Launched in April 2020, Oak National Academy was set up by a group of around 40 education experts to solve the problem of some teachers and pupils not having online resources ready-to-go during the first national lockdown. A year on, and two further national lockdowns later, the academy has worked with 300 teachers to create 10,000 lessons for children aged from four through to 16. It has also been backed with £4.3m from the Department for Education and received support from the Mohn Westlake Foundation. For Matt Hood becoming principal of Oak National Academy presented an opportunity to continue a career, which, for the past decade, has focused on supporting teachers and developing their expertise. The former teacher says that “closing unacceptable gaps at every level of the education system that see disadvantaged children getting an unfair deal” is what motivates him.
How did the idea for Oak Academy come about and what has its impact been?
A team of teachers, technical staff and education professionals came together to build a great online platform and share high-quality, pre-recorded lessons. We went from our first Zoom meeting to launching in 10 days.
Speaking to schools, we knew disruption would continue this year. So over the summer, with the backing of the DfE, we recorded nearly 10,000 lessons – a full year’s worth of lessons for all pupils, across core subjects – that are accessible for free.
The response has blown us away – we have delivered 120 million lessons, averaged 543,000 daily users, and reached 63 per cent of all state school teachers.
How did you reach disadvantaged pupils?
Whether because they didn’t have a suitable device, or could not afford the data costs of online lessons, disadvantaged students too often found themselves locked out of learning.
Ofcom data shows that nearly one million children have no broadband access, only accessing the internet through a [phone] signal, and half a million children have no access at all. Teachers were therefore having to work extra hard to create resources and tools for those without digital access.
What made a real difference was the telecoms providers coming together to work with Oak Academy on zero-rating our content. The impact can’t be overstated – it meant that children were able to access unlimited educational content on our website, data free.
Beyond our website, their work in providing dongles and data packages for disadvantaged families was vital as well in helping young people access online content.
Has the government done enough to tackle the digital divide?
The government provided more than 1.3 million laptops and tablets to schools, and we saw countless examples of generosity from communities and local businesses.
With the benefit of hindsight, it would have been great for this to have happened even faster. But this was a big, complicated logistical effort.
What we must not think is that this challenge is over because pupils are returning to school.
Have schools and councils done enough to integrate online learning into their planning?
Different schools were at different starting points, and had different resources available – some had been using online tools for years, and had in-house expertise, whereas others had to learn incredibly quickly.
With the latest lockdown we saw a real shift in the amount, quality and confidence in digital learning. Teachers used the previous term to make plans. They mapped their curriculum against what resources Oak Academy had available – so they knew where and how they could switch to use these if needed.
Should all pupils in England have returned to school at once and what impact will it have for Oak?
The best place for pupils to learn is in the classroom. All the evidence is clear on this.
We are asking a lot of teachers; needing to keep their pupils, and themselves safe, while helping them transition back to the physical classroom. They’ll need to provide extra support to catch up on missed learning, while also adjusting to delivering regular lessons again.
The opportunity is that teachers now have a wider set of tools to draw on to help. They are much more confident integrating digital resources into their plans.
What should the education catch-up programme prioritise and how will Oak support it?
If we want to close attainment gaps, caused by any reason, the thing we need is more expert teaching. In the long run this has to be the priority. But that takes time and in the short run there are other things that we should focus on.
All pupils will have had some disruption, but the most disadvantaged will have had the biggest barriers to overcome and we must focus our support with them. Digital learning can help teachers in this. Access to ready-made resources can free teachers’ time to focus on teaching, not making powerpoints. Online homework, catch up and revision tools can help fill gaps in pupils’ knowledge that teachers spot. From our own data, 74 per cent of teachers using Oak Academy say they’re likely to keep using it beyond this year for these very reasons.
MATT HOOD CV
- April 2020 – present: Principal, Oak National Academy
- Nov 2014 – Nov 2019: Founder, the Ambition Institute
- Sept 2014 – Aug 2016: Assistant head teacher, Heysham High School
- Sept 2012 – Aug 2014: Director of policy and development, Achievement for All
- Sept 2009 – Aug 2012: Policy adviser, Department for Education
- Sept 2007 – Aug 2009: Teacher, Salisbury School
