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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to think that Oak Academy is not that great?

74 replies

choosingcrumble · 22/01/2021 10:54

We've been following the lessons about Whales Rider. Talk about destroying any love of a really great story. My son loves the film and book and now just wails 'No! Not Whale Rider again!'.

OP posts:
rattling · 22/01/2021 11:03

This was why I hated English at school. Amazing how endlessly discussing a great book can render it utterly tedious. So not sure it is an issue with Oak Academy.

BogRollBOGOF · 22/01/2021 11:15

Every Oak Academy lesson I've seen has been horrendously dull. Mind numbing.

wanderlove · 22/01/2021 11:18

I'm sure the Oak Academy teachers are wonderful with their own classes but online teaching is really boring. I'm a teacher and I think quite a good one; at the moment I feel like I am just droning into the deep and I'm boring myself. I think it's just part of the format

wanderlove · 22/01/2021 11:19

A lot of the things that make the lessons fun are the personal interactions and discussions between the tasks. Without that it's just dull

Icenii · 22/01/2021 11:19

I've found for my year 4, they can be really patronising. And the having to repeat numerous words mind numbing for her.

lurchersrule · 22/01/2021 11:24

I'm an English teacher and I thought the English lessons on Oak, or the few I looked at, were extremely dry and they were for Y6 & 7. In the last lockdown I looked at a few for my then Y6 son and there was a science teacher on there whose lessons he enjoyed. I think she was a bit of a frustrated CBBC presenter, though the lessons seemed well-pitched and clear too. Ds declared her 'cringy' but was always happy to attempt another lesson... On the other hand, we did a history lesson for Y6 that seemed more like a GCSE lesson. HUGE amount of content and final task was to write a response to a question with absolutely no guidance on how to structure it. I'd say it's a mixed bag and definitely not the panacea for all the problems of remote learning.

NotSure94 · 22/01/2021 11:27

I've never rated the passive video thing for education. They just drift off or mine do. Most need interaction to engage, thats teaching. Natually motivated kids probably do alright but they would given nothing but an encyclopedia to read. And I find bitesize tv stuff too bitty I know thats controversial. Its so random whereas school builds on topics in an organised way.

CoffeeWithCheese · 22/01/2021 11:31

DD1 was bunging the speed up on them because "he's boring and he just waffles on"

Washimal · 22/01/2021 11:34

I work in a school and most of the Teachers I know don't rate Oak Academy. But the Government has spent a lot of money on it so I suspect it's here to stay. My own Year 2 child much prefers BBC Bitesize.

CasperGutman · 22/01/2021 11:37

My son, Y4, has mostly stuck with his school's noffering but tried a few of the Oak Academy lessons during a week last summer when his teachers were doing reports. He found the history and science very slow going. They're structured as if the teachers have been given a very rigid checklist of how to structure a lesson (almost certainly because they were!), and perhaps because they were meant to be done one per week there was soooo much recap and repetition!

The one English lesson we tried was unusable due to the amount of Govian fronted-adverbial type nonsense. Luckily we live in Wales, where this BS isn't a thing.

evilharpy · 22/01/2021 11:39

My daughter is in Y1 and her English lessons are on Oak Academy. They are beyond awful. Mind numbingly dull, patronising (they're 6, not 2), there's just nothing to like about them.

We have maths on White Rose and although the subject matters we've been given is shockingly easy for a Y1 class, the delivery is much better.

swg1 · 22/01/2021 11:41

It's awful. I'm on the verge of begging his school to let me just buy a textbook to teach things myself rather than keep going with the awful BFG lessons. One 25 minute lesson takes about 90 minutes due to the feet dragging and wailing. I can't skip the video because the work is set IN the lesson and unless I watch it with him I have no idea if he has met the assignment or just half arsed it.

rc22 · 22/01/2021 11:42

I find them patchy. I've used some of the maths lessons for my class. There's one teacher that I think is pretty good and one that's less so. With English, I set a few lessons based on a book that the children enjoyed but they really are dragging on a bit now so probably won't use the rest. We don't focus on one book for so long when we are in school.

NerdyBird · 22/01/2021 11:42

I think it also depends on the teacher, last year dd loved one teacher and did the most writing she'd ever done for that lesson set. The teacher was really enthusiastic in tone and manner. Now in year 2 I watched an RE one with her the other day and there just wasn't the same level of enthusiasm from the teacher and that doesn't work for dd. I found it quite interesting though!

NerdyBird · 22/01/2021 11:43

I do think it must be hard teaching into a void, so to speak

bigloungewear · 22/01/2021 11:52

We used them a lot last lockdown, but needed to sit with the kids to know they were listening. I agree bite size is quite bitty.

This week I've listened in to a lesson on oak academy all about eating 'healthy' Shock so no longer sure of the quality of the lessons. Not certain how teachers know they are taking anything in anyway.

Fingermoose · 22/01/2021 11:54

The quality is really patchy. The last one I had to sit through was a year one PSHE lesson that was full of spelling mistakes and missing words. I appreciate it was done in a rush but you'd think there would be some quality control!

WatchWatch · 22/01/2021 11:54

This was why I hated English at school. Amazing how endlessly discussing a great book can render it utterly tedious.

Definitely - you can love a book but my God will and English lesson on it beat that out of you!

StepOutOfLine · 22/01/2021 11:56

It's atrociously bad.
I find it astonishing how much it's (supposedly) cost. I've seen better (in all aspects) amateur stuff in YouTube.

I'm an English teacher in secondary.

Rockhopper81 · 22/01/2021 11:59

I appreciate it's a really difficult situation to have to record in, especially with no students to bounce off or get an idea of pace with.

But...

My nephew had one linked for work on time this week, where the teacher asked them how many months old a baby was if it was 32 weeks old - my initial reaction was, 'that's a tricky question for 8 year olds, and isn't relevant to the rest of the time conversions they've been doing', but turns out the teacher then said there are 4 weeks in a month, so counting in 4s we know the baby is 8 months old. Only time I've ever told a child that what the teacher is saying is wrong.

I know as adults we might roughly use 4 weeks for a month, but we shouldn't be teaching children that, as it's incorrect!!

So whilst I appreciate the effort of providing Oak Academy, and realise there are inherent difficulties with remote provision, it has some serious flaws.

UndertheCedartree · 22/01/2021 12:07

I find Oak very intense. They were taking us about 2.5 hours each with about a million tasks before you even get to the independent tasks. My DD's teacher told us to skip lots as it is 'filler' and we've got on better since then.

Hellohah · 22/01/2021 12:11

DS is year 11 and has been set some Oak Academy lessons. He finds them incredibly patronising, they ask a question, pause the video and ask if you got it right in a voice idiots use for 5 year olds!

School seem to have received a few comments and have therefore stopped using them

StepOutOfLine · 22/01/2021 12:22

@Hellohah

DS is year 11 and has been set some Oak Academy lessons. He finds them incredibly patronising, they ask a question, pause the video and ask if you got it right in a voice idiots use for 5 year olds!

School seem to have received a few comments and have therefore stopped using them

Yes, it's laughable for older kids. Treats them like they're about 6 and simplifies everything/dumbs it down.
idontlikealdi · 22/01/2021 12:25

They are terrible. Thank god we aren't being set this this time round.

Sometimeswinning · 22/01/2021 12:51

I love a link to oak academy! Its helped me link alot of learning for my 5 year old. Maths wise for my older 2 year 4 and 6 we can start from the first lesson to help me with helping them. No issue with the teachers it's a broad spectrum they are teaching to. There's the odd boring one I guess.

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