Nadhim Zahawi is today expected to confirm that Oak Academy will become a permanent curriculum-focused provider as a new government arm’s-length body, as first revealed by Tes on Wednesday.
In his speech at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) conference today, Mr Zahawi is expected to say that the new government-run body will save teachers from having to “reinvent the wheel”, helping them to “save time” and “improve lessons immeasurably”.
Confirmation of the new quango will be the main thrust of the education secretary’s speech today, but he is also expected to touch on themes from the forthcoming schools White Paper, including the 90 per cent target of literacy and numeracy.
The Department for Education said today that the new, as-yet-unnamed curriculum resources provider will become “fully operational” from this autumn, but that its newly created suite of resources will not be available to schools until September 2023.
Funding details for the new body, including its funding during its transition from Oak National Academy over the next few months, have yet to be agreed, Tes understands
On Wednesday, Tes revealed that Oak was to be made into a new government arm’s-length body designed to provide free curriculum resources to schools across the UK.
The DfE said today that the new organisation will aim to work with a “diverse range of teachers and experts from across the sector to facilitate the creation of curriculum maps and thousands of downloadable lessons and resources, which will be made freely available to all teachers, parents and children.”
A ’by teachers, for teachers’ approach
Mr Zahawi is expected today to emphasise in his speech that the provider will have a “by teachers, for teachers” approach.
“Curriculum design is complex and we want to share the very best practice so teachers can draw inspiration from evidence-based, carefully sequenced examples,” Mr Zahawi will tell school leaders in Birmingham.
“Instead of each teacher reinventing the wheel, they will be able to access content, for free, that continuously evolves and gets better and better on the back of feedback from teachers across the country - saving time and improving lessons immeasurably.”
The education secretary is also expected to say today that pupils “can’t have a great education if you don’t have a great teacher”, but that “great teachers need great support”. He is expected to expand on this, saying that the DfE intends to “fix” the “drain on teachers’ time” via the creation of the UK-wide organisation.
Government plans to create a new UK online academy was first revealed as part of its levelling up White Paper, published last month.
The DfE said that it expects the organisation to be run by interim staff to give it time to appoint a new management structure in ”compliance with civil service and public appointment recruitment guidelines”.
Oak had previously secured £2.1 million of additional funding from the government until spring 2022, when it had hoped to secure permanent funding.
Ed Vainker, CEO of the Reach Foundation, the organisation that established and has hosted Oak National Academy to date, said today that he is “proud” of his organisation’s role in “stewarding” Oak and is “grateful to partner organisations for their immense voluntary contribution”.
“We are pleased that the government has committed to sustaining Oak in perpetuity and have agreed to transfer it to the DfE, on the basis that it will be fully independent and will always remain free and in public ownership,” he said.
The DfE also confirmed today that it had agreed to renew funding for the Education Endowment Foundation beyond 2026.
