High level data structure
Expand diagram in Figjam
The diagram illustrates Oak’s data ontology. It shows that a programme is determined by programme factors, which are the elements that define and differentiate an educational programme. These factors are the subject, phase, key stage, year group, pathway, exam board and tier.
A programme covers one academic year and is made up of a unit sequence. A unit sequence is an ordered arrangement of units designed to build knowledge progressively. A unit takes between 1 and 6 weeks, and is made up of a ordered list of lessons. A lesson takes an hour, and is made up of lesson assets.
Detailed data diagram
Diagram overview
The diagram illustrates details and complexity in Oak’s data ontology. It shows that a programme is:
- Determined by programme factors. These are the factors that define and differentiate an educational programme.
- Made up of a unit sequence, which is an ordered arrangement of units designed to build knowledge progressively. A unit sequence forms a curriculum.
Programme factors
In the "Programme factors" section, the flow starts with ‘Subject’, which can either be:
- A subject/parent subject: A distinct area of academic study as defined by the national curriculum.
- A child subject: A specialised subdivision or branch of a subject. Currently, this applies to key stage 4 science only.
This connects to ‘phases’, a broad period in education, which aligns with how schools are organised. This can either be primary or secondary. These link to corresponding key stages:
- Key stages 1 and 2 for Primary
- Key stages 3 and 4 for Secondary.
- Each key stage is made up of year groups:
- Years 1 and 2 for key stage 1
- Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 for key stage 2
- Years 7, 8 and 9 for key stage 3
- Years 10 and 11 for key stage 4
- An ‘all years’ option which currently only applies for swimming units in primary PE.
Pathways are a diverging programme of study at Key Stage 4, separating GCSE content and non-GCSE (core) content. GCSE subjects connect to exam boards, which are an official body that designs, sets, and grades qualifications within the framework of the national curriculum. GCSE subjects either have exam board, or no exam board.
Exam boards link to tiers, which are a categorisation within a programme, based on the level of challenge in the related exam paper. Currently, this applies to KS4 science and maths only. There are the following options:
- No tiers for key stages 1, 2, 3 and some key stage 4
- Foundation for some key stage 4
- Higher for some key stage 4.
Unit sequence
The unit sequence is an ordered arrangement of units designed to build knowledge progressively. There are some filters that can affect the presentation of the units, but are different to programme factors as they do not create a unit sequence, but a different subset of units from the unit sequence. These filter options are:
- No filters: Having no filters applied is the unit sequence
- Threads: Threads can be used to group together units across the curriculum that build a common body of knowledge. Threads are important for making connections across year groups in each subject.
- Subject categories: A well-established, high level division within a subject that helps filter and group units based on their content, signpost teachers, and provide a framework for the subject. Currently, this applies to key stages 1, 2, 3 and 4 science, key stages 1, 2 and 4 English and key stages 1, 2 and 3 religious education only.
The unit sequence can be made up of 3 types of units, which are:
- Simple units: A topic of study that is associated with a sequence of lessons.
- Units with variants: A variation on a unit. For example, a maths unit called ‘Right-angled trigonometry’ possesses a different sequence of lessons depending on the learning tier it is associated with.
- Optionality units: A unit with different options to allow teachers to personalise the content to their pupils’ needs. For example, a history unit called ‘Historic environment (Norman England)’ provides options depending on the event or landmark that the teacher feels would be most suitable for their pupils.
Each unit is made up of a list of lessons. Lessons contain the following lesson assets:
- Lesson summary: Lesson metadata including learning objectives, key learning points, a common misconception and a teacher tip.
- Lesson video: A video of an experienced teacher delivering the lesson. This can be used to guide pupils through a lesson, or as an example for a teacher who is planning to deliver the lesson themselves.
- Transcript: A transcript of the spoken content in a lesson video.
- Slide deck: A collection of slides organised to form a coherent presentation of a lesson. A slide deck contains learning cycles, a lesson outline, a lesson outcome, keywords, and a summary.
- Quizzes: A collection of questions and answers used to assess a pupil's comprehension of a lesson.
- Prior knowledge starter quiz: A quiz completed by a pupil at the start of a lesson to activate and assess their prior knowledge.
- Assessment exit quiz: A quiz completed by a pupil at the end of a lesson to assess their learning against the lesson’s key learning points.
- Worksheet: A document (pdf) containing practice tasks to be performed by a pupil.
- Worksheet answers: A document (pdf) containing example responses to the practice tasks contained in a worksheet.
- Lesson guide: A document (pdf) that contains all the necessary information to deliver a lesson. Currently, this applies to practical physical education (PE) lessons only.
- Additional materials: Additional documents (pdf) that are essential to delivering key lesson content. For example, in a history lesson the additional material is a written narrative that accompanies the visual images slide deck.
