The online school Oak National Academy has seen a big increase in pupils using its online lessons this term - with numbers nearly doubling in one region - indicating the extent of Covid disruption in schools.

With many headteachers planning for the possibility of remote learning from January, the Oak figures show how rising numbers of schools have already been making the switch in recent weeks.

Across the country, the number of Oak lessons started by pupils increased by 62 per cent over the autumn term, Tes can reveal, as Covid absence grew.

In the week ending 12 September, 310,000 lesson starts were recorded by Oak National Academy, while in the week ending 5 December there were 503,000 lesson starts - the second-highest level recorded outside of lockdown.

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Pupil absence due to Covid-related reasons also rose during this time from 122,000 to 238,000. 

Covid: Schools switching to online learning

The highest number of lessons recorded outside of lockdown was in the week ending 11 July, when Oak had 798,000 lesson starts and around 821,000 state school pupils were off due to Covid.

Little Department for Education data has been released on school absence or closures at local authority level this term, but the Oak figures suggest there have been large regional disparities in remote learning.

Regional disparities in the uptake of Oak National Academy lessons

The South East region - hit particularly hard by Covid cases towards the end of term - saw the highest percentage increase in lessons started between the first and last weeks of autumn term 2021 (92 per cent).

The North West saw the lowest increase in lesson starts this term, with a growth of 16 per cent. 

Ongoing disruption

The Oak figures align with existing data indicating high levels of disruption to schools over the past term.

Last week, Office for National Statistics data revealed that educators were 37 per cent more likely to test positive for Covid, while teacher and leader absence was shown to have increased by 20 per cent in a fortnight on the 9 December.

And it is widely feared that this disruption will worsen next term. From this week, former teachers can apply to return to the classroom, after the DfE announced measures to plug the gaps caused by Covid-related teacher absence.

Speaking at the Westminster Education Forum last week, Matt Hood, principal of Oak National Academy, said that the site was “seeing numbers actually being used for remote education increasing by the hour at the moment”.

Speaking about the return to schools in January, Mr Hood said: “I think we will see an increase in the use of remote education, Oak National Academy and lots of other platforms, that flow in line with how successful mitigations...[and] how successful those interventions are.”

“We saw this pattern happening in June, July last year: users on the site were going up well into...900,000 pupils a week. 

“We’re seeing similar percentage increases at the moment.”

“What will happen in January will be entirely dependent on the success of the government measures in relation to controlling the spread of the virus.”

He told Tes that Oak would be “stepping up our support and advice to teachers in the new year to help efforts to keep everyone learning”. 

Concerns about access

But there are concerns that, as the Omicron variant spreads and school disruption increases, some pupils will be unable to access online lessons due to mobile data charges.

Earlier this week, Tes revealed that Oak was urging BT to restore free access to online lessons to help pupils working remotely, amid the spread of Omicron and the anticipation of further disruption next term.

BT later said it was looking into how this could be achieved.