Oak National Academy

It is part of a worrying trend in England towards centralised control of curriculum and pedagogy, which runs counter to the approaches taken in other UK countries. 

Oak is not accountable to educationalists, parents, or pupils. No consultation or procurement process took place before the decision was made to establish the OAK arm’s length body (ALB). The Government have also provided OAK with an additional £2 million to produce AI tools, again with no procurement or consultation.

The OAK ALB risks reducing teacher autonomy, damaging schools’ capacity to relate to the experiences and needs of their communities and undermining student’s right to access a broad and balanced curriculum. 

A central justification for the OAK ALB is that it will reduce workload by saving staff time spent on selecting and tailoring curriculum resources.

This approach ignores the centrality of curriculum planning to teachers’ work, motivation and to ensuring that the curriculum they deliver is relevant, meaningful, and engaging for their students.

The Government should look at reducing the workload caused by our system of accountability which requires success in a narrow range of performance indicators and which itself reduces the space and time for educators to engage in curriculum development.

Key NEU concerns:

• Claims that OAK is “by and for teachers” and “operationally independent” of Government misrepresent its true nature: OAK is under the ultimate control of ministers. Its resources are produced by a range of organisations by way of a commercial tendering process.
• The Government’s business case for Oak is clear that it will be “continuously strategically aligned with Government policy as it develops over time”.
• OAK’s status means there is a risk its materials will be seen as Government approved and “safe”.
• This will increase pressure for schools to use their products, particularly given the pressures that Ofsted exerts, and its current focus on curriculum
• Examples of how OAK is aligned with Ofsted include:
  • Each of the “Subject Expert Panels” set up to advise on the production of Oak materials includes an Ofsted Inspector
  • The Government’s business case for the OAK ALB acknowledged that Ofsted’s overall emphasis, since 2019, on the curriculum within school inspections “may…be influential in shaping and accelerating the uptake of [Oak’s] service.”