United Learning, the country’s biggest multi-academy trust, is to start selling its curriculum resources online from this week.
The multi-academy trust has said it will charge for access to these resources but said it will aim to keep prices “as minimal as possible”.
Sir Jon Coles, United Learning’s chief executive, said that main driver for the decision was that the trust feels it has “got something that’s really exceptional and it would be wrong to keep it to ourselves”.
And while he said that he thought United Learning would have come to this decision at some point anyway, he added that the development of Oak into an arm’s-length government body had “really focused our minds”.
Sir Jon also said that he does not think platforms like Oak are “going to be able to match the quality” of the resources already out there and he criticised the government for “trying to control the curriculum” through its plans for the Oak National Academy.
In August last year, Oak announced that it would be launching as an arm’s-length body but without any of United Learning’s resources.
The MAT had declined to hand over the intellectual property rights to the resources that it provided to the platform during the Covid crisis, with a spokesperson claiming it was “wrong for government to take over the Oak resources” and “there should not be a ‘government-approved’ curriculum, nor any suggestion of one - whether presented as ‘optional’ or not”.
Instead, United Learning created a new website, ContinuityOak, taking the resources it has provided to Oak for key stage 4 English and history, and for key stages 3 and 4 science, geography and art with it.
Speaking to Tes today, Sir Jon said: “I don’t think people like Oak trying to produce resources from scratch are going to be able to match the quality of what we have already got and I disagree with government trying to control the curriculum.”
“What we are thinking is we’ve got some really great resources” that have taken eight or nine years to develop, he added.
Sir Jon told Tes that at one point Oak wanted United Learning to be its sole curriculum partner.
“We thought that was the wrong thing to do as it was not in the spirit of Oak but since then we have thought about what we should be doing. Our purpose as a charity is to improve education.”
“I cannot deny that the fact Oak has developed in the way it has has focused our minds and made us think: ‘if we think this is the wrong solution, how can we contribute to a better solution?’ because I think it is quite wrong. I don’t think government should be trying to control the curriculum.”
Sir Jon said the MAT would be charging for the use of the resources “because they are not free to produce and post”, but he added that they would try to keep the costs “as minimal as possible.”
At secondary level, United Learning resources will be available as “packages” with each providing curriculum documents, lesson resources, knowledge organisers and end-of-year assessments as an optional add-on. Prices will range from £1 per pupil per year to £7, depending on the type and number of subjects purchased.
The United Curriculum for secondary will launch in the academic year 2023-24 with Year 7 resources. From 2024, resources for Years 7-9 will be available.
At primary, the curriculum is available to trial from 7 June, with KS1 and KS2 packages, including curriculum documents, lesson resources, teacher packs for every unit, knowledge organisers and quizzes.
For the early years foundation stage, packages are available containing continuous provision plans, photographs of model areas of provision and medium-term plans for discrete teaching.
Users will be able to sign up for the resources for a minimum of three years, as United Learning says the resources are “sequenced so that ideas are explicitly taught and revisited, ensuring concepts are deepened over several years”.
Tes understands that Continuity Oak will not be affected by these changes and the curriculum resources available for purchase will be on a different website.
A spokesperson for Oak said: “More high-quality resources for teachers to choose from can only be a great thing for the sector. We welcome this move and encourage others to do the same.
“Oak is currently making new curriculum and teaching resources with a host of high-quality partners, including some of the best-performing trusts in the country, who are drawing on brilliant resources in use in their schools.”
The DfE have been approached for comment.
