprehensive and honest [accessibility audit](https://www.thenational.academy/accessibility-statement) has led to rapid improvements in the site, including nearly all lessons being subtitled and lessons for the lower age groups available in [British Sign Language](https://www.britishsignlanguage.com/). Most significant though is the addition of over [30 lessons specifically](https://www.thenational.academyhttps://classroom.thenational.academy/specialist/#subjects) made for learners who normally receive their education in specialist settings.

We’re starting with four subject areas - language and communication, numeracy, independent living, and creative arts. We also have a therapeutic offer, which this week comprises three speech and language sessions. These will be expanded in future weeks to include physical therapy and occupational therapy.

We have consulted as much as we can in the time available. The subject areas are all delivered by different specialist schools and as a result, represent the diversity of our sector. We have also been advised by experts including Margaret Mulholland, Anne Heavey, Susan Douglas and the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists. We have spoken to parents (including SNJ) and we look forward to hearing feedback from learners over the coming week.

Yet despite this wealth of expertise volunteering to help, deciding what and how to teach in the specialist curriculum has been a massive challenge, and not one that we are sure we have got completely right, yet.

## 1. We can’t be everything to everyone

The non-mainstream sector, and the learners it supports, is amazingly diverse. We had to be realistic about what we could achieve. Put simply, we knew that we could not do everything for everyone. We had to make some tough decisions and work within our volunteers’ capacity.

We decided to target our support at the area where we felt there was the biggest gap in online lessons and resources - SLD and MLD schools. But this means that other areas are not covered. Increasing this coverage, and increasing the inclusiveness of the Oak primary and secondary content, is an area we know that we need to continue developing.

## 2. We have struggled to find a common language

We wanted our lessons to be suitable for a range of abilities, and we needed to be able to explain which age, development or phase, lessons were aimed at. There is no common language for this across the sector; each school arranges it the way that suits their community best. In the end we settled on three starting points for our lessons: Early Development, Building Understanding and Applying Learning.

As we produced the first lessons, it also became clear that our Communication and Language lessons would also benefit from age-related options – so each lesson has a “primary” or “secondary” element (even though we know that this isn’t always a relevant distinction in our sector). We have done our best to create a coherent offer but we have worked at pace and recognise there are compromises and we need to continue to refine our approach.

## 3. We can’t replicate what specialist schools do best

Specialist schools pride themselves on their in-depth knowledge of their learners and their families. Their provision is based around individuals and relationships. No online, off-the-shelf support is ever going to be able to do that.

Oak is not trying to replace any school; we don’t have relationships with children, and it would make no sense to pretend we are more than what we are. We are not in children’s communities and we don’t know their situations. Our hope is that through these lessons, we can make life a little bit easier for teachers and free up time for them to continue their support for their pupils.

## 4. We aren’t going to change the world

As David explained when Oak launched three weeks ago, we’ve come to expect that any new thing, especially any new thing that involves technology, believes it’s going to change the world. Every tech unicorn has a mission statement about revolutionising things. Oak won’t change the world. Especially not when it’s been built in a matter of weeks. It’s not supposed to revolutionise teaching. We just want to make life a little bit easier during one of the most difficult periods in our lifetimes. If we can do that, then that’s a big win.

_This blog first appeared in [Special Needs Jungle](https://www.specialneedsjungle.com/whats-wrong-oak-academy-specialist-curriculum/) on May 4, 2020._

Alistair Crawford

## 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 

Supporting your children with home learning can be a daunting prospect for many parents. This is especially true for those working from home or supporting more than one child at a time.

For many, it’s been a fair few years since we’ve polished up our poetry skills or recalled the equation to measure a change in thermal energy, so suddenly being the adult supporting a child in their learning can be overwhelming.

Oak National Academy has been created by teachers with the support of the Government to support remote learning. We provide free access to  [10,000 high quality online lessons](https://classroom.thenational.academy/), for children aged 4 to 16.

With the sudden move to remote learning, here are our top tips for parents finding themselves in this situation over the coming weeks.

## 1. Follow the advice of your child’s school

Your child’s school will be developing a clear plan for what your child should learn, and when. They’re also experts in how children learn, so listen to their advice and follow their plan as closely as your situation allows.

Given how quickly the changes were announced, be patient. Teachers will be working hard to create new plans and communicate these as quickly as possible to parents. Many schools will make use of resources such as Oak National Academy, allowing your child’s teachers to assess work, provide 1-2-1 support and advice as well as teach the vulnerable and key worker children who will still attend school.

## 2. Establish a clear routine

Children are creatures of habit and routine, and applying themselves to learning at home in the same way they do at school will take some time to fall into place.

Oak National Academy lessons have been designed to give a clear structure to learning, but you should also work up a clear structure to your ‘school’ day. For younger children in particular, it can be really beneficial to write a timetable up together and display it.

If you have the space, set a clear area for learning to take place – somewhere well-lit is ideal – and remove any distractions before the lessons begin. Make sure to have a clear start and end to the day so children’s wellbeing is prioritised as well.

## 3. Build time for other things into your day

Times are challenging for all of us, not least children, and a child’s physical and mental wellbeing is as vitally important to look after as their learning.

Building in time for cooking, daily exercise, puzzles or reading for pleasure is a great way to break up learning into manageable periods and help with any difficulties with focus or screen fatigue children might experience.

## 4. Don’t try to replace the teacher

The vast majority of parents embarking on supporting home learning during national restrictions will not be trained teachers. Luckily, no one is expecting you to be!

It’s OK to tell your child if you’re unsure of a topic or skill they are learning. In fact, it can be a really powerful and rewarding experience to approach the learning of something new to you both together. Learning alongside them can be really encouraging for a child – getting frustrated that you don’t know all the answers is not good for either of you. So embark on the learning journey together!

## 5. Recognise their effort and stay positive!

We’ve heard the word ‘unprecedented’ enough times now – we know we’re living through unusual times and challenges that none of us expected to face.

Keep your child’s motivation up by keeping positive and encouraging their efforts. Chances are they are worried, confused, missing their friends and navigating a brand new way of learning.

And if they have a tough day when it’s not going to plan… that’s fine, start afresh tomorrow.

_Oak National Academy’s lessons can be accessed for free  [via our online classroom](https://classroom.thenational.academy/)._

_You can also visit our  [FAQs and support for parents and carers.](https://support.thenational.academy/en/collections/2342140-faqs-for-parents-and-carers)_

Top tips for parents supporting home learning


Over the last few weeks, we’ve asked school leaders and teachers how they are planning for the next full academic year.

We all want teachers and pupils to be back in school. We’re proud that Oak has delivered over 13 million lessons so far, but it can never replace the in-school relationship between teacher and pupil.

Whilst we hope pupils will be back in school, school leaders have told us a few things:

-   They’re making back-up plans in case not all of their pupils are in their buildings. Instead they are planning in case of localised lockdowns, significant staff and pupil absences due to new cases or shielding, or if rotas are needed at any point.
-   That means running two schools. One that takes place with pupils in the building and another for those at home.
-   Because social distancing requires the same number of teachers for far fewer pupils, their capacity to run the ‘remote school’ is significantly reduced from what they have now.

They’ve also given us some important feedback about our work too. Whilst it’s been overwhelmingly positive they’ve also said Oak needs to be more flexible in its curriculum and to share plans earlier. Having heard all of that I wanted to set out how we plan to be available to help, should you want or need it.

## We’re staying open for another year

Given the uncertainty ahead, we’re keeping Oak National Academy going for the whole of next academic year. We want to be available to support as many schools as might need us, and to help teachers’ planning.

## By early July we’ll publish our full curriculum map for the year

It will set out every lesson that will be available across the mainstream curriculum, for every year group from reception to year 11. It will also include an expanded range of content for the specialist sector.

## Before September the majority of all of next year’s lessons will be available for you to use, completely free

Across July we will be hosting a series of webinars for school leaders and teachers to learn more about how to use our lessons and resources. Please sign up to our [primary](https://www.crowdcast.io/e/making-the-most-of-oak/register), [secondary](https://www.crowdcast.io/e/oak-national-academy---2/register) and [specialist](https://www.crowdcast.io/e/making-the-most-of-oak-2/register) webinars to learn more about our 2020/21 plans and ask questions to our curriculum experts.

**To hear when our resources for next year are released, please** [**sign up for updates**](https://www.thenational.academy/email-signup)**.**

## What should we teach?

The logistics of recording ~10,000 lessons aside, perhaps the most knotty question is ‘what should we teach?’. With such diversity in curricula across the country how do we make our offer as useful for as many schools as possible?

We have a simple aim: **to do everything we can so we align with your plans, rather than you align with us.**

I’m the chair of governors of a school in Morecambe. We’ve discussed that in an ideal world there would be as little friction as possible between pupils being taught in school and those at home - in school for a week pupils cover lessons one, two and three, at home the following week they cover lessons four, five and six.

The less ‘friction’ there is between the ‘in school’ curriculum and the ‘remote’ curriculum the better. Particularly in a world where if one pupil develops a cough the whole class has to isolate for two weeks at no notice.

But achieving this ‘frictionless curriculum’ is really hard. Oak can’t teach every possible option (one version of the curriculum is already ~10,000 lessons!) yet being specific has its downsides too. If we go ahead and teach Macbeth and you chose to teach Hamlet we’re - to borrow a phrase from my nan - no use nor ornament.

How do we solve this? The answer is of course that we work together and listen to you.

## Here’s the plan

1.  We’ve enlisted the support of a broad group of curriculum and sector experts from across the system who will help to steer our work. We’re publishing [those groups on our website today](https://www.thenational.academy/blog/making-oak-more-collaborative).
2.  We will work with these experts to identify the most common content from across the curriculum. Obviously the national curriculum is a good place to start in key stages one, two and three but it doesn’t go far enough. Saying we’re going to ‘teach some wartime poetry’ doesn’t help - we have to actually pick a poem for this to work. So we’re going to try to find the poem that the largest number of people use. We’ll look to exam boards as a starting point in key stage four.
3.  Again, with support from the advisory groups, we’ll then structure that content into a series of ‘building blocks’. We’ll set out clearly which of the blocks within a subject can go in any order and which ones we think need to follow a sequence. You can teach cells or gravity in any order for KS3 science but you really should teach addition before multiplication in KS1 maths. Where we can give flexibility, we will.
4.  By the start of July we will make this curriculum available to you so that you can use it to help your planning.
5.  The lesson creation will happen in the final weeks of term and first couple of weeks of summer holidays - but no more. Teachers need a break. We aim to have the majority of the year’s recorded lessons ready for you by September.
6.  We know that a significant number of schools are sharing our lessons via Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Satchel, Purple Mash and other platforms. We want to ensure that it is as easy to share our lessons with whichever platform your school uses.
7.  We know teachers want to be able to download our resources to help their planning. We're actively looking at what we can do, to try and lighten the load for teachers

We want to know what you would like us to do, so we’re asking for [further feedback](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdD6NCRNqCbhHOcQgZt-oRj4AjjpxRwC61o8dCcSQZidHccSw/viewform) from teachers to help inform how we develop Oak.

In short, again, we’re going to do everything we can to align with you rather than you with us.

We hope this means our and your curricular for next year map closely to one another. Where there is some remaining friction (I can already hear the Hamlet advocates getting nervous about my Macbeth comment) each school can then make the call on what is best for them and their children. As has always been the case, we’re here to help if you need us. The decisions rightly sit with you.

One of the outcomes might be that you are happy with using 80% of our curriculum. We’d be delighted if that meant you adopted that proportion for next year, and then had more time to invest and give extra focus to the 20% that doesn’t align.

## Making it happen

We have a diverse range of schools and incredible teachers supporting Oak. This next job is a big ask, so it will be up to the schools and teachers who are currently working with us if they want to be part of it. We’re talking to them now about who wants to be involved and prioritising those who are familiar with Oak and have existing resources and lessons ready to film - to try and lower the workload as far as possible.

In addition we will be reimbursing the schools for time their teachers spend with us (this is currently donated for free totalling not far off ~£0.5m of staff time so far) and the teachers themselves for their time during the first ten days of the summer break.

We will also continue to face other costs - particularly on technology. After our first month alone our video hosting provider Vimeo told us we were in the top 0.1% of their global usage. This isn’t cheap.

We have been fortunate that the Department for Education has agreed to continue to fund us for the year ahead. And this has been further supported by the Mohn Westlake Foundation. We are finalising details but we expect it will cost roughly the amount it costs to run a secondary school for a year. We are mindful that that is a decent chunk of money. But we hope, on the number of pupils and teachers we can support, it is a worthwhile investment in a safety net.

None of us know what is going to happen with Covid-19. Frankly, we hope we’re not needed. But it's prudent to have a plan B.

I simply wish this makes our shared hopes a little easier to achieve: schools have less to worry about, pupils’ teaching is less disrupted, and teachers’ workload is lightened, freeing them up to do what they do best - support their pupils, wherever they are, whatever the year brings.

Oak survey 2021 graph 1

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

Tilly Browne

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.

## 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

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! 


Children’s Mental Health Week runs next month from 1st-7th February, and this year it’s even more essential than ever to make sure pupils are supported with the disruption, uncertainty and isolation that many of them have faced recently.

We’re really proud to be working alongside the incredible charities [Place2Be](https://www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk/) and [BAFTA Kids](https://www.baftakids.org/) to bring you a [free assembly at 9am on Monday 1st February](https://classroom.thenational.academy/assemblies) on the theme of the week - ‘Express Yourself’.

After the success of Oak’s series of special assemblies during the first school closures, it’s an honour to be hosting this one-off assembly to gather schools and families in our virtual ‘school hall’ and provide an easy way to bring the nation's children together with a positive message about the power of creative self-expression.

Famous faces and contributors will also be taking part live from their homes - so it’s not to be missed!

## Check out the work of our partners Place2Be

The virtual assembly kicks off a week of activities and events to shine a spotlight on the importance of children and young people’s mental health. Place2Be, which does incredible work all year round, have created some resources to help families and schools take part.

Teachers and parents can explore their [primary and secondary resource packs](https://www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk/schools-and-youth-groups/) for quick and easy activity ideas and [top tips for parents and carers](https://www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk/parents-and-carers/) to help children express themselves.

All the ideas in the packs can be adapted for use in school, for home-schooling, online lessons or independent learning.

## An exciting opportunity from our friends at BAFTA Kids

During the assembly, BAFTA Kids will also be launching their annual Young Presenter Competition. The competition aims to find exciting new on-screen talent aged between 7 and 14 years, and this year entrants will be asked to respond to the theme ‘Express Yourself…’.

Previous winners of the competition have gone on to host at BAFTA red-carpets and events throughout the year. Part of this year’s prize is an exclusive masterclass and a filming assignment with the team at Fresh Start Media who produce FYI, Sky Kids’ news show hosted for and by young people.

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).

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.

Katie Marl

Karen Wespieser


My central aim today is to avoid using the word “unprecedented”. It is clear teachers find themselves in… Unusual circumstances. None of us signed up to a career spent sitting at a desk all day and communicating by email and phone. My overriding feeling right now is complete confusion as to why anyone would _choose_ this kind of sedentary life, and I, along with many others, am very much looking forward to being physically present in a school again, ideally with some children and colleagues at a safe and social distance.

Much as I would like to pretend otherwise, distance learning looks to be with us for the long term – most educators consider that a significant number of children will have to stay at home with shielding relatives, as well as potentially having two weeks off school should they or a classmate show symptoms – at least deep into the next academic year. I’ve been excited to get to be a part of [Oak National Academy](https://www.thenational.academy/), the UK’s online school, on its curriculum team, to learn more about best practice in this brave new world of remote learning, and I’d like to share some lessons learned along the way.

## 1. “Assessment for learning” (AfL) looks very different

Even where schools are providing online lessons for their own children, there are some strong arguments for these being pre-recorded rather than live – safeguarding concerns abound with live lessons along with childcare and related demands on teachers’ time making it tough to run lessons according to a set timetable.

Even in live teaching, traditional methods of AfL aren’t foolproof: it’s hard to raise your hand when you’re stuck in a classroom; harder still to do the waving required to make this visible across the internet in front of your peers. It’s easy to read faces in a classroom or hear that low mutter of dissent or see heads shaking when something isn’t clear; again, this is much harder with video conferencing.

Moreover, when students look at a screen, any screen, the default position is to be passive, and breaking the association is a challenge. Students could easily sit through hours of online learning and learn nothing, just as many teachers will have experienced lengthy online meetings they can’t quite recall at this point, along with the multiple TV box sets that have faded into the mists of time.

Online learning must repeatedly fight this passivity. At Oak, teachers have amassed a range of strategies to get children to _do something_ with what they are learning. In primary, [this is displayed most cutely through children shouting the answer at the screen.](https://twitter.com/Layana2406/status/1252942264705392641?s=20)

In secondary, it seems less clear that adolescents would be willing to do this. All Oak teachers use “pause points”: following every new piece of information, a check for understanding – a quick “everyone writes” or multiple choice question to check they have understood.  
The lesson is: any time you’d check for understanding with a class, make it a quick task online.

## 2. Less is more

The amazing [Josie Mingay](https://twitter.com/JAMingay) running [form-time reading](https://twitter.com/GreenshawTrust/status/1242083424170643460?s=20) aside, it is challenging to get children reading a lot when they’re not in the classroom. Oak runs on the assumption that many children access lessons through a mobile phone, and they need to be as accessible as possible for all learners. In the flow of a lesson, it is certainly a challenge to student attention and to teacher delivery to read swathes of text. That is why, though it kills the English teacher in me, I’d advise that less is more when delivering online lessons. Having a large amount of text on slides is a sure fire way to alienate some children. Keep slides clean and keep wording minimal.

In an ideal world, every child would have their own laptop or tablet device from which online learning would be easily accessible. It seems likely that the funding and logistics of this mean it’s not a quick and easy answer. Our best bet – the one that is fastest as well – is to make use of the fact that almost every child will have a mobile phone. With this in mind, use slides judiciously to chunk new knowledge and present it cleanly and clearly, and deliver extended reading separately to new learning to ensure maximum pupil access to lessons.

## 3. Digital simplicity

Technology offers limitless solutions to the problem of educating children remotely, but that doesn’t mean we have to take advantage of all of them. The more complicated we make our lessons, the more hurdles we place in front of our children. Oak’s Head of History, Ben Arscott, described this approach recently saying: “every click is an opportunity for a kid to check out of a lesson.” Adding login details is another hurdle that could cause confusion and prevent access. Whatever you do, make it as easy as possible to access, removing every barrier that might prevent children engaging with the learning.

## 4. Be "pantomime"

One of my favourite pieces of advice on teaching was given to me by Barry Smith, who describes the process by which a teacher becomes larger than life, firing up the pupils through sheer force of personality, as “be pantomime”. This is good advice in the classroom, though it doesn’t work for everyone – we must also ensure we remain true to our teacher personas, as children see right through inauthenticity.

Normally I’m a fan of clear and [simple delivery and no fan of gimmicks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQeyJjCBUBA&t=10s), but while we are delivering lessons on the very device kids are most often distracted by, a little gimmick goes a long way. I find the entirety of Oak’s primary team enchanting, but one of my favourite moments was [watching the year 6 teacher add some jazz to a spelling test](https://www.thenational.academy/year-6/english/instructions-lesson-5-writing-instructions-year-6-wk4-5#slide-3) with his quizmaster jacket (see minutes 1:45 to 2:30 for the transformation).

[Oak National Academy](https://www.thenational.academy/) is completely free to all students and teachers and exists to support teachers focus on the things a tech platform cannot do: the pastoral support of pupils. When professionals return to school, it’s a great resource to allow teachers to plan for the children in front of them, while being sure that the ones at home have something of quality to learn with. We’re improving all the time, and looking for new ways to integrate with existing systems so teachers can monitor the work their students are completing on Oak. With that in mind, do leave any feedback on how we could make the platform most helpful for teachers in the comments of this post.

Finally, some of Oak’s team of superstar teachers will be leading a [Research Ed Home](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3uPEgDH3pAhQe06533Zebw) talk on 2nd June at 11am to share their own lessons learned, so tune in then to find out more.

_This blog first appeared on [Reading all the Books](https://readingallthebooks.com/2020/05/24/remote-learning-lessons-learned/) on May 24, 2020._

What started as a schedule of weekly online lessons to keep pupils learning during lockdown has very quickly become a vast teaching resource supporting schools everywhere. Our teachers and curriculum partners worked flat out to launch as many subject areas as we could in September, but we knew we had more to do. 

We were particularly aware of needing to find ways to bring creative and practical subjects into the Oak offer as well and make it representative of a diverse and broad curriculum for all subjects and skills.

So, we’re really excited and proud to say that with the new year comes our curriculum subject expansion. This expansion contributes almost 1,000 more lessons to our offer, pushing the boundaries on which subjects can be delivered asynchronously.

In response to requests from teachers, we took on the task to create lessons to both plug gaps in our existing provision and build in some vital practical and creative subjects too. We’re thrilled to announce that as of next term, we will be launching lessons in:

-   KS1 & 2 Art, Craft & Design
-   KS1, 2 & 3 Design & Technology
-   KS1 & 2 Drama
-   KS2 Languages (French & Spanish)
-   KS1, 2 & 3 Physical Education
-   KS3 & 4 RSHE
-   KS2 History (in addition to our existing offer)

[Curriculum maps are available to view here](https://teachers.thenational.academy/oaks-curricula)

## Visualisers at the ready

Design & technology and art, craft & design lessons have been frequent requests since the initial Oak lessons were produced. Both faced similar difficulties – how to present practical exploration that was accessible to all learners in the Oak lesson format. With visualisers at the ready, both subjects have provided lessons that combine a visual feast of inspiring stimulus, alongside opportunities for learners to respond creatively.

### Art, Craft & Design

The first exciting thing you will notice about this subject is the change in title, a reflection on the National Society for Education in Art and Design’s (NSEAD) thoughts on the breadth the ‘art and design’ curriculum should provide. With lessons teaching areas such as textiles, printing and photography, there are lessons to support aspects Key Stage 1 and 2 learners have already explored in school as well as new areas to discover.

Oak teachers cleverly combine study of works by famous artists with opportunities to create a sketchbook, as well as sharing how their own sketchbook develops through the unit.

### Design & Technology

Creating lessons in the knowledge that learners have limited access to much of the equipment required provided a real challenge for this subject - but luckily the Design and Technology Association (DATA) were up for the task and units for learners in Key Stage 1, 2 and 3 are being created. Whilst most units require little more than a pen, paper and items readily found around the house, in order to provide breadth and depth in coverage some units do require equipment that it is envisaged schools will be able to provide in a take home pack.

## On y va

### Primary languages

The challenge facing the primary languages team was how to design a curriculum for both French and Spanish that will lead seamlessly into KS3 MFL. With their extensive experience and research-led philosophy, Research in Primary Languages (RiPL) were the perfect partner to support us with this.

Lessons are fast-paced, active and carefully build on learning to enable learners to quickly demonstrate progression and proficiency. The unique style of languages teaching at primary level is clearly evident and will support both specialist and non-specialist teachers.

## Group activities, alone

Not often grouped together, drama and PE faced similar challenges in producing asynchronous lessons. How do you create lessons for learners to complete independently, when collaboration between learners is such a fundamental part of classroom practice for these subjects? Oak teachers rose to this challenge.

### Primary Drama

Creating a sense of audience when learners are working independently is the challenge facing our drama team. National Drama has combined the skills and talents of drama teachers and actors, working hard to create lessons for Key Stage 1 and 2 that provide drama skill development and theatre skills through the common topics and themes covered in primary education. Look out for the creative ways prior learning has been activated and personal experience is utilised.

### Physical Education

Drawing on the expertise of both the Association for Physical Education (afPE) and the Youth Sport Trust (YST), the Oak lessons provide cognitive, physical and personal development for Key Stage 1, 2 and 3 learners with a ‘health’ thread running throughout. The PE teachers have worked tirelessly to create lessons that overcome the lack of space and equipment many children face whilst offering opportunities for personal competition and goal setting. Camera tracking technology has been utilised to enable physical demonstrations to be recorded without learners missing any of the action.

## Sensitivity required

### Relationship, Sex and Health Education

A subject that needs to be taught with the utmost sensitivity needs a team experienced in providing opportunities for reflection in remote learning. The teachers from the Bright Futures Educational Trust have engaged learners through setting a tone appropriate for the range of topics presented. Key Stage 3 & 4 lessons cover both statutory and non-statutory areas.

## We want more!

### Primary History

Following high demand, popular history topics at Key Stage 2 are being added to the existing primary lessons available on the Oak Teacher Hub and Classroom. Ark Curriculum Plus have leapt to the challenge which will allow schools to further align their curriculum with their remote provision.

Our [curriculum maps](https://teachers.thenational.academy/oaks-curricula) for Art, Craft & Design, D&T, P.E, Drama, Languages and RSHE are available now so you can start planning for the new term. The lessons will be released throughout January and February. 

Keep an eye on @OakNational social channels and make sure you’re [signed up to our newsletter](https://www.thenational.academy/email-signup) to be notified when they’re available.

Jo Facer

Using Oak for lesson cover

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


Miriam Kendrick discusses the uniqueness of Religion and Worldviews, providing detailed insight into the development of resources and guidance for schools across the nation, without a national curriculum

## A Curriculum for the Nation with no Curriculum

As those of us who teach Religion and Worldviews know, we are in a unique position in having no national curriculum for our subject. With many decisions about RE curriculum being made at a local level, we had the challenge of providing  [RE lessons and resources](https://teachers.thenational.academy/subjects/religious-education)  for schools across the nation with the view of making them as useful for as many teachers and students as possible. With this in mind, we wanted to ensure and balance between coherence and flexibility, while accessing depth for our students, and making use of the expertise of our teachers.

## Creating a cohesive curriculum through the use of units of work

We’re not a school with students joining us in year 7 and leaving us in year 11. At my own school we focus on interleaving and in RE our curriculum spirals through the Abrahamic religions – adding depth to student knowledge each year. Although many Oak students will have been dipping in and out of the resources, cohesion is still important for them to genuinely learn, and for teachers to decide what will be useful to their classes. 

A student faced with a myriad of standalone lessons covering innumerable topics and religions would likely be information overload. This is why we chose to create units rather than a huge variety of standalone lessons – a cohesive curriculum which in theory could take our virtual students through the learning they would cover from year 7 to year 11.

We know that many students are using Oak lessons to fill gaps where they’ve missed school, and we also expect them to make good use of our resources when exam season comes around. Having clearly laid out units of work helps students to have confidence that they have covered the key information they need for their examinations and to understand a particular religion. 

This also means that in KS3 we wanted to provide schools with units which gave clear knowledge on the beliefs and practices within religious and non-religious worldviews which would easily ‘slot in’ or work alongside a school’s curriculum. At KS4 we wanted to include units which would mirror what the GCSE curriculum offers, alongside standalone lessons which covered examination skills. There is always a discussion of what should be included in RE – do we simply cover the largest 6 world religions? 

Or should we cover Paganism? Rastafarianism? Ancient Greek religion? Many schools endeavour to. However, a level of pragmatism and a desire to offer depth of learning to our students meant that we could not represent every religion (can anyone!?).

Just as we have limited time in school with our students (some RE teachers having just an hour a week to complete a GCSE), we also had a limited amount of time and capacity. This meant the GCSE topics had a big impact on the decisions we made. Christianity is covered by the vast majority of schools, and Islam is the second most popular religion at GCSE. 

In terms of cohesion, it would be inconsistent to do two Abrahamic religions without doing Judaism so this was an obvious choice for our KS3 curriculum. We also included Buddhism and non-religious worldviews, both of which fit with the curriculum for a majority of schools meaning that our curriculum could be as cohesive and flexible for as many schools as possible.

## Supporting depth of learning to encourage a passion for the subject

I have already mentioned depth of learning, and personally, I love getting into depth when studying a particular religion. Standalone facts are interesting, but they are so much more satisfying when they are understood systematically within a particular worldview. 

For example, most primary aged children can tell you that the wisemen gave Jesus gold, frankincense (or was it Frankenstein?) and myrrh. That’s an interesting fact about Christianity. But the meaning behind those gifts tell the whole gospel story! 

Understanding that gold shows the belief that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah – the king whose kingdom would never end, that frankincense, used in Temple worship, shows that he was God, and that the myrrh, used to embalm dead bodies shows that he came to die, is the heart of Christianity in a nutshell! I could give a myriad of examples (although being advent, I thought this one was apt) of ‘standalone’ facts about religion are so much more meaningful when the religion as a whole is understood.

In teaching students depth, not only are we teaching them something inherently interesting, but we are giving them the skills to understand a religion and the variety of beliefs and practices held by its followers. This means that variety does suffer to an extent. As a lifelong student of religion I am keenly aware that there’s so much more to know. 

I could study a single religion my whole life and not know everything about it, let alone other religions and worldviews. So, when we make choices about studying religion A in depth, to the detriment of not studying religion B at all, we need to keep in mind the skills and hopefully lifelong passion we are giving students, so that they can continue to pursue knowledge about religion B, C, E etc.

## Making experts of the students and ourselves

As we wanted to give students this depth we were keen to recruit experts for the religions we made resources for. One challenge for RE is that it’s often given to non-specialists to teach in a way that would rarely be done with other subjects. For these teachers it must feel like a minefield – not only ensuring they get subject knowledge correct for student knowledge, but also having to tackle controversial and challenging topics. 

We wanted to create resources by experts in their subject area, not only for non-specialists, but for those of us who are experts, so that we could dig into a wealth of knowledge with our students. One of the things I was most excited about was working with the teachers we recruited to make our lessons. 

I learnt a huge amount from my colleagues while we worked together. I got reading recommendations. We discussed in depth what spellings should be used for translated words. We talked about those misconceptions that students, and even ourselves regularly have.

And I think this is one of the key things about both curriculum writing and being lifelong students of RE. We are trying to make experts of the students and of ourselves. In writing a curriculum we want to be sure of including the key knowledge and skills which make an expert. 

Understanding the historical context, the beliefs, how practices stem from those beliefs, and how believers navigate application of their beliefs to challenges they face in life. The exception to this approach of having a unit on beliefs and a unit on practices has been the KS3 non-religious worldviews unit. Perhaps this is an area which has ventured more into ‘breadth’ than ‘depth’. 

But there are obvious reasons for this – without a divine revelation of what is considered truth or correct practice there are new challenges to providing a systematic thought system. We also stray into the realm of philosophy rather than religion (somewhere we should all go for our holidays). Additionally, philosophy is as vast as religion. So here we do touch on the rise of atheism, humanism, sociology, psychology, ethics – showing students that non-religious worldviews have as much variety as religion itself.

## Our Curriculum

To give a cohesive understanding of the religions we studied, our curriculum is organised through having a unit on beliefs and a unit on practices. Every unit also has a recap and practice lesson halfway through, alongside a revision lesson, a deliberate practice lesson and an examination practice lesson at the end of the unit. Most of these are self-explanatory, we know that students need an opportunity to revise and practice what they have learnt, and to learn how to apply it to examination questions. 

Deliberate practice lessons may be less familiar. There is certain key knowledge which students need to know to unlock their understanding of a religion. When it comes to learning definitions of words and key quotations it is appropriate to require students to learn by rote – to memorise key knowledge so that it is instant and quickly retrievable. Just like in a French lesson, students will not understand the discussion if they don’t know their vocabulary. 

In religion, students won’t be able to discuss beliefs if they don’t know key terms. In maths, students learn their timetables by rote which frees up their working memory to complete mental maths. When studying Islam, for example, students need to know the belief in Tawhid and how it is reflected in the Shahadah. But if they don’t know the words ‘tawhid’ and ‘Shahadah’, let alone the words of the Shahadah they’ll be stuck. 

Therefore, the deliberate practise lessons give students an opportunity to commit discrete key knowledge to memory using deliberate practice techniques such as look, cover, write, check, repeat.

Although, as stated previously, we won’t be seeing students from year 7 up to year 11, we have stuck with a spiral curriculum approach. We have Christian and Islamic beliefs and practices at KS3 and at KS4. This has been part of having something cohesive to offer, as well as recognising that most school will also take this approach – it’s likely that if we had not included Christianity and Islam at both KS3 and KS4 we would have failed to cater for a large majority of schools.

This past year has brought unique challenges, but as there is light at the end of the tunnel (temptations to mention Jesus as the light of the world, the lighting of the Hanukah candles, or perhaps just NDE’s abound here), we hope that the resources we’ve created have been, and will continue to make life easier for RE teachers across the nation who’ve been juggling in school and remote teaching. 

Looking at  [our curriculum for Religion and Worldviews](https://teachers.thenational.academy/oaks-curricula)  from this perspective has been a unique and interesting challenge, particularly considering the variety of practice across the country with the curriculum being decided at a local level which could have been a frustration. 

But I have been reminded that this variety is simply indicative of the huge wealth of knowledge encompassed by that title ‘Religion and Worldviews’ and that it is such a privilege to teach such an important and diverse subject.

Top Tips for Parents Homeschooling

Miriam Kendrick

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

*In the new world of online teaching, do you have to chose between live teaching and using recorded lessons? We invited guest blogger Tom Rogers ([@rogershistory](https://www.twitter.com/rogershistory "@rogershistory on Twitter")), History teacher, blogger for TES and founder and director of [@teachmeeticons](https://www.twitter.com/teachmeeticons "@teachmeeticons on Twitter") and [@edudateofficial](https://www.twitter.com/edudateofficial "@edudateofficial on Twitter") to describe his approach.*

“Those schools who try to do everything they would do in a face-to-face context in a remote context are going to come unstuck”, said Darren Northcott, the education lead for NASUWT at a recent webinar for teachers concerned about online teaching.

One of the most significant trends of this new world of online teaching that we find ourselves in seems to be the idea that the teacher needs to be ‘present’ all the time. This has been encapsulated in ‘live lessons’ – namely, teachers teaching their normal timetable live and on screen.

During Northcott’s presentation, he highlighted the lack of research around live lessons being better than pre-recorded, ‘non-live’ ones. And there’s certainly a broad interpretation of what’s ‘best’ in schools across the country. 

I entirely agree with Darren - we need to protect teachers’ workload and that we can’t do everything we do in a classroom. So I asked myself: does it have to be a choice between one or the other? Maybe the two approaches are not as mutually exclusive as the current conversation might lead us to believe.

There is space for a live lesson – where the students and teacher are present in the moment – that involves the teacher facilitating learning in a different way than solely delivering it all whilst also battling new technology, engagement, intervention and everything else.

My school has implemented a full timetable of ‘live’ online learning.

I wanted to come up with an approach to live lessons that would be as effective as possible whilst still allowing me a life! The idea of planning and delivering four or five live lessons a day, led solely by me, was out of the question. It’s just not a sustainable way for teachers to work. So I looked at alternatives.

I knew about Oak National Academy anyway from their work in lockdown one and quickly realised that if I could stream an Oak lesson through Microsoft Teams, then it would be almost like ‘team teaching’ the content.

As a history teacher, I knew they had most of the key content we were delivering, including the ‘medicine through time’ unit, covered.

So, my standard lesson plan is now as follows:

1. Starter/introduction/register – with a retrieval quiz activity
2. I play an Oak National Academy video lesson and pause at the points the Oak teacher says to pause (pause points are embedded in each video)! I encourage Q&A with students at these points. Pausing is used for students to complete comprehension questions and for me to answer questions and deal with any misconceptions or misunderstandings.
3. Students submit their notes and answers to any tasks set, including comprehension questions, as an assignment through the VLE.
4. I turn my own camera and mic on and lead a quiz, using something like menti.com which allows the students to submit answers that show up on screen for all students ‘live’.

(One thing to note is that you need to have the Microsoft Teams desktop app installed to be able to use the ‘share screen with audio’ button. I tried to do this originally using it through a browser and that button doesn't exist!)

The lesson is still ‘live’, so you have all the advantages of that – real time interaction with students, added accountability to attend and engage and so on. But – and this is key – using this approach means there is less onus on me, as one individual teacher, to facilitate quite complex and multi-faceted sessions, four or five times a day. 

I can ‘team teach’ virtually and add another knowledgeable, qualified, expert into my lessons. It has already saved me a huge amount of time and effort.

I am also always conscious of the student experience in my lessons, whether face to face or online, and wouldn’t want to use something that detracted from that or that I felt uncomfortable using. 

Every Oak lesson I’ve used so far has been excellent. They don’t overcomplicate things, they are easy to follow and are also as interesting and engaging as anything I could do myself in an online setting.

Thanks to all the Oak teachers and I hope this method might work for you if you are looking for a slightly different approach to lesson delivery.

And if it’s helpful to see it in action – I have created this little ‘how-to’ video here to show you how I do it: [https://youtu.be/JpBef73KO4c](https://youtu.be/JpBef73KO4c "YouTube video - How to stream Oak on Microsoft Teams")

There are many ways to approach remote education and we’re all adapting to the ways which work for us. 

For more ideas or information, Oak National Academy regularly hosts [free webinars](https://www.thenational.academy/webinars "Free webinars") to show the lots of ways schools are using the resources, and you check out and use all of their lessons for free on the [Teacher Hub here](https://teachers.thenational.academy/ "Teacher Hub").

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.

### 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)__

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

## 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*


“How do I define History?” says Rudge, one of Alan Bennett’s History Boys, in his university interview. “It’s just one f***ing thing after another.” As any History teacher tasked with building a curriculum will tell you: “If only.” If History, the subject, really were just the litany of things past, objectively ordered and transmitted, our lives would be substantially simpler, if rather less intellectually stimulating.

At this moment in our collective history, it could not be any clearer that History is not a settled sequence, but a contested debate. When Edward Colston’s statue went headfirst into Bristol harbour (whatever one might think of the propriety of the act), it reminded us that we are not only still making history today, but we are remaking our relationship with the past, and the stories we tell about it.

The past week, many were glued to the stream of Lin Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, which concludes with its slain hero lamenting he has “no control / Who lives, who dies, who tells your story”. But history educators do have such control, or a fair bit of it. We choose the stories to teach, the spin we will put on those stories, the evidence young people will examine in considering those stories. Of course, that is not the only history education young people will receive—they see the past via their own reading, their families, the public history embodied in statues, monuments and buildings—but still, the choices we make about the History curriculum are powerful and important.

History educators have been struggling with these issues for decades now, and in recent years many have shared practice on how to find more coherent, cohesive structures so that pupils retain and can use their knowledge flexibly. But there must undoubtedly also be a chance for young people to understand the status of the knowledge they have encountered—that History is written based on evidence, for the use of which there are rules, and debates about interpretations are not incidental, but essential.

And of course, in the past few weeks, we have been reminded of the importance of ensuring that all voices about and of the past are represented, fairly and meaningfully, in our study of that past. History teachers already knew that, but there is always more to do, more to learn about how best to construct and curate a curriculum which is knowledge-rich, disciplinarily-valid and accessible to all young people.

All this is a prelude to saying that, as of right now, Oak National Academy has not settled on a [Primary History curriculum](https://www-staging.thenational.academy/oaks-curricula) which we think meets the needs of all young people. That is through no fault of either Oak’s History team, any of the other Oak staff or our team of subject advisors, all of whom have given freely of their time, energy and ideas to debate and formulate Oak’s History offer. The Key Stage 3 curriculum has been crafted with care and consideration and a great deal of input and inspiration from many History educators. In developing the Key Stage 4 curriculum we have obviously taken careful note of the most widely taught GCSE options. All those involved stand behind that offer as a valid fusion of worthwhile intent and feasible implementation, and we hope the sector will receive it as a useful and supportive tool for planning next year’s learning in the shadow of the pandemic.

There is also a fair amount of Primary we have agreed to see developed, units which we know are wanted by the sector and meet the requirements of the National Curriculum, and where we know we have resources and capacity to deliver in time for Autumn.

For the rest, we are keen to gather more feedback from History educators and the wider school sector.

-   How can we ensure the right balance of personal, British and global history for Primary-aged pupils?
-   How best can we reflect diversity, of the past and today, in a meaningful way?
-   What resources already exist which Oak could draw on to generate such units?
-   What professional development, particularly around subject knowledge, is out there to ensure teachers feel confident in teaching such units in historically rich, academically rigorous and sensitive ways?
-   And how do we make sure that our history curriculum as a whole does justice to stories and experiences that may have been silenced?

We are very keen to hear feedback on all those questions, other areas we may not have thought of within the Primary offer, and indeed thoughts and responses to the current curriculum map for Key Stage 3 and 4 too. Please send any thoughts to [history@thenational.academy](mailto:history@thenational.academy). I suspect we won’t be able to respond personally to every piece of feedback we receive, but please be assured we will read it and respond appropriately in our planning.

In some ways, though we had hoped to be able to show a full curriculum map for History to the sector today, I am quite excited by the possibilities of more thinking time and the chance for wider sharing of debate and ideas. It has been a real privilege to chair the History Subject Advisory Group for Oak, and to debate with such an excellent panel of experts—who I must once again thank for their generous contribution—and I look forward to the wider debate we can all now engage in.

_John Blake is Chair of the Oak National Academy Advisory Group for History, a member of the Oak Project Board, and was previously a classroom history teacher for a decade. He currently works for Ark Schools on curriculum research and design._

## In the classroom

Teachers are telling us that their use of Oak is also extending to their classrooms. We’ve listened to feedback and made the resources downloadable and editable wherever copyright allows, meaning teachers can use the materials to help their termly planning. This is not only leading to a smoother transition between school and home learning but has the obvious benefit of reducing workload, too.

As Sam Harries, head at Swallowdale Primary School in Melton Mowbray explains: _“Some of our teachers are using Oak videos and resources to complement their whole class teaching, because it’s supporting a reduction in their workload. Oak won’t just be used for home learning; we’re going to run our curriculum for the whole school around a lot of the Oak resources to ensure children at home will be getting very similar to those in school.”_

## Homework

As more schools move to online homework as an easier way of tracking assignments, schools can also use this to get ahead of the game on remote learning. Setting Oak tasks for homework exposes pupils and parents to the process that might be needed for self-isolation or lockdown learning.

Stephen Easton, Headteacher at Marine Park First School in Whitley Bay, has made Oak homework part of their school routine: _“We’ve been using and would recommend schools consider using Oak for some homework activities. This helps raise the profile of this resource and helps teachers, parents and pupils get used to using it. It then means we can scale this up when needed for full remote learning.”_

## Training and CPD

Then, of course, there are the trainees and early career teachers who haven’t been able to observe others in the way we’re used to. A particularly surprising use that we keep hearing about is how trainees themselves, or at the suggestion of schools and universities, are using the video lessons as CPD and observing Oak teachers in action. 

Other schools are sharing lessons beyond trainees and experienced teachers are also reaping the benefits. RE subject specialist Nikki McGee noted: *‘One idea I’ve had is to give staff training time over to watching some of the lessons. To say to a teacher, ‘If you’re unconfident in an area, then why don’t you watch how this subject specialist explains this difficult concept’ is great CPD. We all benefit from observing other teachers and at the moment we can’t.’*

Using our new curriculum maps to support your classroom planning

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

We’re staying open and free into next year

Beyond lockdown: How have teachers used Oak resources since schools fully re-opened?

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.

New resources from Oak: Everything you need for summer learning

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

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.

In the new world of online teaching, should schools be trying to do more live teaching, or use more recorded lessons? Does it have to be one or the other? In this guest blog, Tom Rogers explores the options and approaches available to teachers.

Using Oak vs live lessons: does it have to be one or the other?

We're really proud to be working alongside Place2be and BAFTA Kids to bring you a free assembly Monday 1st February as part of Children's Mental Health Week 2021.

Join our assembly for Children’s Mental Health Week 2021

Supporting your children with home learning can be a daunting prospect for many parents. Our Head of Curriculum, Emma McCrea, gives you some of our top tips to help you support remote learning at home.

Top tips for parents & carers supporting home learning

Oak’s RE Curriculum, for the nation without a curriculum

We’re really excited and proud to say that with the new year comes our curriculum subject expansion, including almost 1,000 more lessons to our offer, pushing the boundaries on which subjects can be delivered asynchronously.

New year, new subjects

Innovative ways schools are using Oak’s lessons and resources

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

2020-21 Oak curriculum webinars

Hear from Oak principal, Matt Hood, on the features and benefits in our new Teacher Hub, including easy access to 10,000 free, high-quality lessons and downloadable resources to complement remote and in-school teaching.

News & Views

Keep up to date with our latest blog posts

Using our new curriculum maps to support your classroom planning

We’re staying open and free into next year

Beyond lockdown: How have teachers used Oak resources since schools fully re-opened?

New resources from Oak: Everything you need for summer learning

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

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

Using Oak vs live lessons: does it have to be one or the other?

Join our assembly for Children’s Mental Health Week 2021

Top tips for parents & carers supporting home learning

Oak’s RE Curriculum, for the nation without a curriculum

New year, new subjects

Innovative ways schools are using Oak’s lessons and resources

2020-21 Oak curriculum webinars

Introducing the new Oak Teacher Hub

Our specialist curriculum

Oak’s approach to EYFS

What should we teach in primary history, and how?

How should we choose what we teach?

Continuing Oak next year

Making Oak more collaborative

Remote learning: lessons learned

What’s wrong with Oak Academy’s specialist curriculum?

What's wrong with Oak National Academy?