Matthew Hood

Matthew is a co-founder and Principal of Oak National Academy, the national online classroom and teacher resource hub created during 2020. The academy was established during the 2020 lockdown in the COVID-19 pandemic to keep children learning with online classes. It provides teachers with free lessons and resources for pupils aged from 4 to 16, and it offers a specialist curriculum for pupils who attend specialist schools. Matthew originally trained to be an economics teacher through Teach First in 2007, teaching in Edmonton and Tottenham, London. He went on to become a policy adviser at the Department of Education, then a regional director of Teach First. He is currently chair of governors at Bay Leadership Academy in Morecambe and a governor of Lancaster and Morecambe College. In 2015, he founded the Institute for Teaching and following a merged in 2018, it became Ambition Institute, an education charity for tackling educational disadvantage through professional development for teachers. He is a former trustee of The Brilliant Club, an independent government adviser on professional development, and stepped down in 2021. Born in Morecambe, Lancashire, Matthew was honoured with an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2020 for services to education.