Ofsted leads will join teachers and trusts as advisers on Oak National Academy’s subject expert groups, it has been announced today.
The watchdog will have an expert in five of the six subject expert groups being set up to help the government-funded curriculum resources body to create online lessons.
Tes understands that Oak is also likely to ask an Ofsted subject lead to join the last remaining group (science) as an adviser.
Oak has said the Ofsted advisers will not have a formal role in defining or recommending its curriculum.
The announcement comes as Oak today also officially reveals its new curriculum partners.
The first tranche of subject resources (English, maths, science, music, geography and history) will be rolled out by Oak from September 2023.
However, Oak said today that it has only selected curriculum partners for 10 of the 12 lots on offer in this first cycle.
For primary music and secondary geography, the quango said bids did not meet the “high-quality bar”.
As a result, resources will not be available for these subject key stages from September 2023 and full curriculum packages will not be available from September 2024.
Oak’s subject expert groups will provide feedback through the development of resources.
These groups will be made up of 39 teachers, academics and other subject experts; Tes understands that 200 teachers applied for these roles.
Oak said it used a blind-screening recruitment process “to ensure there are members from a wide range of schools and backgrounds”.
It has also said today that it will soon launch a process to appoint an organisation specialising in diversity to help ”deliver breadth and diversity in content, language, texts, media and our teachers”.
Curriculum sequences and initial resources for the first tranche of subjects will be available on the Oak platform from the autumn term of 2023, rolling out across the year, with full curriculum packages developed by September 2024.
Oak will shortly begin to recruit subject leads for the second tranche of subjects including modern foreign languages, RE, citizenship/RHSE, computing, art and design, PE, and D&T.
Matt Hood, chief executive of Oak National Academy, said he was ”delighted to announce Oak’s new curriculum partners”.
He added: “Every part of the education sector - from trusts to publishers to subject associations - is part of this collaboration, forming a coalition of top-tier expertise. It means teachers will have access to some of the smartest curriculum thinking and resource design on tap, something they have told us they want.”
“Oak is, at its heart, a collaboration of teachers and experts sharing their knowledge to help their peers. This powerful partnership announced today ensures Oak will continue to provide schools and teachers with high-quality resources into the future.”
Responding to today’s announcement, Julie McCulloch, director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “We have the greatest respect for the organisations appointed to develop curriculum resources for Oak National Academy, and the individuals who will make up their subject expert groups.
“We can see that Oak has worked hard to bring together people and organisations with a broad range of expertise and experience.”
However, she reiterated the “grave misgivings” previously expressed by ASCL and others about the establishment of Oak as an arm’s length government body, which had seen “an extraordinary degree of mission creep” and risked other publishers being driven out of the market.
Oak said today that teachers will have “total autonomy” over whether to use Oak’s optional lesson resources.
Its statement added: “While Oak resources can cut teacher workload, they are not designed to be finished lessons. Only teachers know how to use them to support lesson design and delivery best suited to their pupils.”
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