Careers at Oak National Academy
Oak National Academy is a unique educational platform, created by experts, that aims to improve pupil outcomes and close the disadvantage gap. Simply: we're here to support great teaching.
We support teachers by providing free access to thousands of high-quality teaching resources that can help reduce their planning workload and by providing expert advice on curriculum development, all to enable pupils to access high-quality learning.
Originally developed in 2020 as a response to the pandemic, Oak united teachers from across the country to support educators and pupils during multiple lockdowns, becoming an essential lifeline for schools.
During the pandemic, pupils used 150 million of our teaching resources. Now they’re back in the classroom, tens of thousands of teachers continue to use our resources to support their teaching. Not only do we save teachers time and alleviate the burden of planning, but we also improve the outcomes for pupils, particularly in social mobility cold-spots where 44% of schools used Oak to support learning.
From humble roots, we have grown into a national resource and a community of teachers supporting one another. All to make sure every child can always access great lessons and teachers are supported with workload.
We provide thousands of free, adaptable teaching resources for key stages 1, 2, 3 and 4 across a range of subjects. We also offer an extensive specialist curriculum and the opportunity for teachers to set up remote, independent work. All of our teaching resources have been crafted by experts. They include downloadable slide decks, quizzes and worksheets
Although we already reach and support 45% of state schools, we're taking bold steps to increase our existing support to educational institutions, pupils and teachers. In September 2022, we launched a process to partner directly with education providers across the country, so that we can share the best possible lesson resources and expertise for both primary and secondary school teachers. This process will see an increase in the support and teaching resources available to teachers of maths, English, science, history, geography and music, with new teaching resources available from autumn 2023. We'll expand our support for additional subjects over the next few years. Our partners will work with us to share the very best thinking that the sector has to offer, with schools nationally set to benefit from this. We already reach and support 33% of teachers in England and plan to support even more as we grow.
Our team is made up of education and tech experts, all of who share a passion for making a difference.
We harness expertise in all facets of our organisation, from software engineers to experienced classroom teachers, who are well-positioned to understand the requirements of those working in schools. All are united in order to grow, develop and share the very best practice through the very best channels of support.
We're a small team, but we've already made a big impact. We believe in trying new approaches and not being restricted by how things have been done in the past. That said, we look for evidence and data to underpin our approaches and our experiments. We use this approach in all that we do from product development through to organisation rhythm and the employee package.
We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion. We serve diverse communities, which is why we strive for diversity of age, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, ethnicity, socio-economic background and perspective within our team at Oak.
If you care passionately about supporting teachers and pupils - particularly those from low-income families - we would love to hear from you. Join us and help us create an environment where everyone, from any background, is enabled and supported to do the best work of their careers.
Escape's take on Oak National Academy
Oak National Academy was formed in April 2020 as an urgent response to the Coronavirus outbreak. It's core purpose? Supporting schools and teachers in providing a top-notch education to all children while locked down and learning from home. Since then, they've delivered a staggering 150 million classes from their online classroom and continue to develop valuable learning resources - most recently for children affected by the war in Ukraine. Their employee satisfaction is as high as their impact is broad - a great organisation to keep an eye on if you'd like to make a difference in the education sector.
Stats we are proud of
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45%
of all state schools reporting using Oak in 2023
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150
million lessons taken
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40000
teachers have taken part in our webinars
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10007
video lessons freely available across the curriculum
Behind the scenes
Team makeup
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56Employees
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64% Female
Benefits
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Learning & development
We have a generous learning and development offer and actively encourage our team to learn and grow in their roles here. We contribute to books, training courses, coaching, conferences and accreditations across the team and we encourage mentoring, volunteering and other pathways that best suit the individual learning goal.
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Pensions
Pensions, with an 11% employer contribution. Flexible and non-mandated employee contribution
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Maternity, paternity and adoption leave
Industry leading enhanced parental leave which supports you to grow your family.
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Holiday
25 days’ holiday a year + closure days between Xmas and NY (plus UK public holidays), and we encourage you to use them all up! It's a marathon, not a sprint. We add a day extra year up 28 days and we offer up to 5 days office closure leave for everyone to recharge at Christmas
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Flexible working
Whether your child's ill, you're waiting for a package, or you have some deep-focussed work to do, we all work from home (or café). We encourage everyone to work from home and find the right work life balance for you.
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Working from home allowance
We give you £26 per month toward your home bills (tax free)
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Team retreats
Termly team retreats. A time to get to know each other away from the office.
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Equipment
Choose your own equipment: let us know which tools you need and we’ll do our best to get them for you.
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EAP/Digital Clinics
Fantastic enhanced EAP (advice, counselling, discounts etc) with access to digital clinics for physiotherapy and other services
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Life Assurance
Three X salary life assurance benefit
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Pay Progression
Innovative and sector leading new pay progression framework for colleagues which is designed to reward colleagues for going above and beyond their day-to-day role. There are lots of ways to do this, including: Enabling others; Developing a new capability; Covering other functions/providing resilience; Developing your skills in another area to provide cover for other colleagues if required
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Remote Working
Some people love working from home (which is great because we are fully remote!) but others like to be around people and some just want to have choices. We are keen to support in all circumstances and we have a small office space in central London, and offer flexi-desk arrangements around the country if that is something you want. We also have termly all Oak meetings in person.