The online learning hub launched in April with £300,000 in Department for Education (DfE) funding and has been supporting schools during the Covid-19 lockdown by creating video lessons across a range of subjects and for every year group from Reception to year 10.
The initiative is now to continue into the 2020/21 academic year with a further £4.34 million in DfE funding as well as support from the Mohn Westlake Foundation.
Ministers see the move as providing a fall back should there be a second spike in infections this autumn or winter, or should local outbreaks force schools into further lockdowns.
In preparation for this role and in recognition that pupils may dip in and out of the Oak National Academy content depending on local circumstances, the teachers behind the scheme are now creating and recording “a version of the entire national curriculum available to any school, for free”.
The initiative will also give schools the ability to “reorder topics and lessons, to better match their own plans and curriculum”, while a full schedule of all the lessons planned for the year is to be published in July to allow schools to plan ahead. A majority of the videos will be published by September.
A statement said: “Creating around 10,000 lessons over the next two months, Oak will cover core subjects for Reception through to year 11, and feature new lessons for the specialist sector. Resources will remain free and accessible for teachers to help ease their workloads, support existing quality teaching, and minimise any disruption for pupils.”
Matt Hood, principal of the Oak National Academy, added: “As we look ahead to September, we hope all teachers and pupils will be safely back at school. Given the risk of local lockdowns, it’s sensible to have a back-up plan available to any school, to make sure children can continue to receive an education. So, we’re keeping Oak National Academy open for another year.
“Our online lessons and resources will continue to be free and available on any device. And through a significant collaborative, sector-wide effort we’re going to set out a broad, flexible curriculum map for the full year by July and share the majority of the video lessons that go with it before the new academic year begins.”
Visit www.thenational.academy