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Oak National did not have to compete for new DfE cash

Oak National did not have to compete for new DfE cash

Tes has learned that deal that will allow online academy to continue next year was not put out to competitive tender

22nd June 2020, 8:16pm

Online school Oak National Academy did not have to bid for government funding that will allow it to carry on in September, Tes can reveal.

Today it was reported that the online school will continue to receive government funding for next year. Tes had already revealed Oak National’s ambition to continue during the autumn, with a more flexible curriculum on offer that would allow schools to “pick and choose” resources.

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Now, with a funding deal soon to be announced, the plan is about to become reality. This afternoon, when approached by Tes, the Department for Education revealed that the national online school had not had to compete with any other providers for the public money.

It is understood that the DfE sees Oak National Academy as an emergency response to the coronavirus crisis and that because of the need to deliver the programme at pace, it did not regard it as possible to invite bids for the project.

The online school, which has delivered over 13 million lessons in its first two months, plans to create more blended learning approaches for schools running a rota system, so that “if you’re teaching Macbeth on Monday and Tuesday, you want to be able to pick up your online lesson on Macbeth on Wednesday”.