How to Use Oak Aila: A Step-by-Step Guide for UK Teachers

Aila is Oak National Academy's free AI lesson planning assistant, and it is one of the few AI tools built specifically for teachers in England. This guide walks you through using it properly, from your first request to a lesson you would actually teach.

What is Aila?

Aila is an AI lesson assistant from Oak National Academy, the government-funded curriculum body. It helps teachers create a full lesson — learning outcomes, key learning points, misconceptions, a starter quiz, slides, worksheets and an exit quiz — through a conversation. Because it draws on Oak's own curriculum content, it is more closely aligned to the national curriculum in England than a general chatbot. Our Oak Aila review covers its strengths and limits; this article is the how-to.

It is free for teachers. You need an Oak account, which you can create with your email address.

Step 1: Sign in

1. Go to the Oak National Academy website and find the AI lesson assistant (Aila).
2. Sign in or create a free account. Using your school email address makes it easier to keep school work in one place.

Step 2: Write a clear first request

The quality of what Aila produces depends on how specific you are. A weak request gives a generic lesson. A strong request includes:

• Key stage and year group — "Year 4".
• Subject and topic — "science, states of matter".
• The specific focus — "evaporation and condensation in the water cycle".
• Where it sits in the sequence — "second lesson in the unit; pupils already know solids, liquids and gases".

Step 3: Work through the lesson section by section

Aila builds the lesson in stages and asks you to check each one before moving on. This is where you add your professional judgement:

• Learning outcome — is it pitched right for your class?
• Misconceptions — does it list the ones you actually see?
• Quizzes — are the questions accurate and the wrong answers plausible?
• Learning cycles — is the explanation clear and the practice sufficient?

If something is off, tell Aila in plain English — "make the starter quiz easier" or "add a practical demonstration" — and it will revise that section.

Step 4: Download and adapt

When you are happy, download the lesson resources — slides, worksheet and quizzes — and open them in PowerPoint or Google Slides. Then do the part AI cannot: adapt for your class. Add the names of the books you are reading, adjust for pupils with SEND, and link back to what the class did last lesson. For SEND adaptations, see AI tools for adapting reading age.

Step 5: Check before you teach

• Read every slide for accuracy — AI can still make mistakes.
• Check vocabulary and spellings match your school's conventions.
• Make sure activities fit your timings and resources.

Tips for getting the most out of Aila

• Plan the unit first, then use Aila lesson by lesson. It is strongest when you give it the context of the sequence.
• Use it for the lessons you find hardest to plan, not the ones you already have great resources for.
• Share good lessons with your team so the time saving multiplies across a year group or department.
• Never enter pupil names or personal data — lesson planning never needs it.

Aila compared with other tools

Aila is the natural first choice for a free, curriculum-aligned planning tool. If you want polished slideshows faster, compare it with Chalkie, or read our round-up of the best AI lesson plan generators for UK teachers.

Common problems and fixes

• The lesson is too easy or too hard: tell Aila the attainment range of your class and ask it to adjust.
• Too much content for one lesson: ask it to cut to the essential learning points.
• Quiz answers too obvious: ask for more plausible wrong answers based on common misconceptions.
• Not matching your scheme: paste in your unit objectives at the start.