Curriculum collaboration with Oak National Academy

This week we hosted Oak National Academy at three of our Trust schools: Cedar Mount Academy, Melland High School, and Rushbrook Primary Academy, to both share expertise and afford colleagues the opportunity to provide feedback on the resources provided by Oak National Academy.

Oak National Academy is the go-to resource hub made by teachers, for teachers covering early years to Year 11, and specialist lessons covering a range of learning areas and therapies. At Oak they understand that teachers frequently need more support in creating resources for lessons which is not only time consuming but also requires additional expertise. As a result, Oak National Academy places significant focus on research and evaluation to make sure they are making a positive impact and continually meeting teachers’ needs.

Lisa Fathers, Director of Development, Partnerships and Teaching School Hubs, said: “At Bright Futures we open our doors to a wide range of partners and genuinely believe in the power of collaboration both locally and nationally. We are well placed to support the aims of Oak National Academy by connecting them to our family of 12 schools, two Teaching School Hubs, Maths Hub, SCITT (school centred initial teacher training) and wider CPD offer via Bright Futures Alliance for Learning. We are delighted that the expertise of our Trust, schools and wider networks continues to be used in this vital and valuable resource.”

Bright Futures currently provides the Key Stage 4 PSHE (RSHE) curriculum and lessons for Oak National Academy. Overseen by Lisa Fathers, a Director on Bright Futures Executive Team, along with strong subject leadership and coordination from Michelle O’Neil, Leader of Humanities and SMSC at Wellacre Academy, and a number of SLEs from other schools – they provide a virtual PSHE department for the nationwide online learning platform, delivering the overall PSHE curriculum, schemes of work, resources and lesson delivery around this important area of education.

Matt Hood, Principal at Oak National Academy, added: “Creating Oak National Academy has been a truly collaborative process. Bright Futures has played a vital role as we’ve brought together teachers and schools from across the country to share expertise and create lessons. It was brilliant for our team to visit Bright Futures’ schools this week, learning from them and considering how we can keep supporting all pupils and teachers as Oak develops.”

Oak National Academy was created in April 2020 as a national response to the pandemic, with teachers and education experts making online lessons and resources. In its first term, 4.7million users accessed 20 million lessons. Post-pandemic, teachers continue to use these resources to support lesson planning, in-class delivery and curriculum design. In 2022, more than 40,000 teachers and 225,000 pupils have use Oak each week.