Using AI in school

The use of Artifical Intelligence (AI) across all aspects of our lives has brought dramatic change to how so many day to day tasks are done, and this will continue over the coming years.

AI brings many advantages, but like all technologies brings many risks and ethical considerations.

AI use within school is covered within our Acceptable Use Policy but so often fast technological changes can outpace formal written policies. An explicit AI policy is currently under development and will be agreed by governors shortly. Pupils do not have direct access to AI-powered chatbots, and AI-powered web searching is strictly limited (and in most cases completely blocked) within our filtering and monitoring arrangements, but limited exceptions may be made for explicit pedagogical purposes to learn about how AI works. Even then, this will always exclude media-generating tools and be fully monitored. Staff use of AI tools falls within agreed professional standards.

Children are taught how AI gathers information to spot patterns, which is used to make predictions. It’s important to understand these predictions can be wrong and AI generated content must always be checked for accuracy. We also explore ethical issues of ownership, copyright and plagiarism.

A simple way to explain AI to children can be done by watching this short video from Minecraft’s Chicken.

As with all teaching about using technology, children are reminded to follow the SMART rules of using the internet and always get help if anything doesn’t seem right or makes them feel worried or upset.

For 2026’s Safer Internet Day, the theme was around using AI responsibly and safely. Some pupils in Year 4, 5 and 6 had the opportunity to explore using an AI bot to find information to plan a poster, and then compare it to using the Q-Files Encylopedia to plan a poster for the same topic. This helped to consolidate an understanding of how being served information from a chatbot is very different to researching a topic and picking out key facts yourself. 

On reflection, a narrow overall majority across the 6 classes that took part actually preferred using the encyclopedia. It is easy to presume digitally native children, some of whom are growing up surrounded by AI bots to provide constant answers, may always prefer to use AI.

Young children have naturally inquisitive, creative and curious minds that need to be constantly exercised to grow. Serving up an immediate answer to any question may not always be the best way to do this. Some countries are indeed looking at guidance and legislative restrictions that may be necessary to protect young children from certain aspects of AI. Using an encyclopedia resource, however, can certainly help to nurture children’s curiosity, as they go on adventures of discovery through safe, distraction-free curated content as their eyes are opened to new worlds.

Our Q-Files Encyclopedia resource works from home, too, so why not discover something new together today!