Oak Academy Reviews

Reduced Workload: Teachers reported a significant reduction in workload, which was a major benefit during the challenging times of the pandemic.

Improved Quality of Teaching: 27% of teachers cited improved quality of teaching and learning as a primary benefit.

Accessibility and Flexibility: The platform allows teachers to download, edit, and print resources, making it adaptable to different contexts and needs.

Comprehensive Curriculum: Oak has expanded its curriculum to cover a broader range of topics, including specialist content up to Year 11.

Supportive Environment: Teachers praised the friendly, knowledgeable, and supportive staff at Oak, which contributed to their positive experience.

Sequenced Lessons: Offers 180 sequenced lessons each week, recorded by over 40 teachers, covering subjects from Reception to Year 10.

Curriculum Plan: Provides a curriculum plan for each year group, updated regularly, and continues to produce material until schools reopen.

AI-Generated Quizzes and Lesson Plans: Utilizes AI to generate quizzes and lesson plans, saving teachers time and allowing for customization to fit specific classroom needs.

Editable Resources: All resources are editable, enabling teachers to adapt them to their specific teaching context.

Diverse Representation: Includes diverse and inclusive content, ensuring that students from all walks of life can see themselves represented in their learning materials.

BSL and Subtitles: Adds accessibility features such as British Sign Language (BSL) and subtitles across the curriculum.

Specialist Curriculum: Launches a specialist curriculum from May 4th, initially covering language and communication, numeracy, early cognition, and more, developed with teachers specializing in SEND.

Time-Saving: Saves teachers significant time in preparing online lessons and parents in seeking out appropriate resources for their children.

Improved Wellbeing: Helps improve the mental wellbeing of teachers, with 61% of users reporting a reduction in workload and improved mental health.

Flexible Lesson Plans: Allows teachers to select particular lessons from specific subjects or follow a set plan of lessons across various subjects.

Lesson Planning: Provides a full plan of lessons for the year in advance, allowing for better planning and flexibility in teaching.

Free Resources: Offers free access to thousands of teacher-made, fully-resourced lessons, ensuring that access to quality education is not based on affordability.

Targeted Support: Successfully targets schools in areas of high deprivation, providing resources to disadvantaged pupils and their teachers.

Curriculum Alignment: Some teachers have not used Oak because the curriculum does not align with their school's curriculum, leading to a need for expansion and customization.

Planning and Structure: The initial "just in time" creation of lessons was helpful but did not support long-term planning. The platform has since addressed this by providing a full plan of lessons for the year in advance.

Quality Variability: There have been reports of patchy quality, with some lessons containing errors like spelling mistakes and missing words.

Adaptability and Feedback: While the platform aims to be flexible, some teachers have noted the need for more adaptability and better feedback mechanisms to ensure lessons are effective for all students.