AI for Student Wellbeing Conversations
January 17, 2025
AI can help staff notice wellbeing patterns earlier and hold more focused, compassionate conversations with students – but only when used with clear safeguarding boundaries. This practical playbook shows how to position AI as a structured prompt and reflection partner, never as a counsellor or decision-maker. You will find age-appropriate check-in scripts, escalation rules and weekly routines that keep humans firmly in charge. We also unpack data protection, consent and communication with families so your approach is transparent, ethical and sustainable.
Building AI Workflows That Stick
January 13, 2025
Many schools now have pockets of AI experimentation, but few have sustainable, whole‑school workflows that genuinely save time and improve teaching. This playbook is for school and college leaders who want to move beyond scattered pilots and build 3–5 core AI workflows that staff actually keep using. Focusing on governance, process design and behaviour change, it shows how to choose high‑leverage use cases, co‑design them with staff, integrate them into existing systems, and monitor impact lightly but consistently so AI becomes “the way we do things here”, not another short‑lived initiative.
AI Tools Refresh for 2025
January 7, 2025
2023–24 was the year many schools experimented wildly with AI tools. 2025 needs to be different: less novelty, more consolidation and safety. This pragmatic guide helps you map the fast‑moving AI landscape onto real school workflows, decide what to keep, what to switch, and what to quietly drop, and build a smaller, more sustainable AI stack that staff and students can actually master.
AI Resolutions for Teachers
December 30, 2024
Term 2 is when good intentions usually collide with reality. This practical AI resolutions checklist helps you turn New Year enthusiasm into six weeks of tiny, time‑boxed habits that actually survive once school gets busy. Each habit takes about ten minutes to set up, has clear boundaries, and comes with “stop if…” rules so you stay in control. Use it to test AI for planning, marking, in‑lesson support and communication without overhauling your whole practice – and finish the half‑term with a clear decision about what to keep, tweak or drop.
New Year Planning with AI
December 27, 2024
The first weeks of a new term are a rare chance to reset: to align curriculum standards, assessment data and resources into a coherent plan. Used well, AI can help you move from scattered documents and half-finished schemes to clear class goals and week‑by‑week teaching sequences. This playbook walks through practical workflows for turning standards, exam specs and last year’s data into AI‑supported plans that still meet departmental expectations. You will learn how to design goals AI can help you track, avoid workload traps, and set up reusable routines for mid‑term reviews. All with a strong focus on inclusion, professional judgement and whole‑school priorities.
Holiday Reading: Best AI in Education Books
December 20, 2024
The holidays can be the perfect moment to explore AI in education without the pressure of term‑time. This curated reading list is designed as a self‑directed CPD programme, not just a pile of worthy titles. Each book is mapped to specific school roles – from classroom teacher to senior leader, SENDCo and IT lead – with clear “try this in January” actions you can use straight away. Dip into one pathway or mix and match to build your own AI CPD plan that feels realistic, practical and grounded in everyday school life.
Google Gemini 2.0: Multimodal power for classrooms
December 2, 2024
Google’s Gemini 2.0 release brings genuinely new multimodal abilities into reach for everyday teaching – from understanding live video and classroom images to working across documents, slides, websites and code in one conversation. This briefing unpacks what has actually changed compared with Gemini 1.5, GPT‑4o and Claude, in plain language for busy educators. You’ll find concrete, low‑risk workflows for lesson planning, delivery, feedback and accessibility, plus practical guidance on safeguarding, data protection and copyright in a Google‑centred ecosystem. We finish with realistic roll‑out tips and CPD ideas you can start this term without overwhelming staff.
Black Friday EdTech Deals 2024
November 25, 2024
Black Friday and Cyber Monday can feel overwhelming for schools, with AI and EdTech discounts shouting for attention. This guide helps you cut through the noise and focus on a small set of AI subscriptions and tools that are genuinely worth paying for in 2024. We look at data protection, long-term value, and how well tools fit into existing school workflows, rather than chasing novelty features or risky “lifetime” offers. Use it as a pragmatic buyer’s guide to decide what to upgrade, what to trial, and what to ignore this year.
Half-Term AI Challenge Ideas
October 18, 2024
This playbook shares simple, self-directed AI mini challenges that pupils can explore over October half-term with almost no teacher prep. Using free tools and clear guardrails, families can choose from creative, curiosity-driven projects that balance on-screen and off-screen time. From primary to upper secondary, each age band has ideas that build confidence, digital literacy and independent learning. Schools simply share a one-page “AI challenge menu” so pupils can pick and mix tasks that suit their interests and access to devices. Perfect for keeping curiosity alive without turning half-term into homework.
AI Detection Accuracy: The Evidence
September 19, 2024
AI writing detectors promise to spot ChatGPT-style text, but independent research paints a far more complicated picture. This article synthesises what studies actually show about Turnitin, GPTZero and similar tools: their accuracy, false positives and worrying biases, especially for multilingual and high‑performing students. It then translates that evidence into concrete guidance for schools on when not to use detectors, how to respond to AI flags, and what to do instead. The goal is a fair, defensible approach to assessment that protects academic integrity without harming the very learners we aim to support.
Teaching Source Evaluation in the AI Era
September 17, 2024
Source evaluation has never been more important – or more complicated. With AI tools generating plausible text, images and data in seconds, students now work in a world where “the source” might be a chatbot, a website, a PDF, a video or a social media post. This playbook offers practical routines, checklists and mini-lessons to help students evaluate AI-generated information alongside traditional sources, treating AI tools as sources to be questioned, compared and cited, not oracles to be believed.
Future-Proofing Students: Skills AI Can't Replace
August 19, 2024
As AI tools become part of the everyday school timetable, the real challenge is no longer whether pupils can use them, but whether they can stay meaningfully human alongside them. This playbook offers practical, lesson-level routines that deliberately pair AI workflows with “human-only” thinking, so critical thinking, creativity and empathy are strengthened rather than sidelined. With examples for primary and secondary classrooms, guidance on curriculum and assessment, and a six-week starter plan, it helps schools future‑proof students’ uniquely human strengths instead of simply bolting character education onto technology use.
Copyright and AI in Schools
August 7, 2024
AI tools have made it incredibly easy for teachers and students to copy, remix and share text, images and music in seconds – but copyright law has not suddenly disappeared. This practical playbook walks through everyday AI workflows in schools and shows where real legal and ethical risks arise, from copy‑pasting AI outputs to uploading pupil work. You will find simple risk tiers, plain‑language concepts, and concrete classroom rules, plus ready‑to‑adapt policy and consent wording. The aim is not to turn every teacher into a lawyer, but to build confident “copyright hygiene” habits that keep your school, staff and students safer.