Matt Hood

As I end my time at Oak, we’ve achieved a lot but there’s still a lot to do.

I wish Oak’s new interim CEO @johnrobeds.bsky.social, the team and the wider partnership the best as they continue this work and thank them and everyone who has used Oak and helped out on this rollercoaster ride!

For those teachers our independent evaluation shows that their workload is down (up to 5 hours per week), their curriculum expertise is up, they are happier and say that they are more likely to stay in teaching.

We’re now just shy of 50% of teachers in England using our materials each term (around 200,000). And usage is up over 200% year on year.

Through our work with 20 excellent schools, school trusts, subject associations, publishers and universities, in a few months time we will have built the world’s first free, high quality, fully resourced, open source curriculum.

As the pandemic subsided, we transferred the organisation from a charity working with the government into direct public ownership with a specific goal to reduce teacher workload and improve curriculum expertise.

Within the first term pupils had taken part in 20 million lessons. By the end of the pandemic pupils had taken part in ~160m lessons.

It feels like quite a leap from the early days of Oak, created as the pandemic hit the UK.

In those early days we - and by ‘we’ I mean a national partnership - knocked up a national online school in nine days during a lockdown.

Now, around 13,000 prisoners will be able to use our English, maths and science resources via MOJ's Launchpad platform. History and languages will be available soon.

We’re proud to see them play a small role in boosting education in prisons and supporting rehabilitation.

It’s been a couple of years since @natashaporter.bsky.social, founder of @unlockedgrads.bsky.social, asked why prisoners didn’t have access to Oak’s lessons.

A fair challenge, it spurred work with the brilliant digital team at MoJ to roll out our resources across youth & adult prison estates

Matt Hood: Oak has its critics, but the achievements are many Outgoing Oak National Academy CEO Matt Hood looks back on the successes and challenges the digital lesson platform has faced over the past five years

After 5 years, today marks my final week leading @oaknational.bsky.social. I’m so glad to close this chapter with the news that our resources are now live in prisons.

@tesmagazine.bsky.social has kindly let me reflect (ok, indulge) on my time. A quick summary below…🧵

www.tes.com/magazine/ana...

They rightly acknowledge there is much that is good and works well in the current curriculum, but it can be improved and brought up-to-date.

Look forward to seeing next stage of their work and how some of our important subjects can be developed for the future.

Curriculum and Assessment Review: interim report An independent review of the curriculum and assessment system in England, with statistical analysis.

Really great to see @beckyfrancis.bsky.social and the Curriculum and Assessment Review team publish their interim findings. It’s clear the review is in safe hands.

www.gov.uk/government/p...

We’re still in the early stages of sharing our new curriculum content, with more coming over the year.

But we’re delighted it's helping to cut workload, improve curriculum expertise and is positively received by teachers.

📖 Read the full report: oaknat.uk/evaluation2324

And just a reminder. Oak resources are not just our work, but the work of our brilliant partners from schools, charities, subject associations and publishers.

Plus the hundreds of teachers and experts who advise, shape, check and double-check our work 🤝

We focus specifically on disadvantage and inclusion.

As a result, schools serving communities facing the highest disadvantage use about 20% more Oak resources.

Teachers were also particularly positive about the benefits of using Oak resources with SEND or EAL pupils.

📝 Curriculum planning: Two-thirds use Oak to inspire their school’s curriculum, building on or modifying their own work.

It’s a similar story with lesson planning. Teachers are adopting Oak’s lesson approaches, such as structure or checks for understanding.

😊 Wellbeing: Teachers using Oak have better wellbeing than those who don’t.

They are more likely to want to stay in teaching. Only 16% of Oak users thought they’d no longer be working in teaching in two years’ time compared to 25% of non-users

🏋️ Workload: 3 in 4 teachers saved time using Oak.

They either worked fewer hours overall, or were able to spend more time on other useful activities with their pupils.

On average, Oak users worked around 5 hours fewer per week. This grows the more a teacher uses Oak.

⬆️ Usage: Over 190,000 teachers used Oak in the six months to July 2024. That’s 1 in 3 of the workforce.

Numbers are even higher this school year - up 158% from this time last year. As we roll out more new resources, more teachers use them.

This evaluation covers the 2023/24 school year.

So while many teachers were using resources created in the pandemic, others have been exploring the first of our great new curriculum packages which began rolling out last year...

Hi BlueSky 👋

I've popped on as we released our 5th independent @oaknational.bsky.social evaluation yesterday 📈

@ImpactEd_Group looked at how our curriculum models and resources are being used and the impact they’re having on teachers’ workload and curriculum expertise.

A quick summary below... 🧵

Teacher autonomy debates ignore two crucial issues With new insights on how Oak materials are being used to adapt or augment curriculum plans, chief executive Matt Hood says it proves debates about teacher autonomy need to evolve

Should teachers have more or less autonomy? The culture of the school and the teacher's level of experience are crucial in answering this question, writes @oaknational.bsky.social chief @matthewhood.bsky.social