Oak National Academy is set to launch with a drastically reduced curriculum as England’s biggest multi-academy trust pulls its resources from the platform.
The Reach Foundation has signed over Oak National Academy today ahead of its launch as an arm’s-length body in autumn.
Ian Bauckham, chair of Ofqual, is set to head up an independent interim board to provide governance for the first year while a permanent board is appointed via a public appointments process.
While 85 per cent of existing content will stay on the site, the national academy has said that, ”due to restrictions and the end of licences from some of our partners”, some resources will disappear from the platform in the coming days.
These include all resources for key stage 4 English and history, as well as key stages 3 and 4 science, geography and art.
Tes understands that these resources will not be available until September 2023 after a procurement process for the creation of the resources has taken place.
The United Learning resources are set to appear on its own platform, which will be available “soon”, according to Oak. It is not yet confirmed whether these resources will be free to use.
In addition, video lessons are expected to be removed from key stage 4 MFL lessons, while some units are also being removed from key stages 2 and 3 English and citizenship.
Twelve lessons from the specialist curriculum are also being pulled from the site.
In a message on its site, Oak said: “We’re really sorry as we know the changes will cause inconvenience. We recommend you review what you’ve got downloaded, and any links you’ve saved or shared with pupils to the lessons and resources above.”
The formal launch, due “in the coming weeks”, will start a programme of work to co-create new, free resources, created with a “diverse range of partners”, chosen via an open procurement process which is expected to launch “shortly”.
New resources will be across the full range of national curriculum subjects but the first tranche to be created will cover maths, English, science, geography, history and music.
Oak has replaced religious education with music in the first tranche of subjects based on feedback demonstrating “the value of additional support for music” as well as a desire ”to spend more time on RE”.
United Learning - alongside another large multi-academy trust, Ark Schools - had been expected to receive the biggest payment for resources handed over to Oak, having made the biggest contributions.
The plan to create a UK-wide national academy was first laid out in the government’s Levelling Up White Paper, which was published in February, as revealed by Tes.
Background on Oak National Academy:
Later, Tes revealed that Oak was to be made into the new government arm’s-length body to provide free resources to schools across England.
But now, United Learning has decided not to sign over the intellectual property that would see the multi-academy trust receive a payment of over £160,000.
In June, Tes revealed that the DfE had struck a deal to pay Oak’s curriculum partners for the copyright of lesson resources they had previously provided for free. Documents seen by Tes revealed the flat rate per lesson resource was around £100.
Tes understands that United Learning contributed around the same number of resources as Ark Schools, which provided 1,625 resources.
Oak National Academy has been hosted by The Reach Foundation since it launched in April 2020, when schools were closed owing to the coronavirus crisis.
United Learning has been contacted for comment.
‘Still committed’ to UK-wide offer
The government said Oak would become a UK-wide learning provider when it first announced its plans to relaunch it as a government quango in its Levelling Up White Paper in February.
The DfE said today that it is “still committed” to “working with the devolved administrations to explore how Oak National Academy can support students in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland”, but did not reveal whether or when this expanded offer would become available.
A DfE spokesperson said: “Building on the huge success of Oak National Academy’s work during the pandemic, Oak’s conversion to an arm’s-length body marks a significant milestone as we work towards its relaunch in the autumn.
“Oak, as the new curriculum body, will ensure that high-quality lessons are available nationwide for the benefit of all children, working with teachers across the country. Free, optional and adaptable digital curriculum resources in six priority subjects will be fully available by September 2024, following a procurement exercise.
“The majority of Oak’s existing resources will be accessible in the meantime to ensure that teachers are able to manage their workload and deliver a world-class curriculum over the coming year.”
