New body created to better support teachers

A new independent government body will be created to support teachers in delivering excellent curriculum content as part of world class lessons.

The government is targeting 90 per cent of children leaving primary school having achieved the expected standard in reading, writing and maths by 2030, up from 65 per cent in 2019.

The Education Secretary is now setting out how the upcoming launch of the first Schools White Paper since 2016 will deliver on this vision for excellent teaching. This includes converting Oak National Academy into an entirely new Arm’s Length Body to the Department for Education and strengthening the support system in place for teachers throughout their career by re-endowing the Education Endowment Foundation.

The Department for Education has also said that it will deliver £30,000 starting salaries and offer retention payments for teachers in priority subjects in areas currently with lower attainment to attract and retain the best teachers.

The new body is expected to become fully operational from Autumn following a transition phase, with its final name to be confirmed, and its first new products available to teachers in September 2023.

Nadhim Zahawi said: “The biggest asset we have in changing the lives of children for generations to come is the energy and expertise of our teachers and school leaders. You can’t have a great education if you don’t have a great teacher. But of course, great teachers need great support.

“Oak National Academy has certainly been one of our great achievements. It was created by teachers, for teachers, and showed brilliantly what the profession was capable of in the hour of need. Building on the nearly 3,500 hours of video lesson content it provided during the pandemic, we will now establish Oak as a new arms-length curriculum body. This is important because the data shows 46 per cent of primary teachers plan lessons from scratch. This is a drain on teachers’ time and we’re going to fix it.

“Curriculum design is complex and we want to share the very best practice so teachers can draw inspiration from evidence based, carefully sequenced examples. 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. At the heart of this body will be collaboration and partnership, and I am committed to building on the ‘by teachers, for teachers’ approach that has been a key success factor for Oak National Academy.”