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AI in Schools: 12 Practical Steps To Make It Work
- stevenm19
- May 8, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 12, 2025
AI isn’t an emerging technology anymore. It’s here, and it’s already reshaping how students learn, how educators teach, and how schools operate day-to-day. But if we're honest, most of us are still just reacting, dragged along by the dizzying speed of AI's evolution: banning tools, scrambling for policies, or jumping on whatever’s new and exciting. If you’re ready to slow down and start planning effectively, I'm here with 12 high-impact steps to embed AI with purpose, rooted in pedagogy, not hype. I hope you can take away something useful to guide you on your AI journey.
Start with purpose
Before trying the latest tool or rushing into policy writing, let's pause. What are we actually trying to improve here? AI isn’t the ultimate goal - it’s a means to support learning, deepen engagement, and solve real problems. If there’s no clear connection between your core goals and the AI tools being implemented, it’s probably time to rethink.
💡 Ready to lead with clarity in the AI era?
I'm delivering hands-on, purpose-driven PD sessions to help schools embed AI with confidence.
2. Build Transparency With Your School Community
Roll out AI behind closed doors, and you'll face a ton of resistance. Trust grows through transparency, so get your school community involved from the start. Engage staff and parents early with clear communication on what AI is, how it’ll be used, and the benefits. Hosting discussions, sending updates, and inviting ongoing feedback helps. Don’t forget to include students - they’re the ones who’ll feel the impact the most! This way, you can build shared ownership and long-term success.
3. Clarify Roles & Ownership – Who Is Driving This?
AI integration won’t just happen on its own - it needs strong leadership. Appoint a dedicated person or team to drive the strategy forward. Make sure this team includes folks from key areas: teachers, IT, students, and senior leadership. Define roles early on: who’s handling policy, staff training, tool vetting, and progress tracking? Clear ownership makes sure things don’t fall through the cracks.
4. Create an AI Policy & Classroom Agreement
Responsible AI integration needs clear boundaries. Creating a policy isn’t about restricting everything, it’s about creating a shared understanding of what’s acceptable and ethical. Set expectations for staff and students: What tools can be used? How should AI be credited or disclosed? What counts as misuse? Don’t forget to address ethical concerns like bias, plagiarism, and data privacy. Build a student-friendly version or 'classroom agreement' they can understand and follow. This should be a living document so it can be updated as regularly as the space evolves.
Here's an example classroom agreement from the Digital Technologies Hub in Australia.
5. Prioritise Staff Training (Not Just Tool Demos)
Successful AI integration requires more than just showing teachers how to use a tool. Start with foundational training on “What is AI?” and gradually build up to subject-specific applications. Focus on practical, classroom-ready uses (don’t just fall for time-saving hacks). Address critical issues like ethical use, bias, data privacy, and how AI impacts teaching. Identify internal champions early and provide them the time and resources they need to lead change.
This self-paced course from Google offers hands-on, practical experience for teachers across all disciplines: Generative AI for Educators
6. Explore Tools Strategically, Not Impulsively
With so many AI tools on the market, it’s tempting to chase every new shiny app. Instead, evaluate tools based on learning outcomes. Build a review process that checks for privacy, data usage, and age restrictions. Set up a sandbox where staff can explore, test, and give feedback before rolling anything out school-wide. And, importantly, resist the urge to jump on the latest tool for the sake of it. The right tool will support your strategy, not drive it.
You can visit my EdTech Library for links to high-quality AI tools and teaching resources. (I've personally tried and tested each one!)
7. Introduce an AI Literacy Curriculum for Students
AI is shaping the world students will grow up in, and they need more than just exposure to the tools. They need a deep understanding of what AI is, how it works, and how to navigate it responsibly. Start by teaching foundational concepts: what AI is, its capabilities, and limitations. I like to focus on examples of how it helps people, like in this video from Google. Then dive deeper into skills like prompt engineering, recognising bias in AI outputs, and media literacy (including understanding the ethical implications of AI-generated content). Embed AI literacy across subjects, so students see its relevance in each part of the curriculum. Teach them to question, challenge, and engage with AI.
8. Protect Data, Privacy, and Confidentiality
With using AI comes a huge responsibility to protect personal data. Prioritise student privacy, and move with extreme caution when entering any personal data into AI tools. Each tool should have clear, publicly available privacy policies. Ensure compliance with data protection laws and regularly audit how data is handled. If a tool doesn’t meet these standards, it’s a no-go. Without a strong commitment to privacy, your AI efforts could lead to far more harm than good.
9. Address Plagiarism with Intelligence, Not Panic
AI is changing the way educators and students complete tasks. But instead of defaulting to punishment, we should be fostering a culture of transparency around the use of generative AI. Make it clear to students that AI can be a helpful assistant, not a shortcut; a tool that supports learning, not one that replaces thinking. Set clear guidelines on when and how AI can be used in class and for homework, and show examples of how to include citations, including the prompt used, how they iterated it, and how the AI’s output was refined through their own input.
Tasks you set may need altering to assess process, reasoning, and creativity, something that AI can be less adept at without meaningful human input or contextual understanding. That might mean prioritising open-ended inquiry, personal reflection, or multi-step projects where students must explain their thinking at each stage. When students are required to show how they got there, not just what they produced, AI becomes a support, not a substitute. It's time to reshape our academic culture for the world students are already living in.
10. Tackle Bias and Representation Head-On
AI is certainly not neutral - it reflects the biases, assumptions, and gaps of the data it's trained on. Teach both staff and students to recognise how AI can replicate and amplify biases, in terms of language, imagery, recommendations, and responses. Make education around bias part of your AI education.
11. Measure What Matters – Don’t Fly Blind
If you’re not measuring impact, you’re just simply guessing. So set clear, purposeful metrics that align with your goals, like improved staff efficiency, deeper student engagement, or more personalised learning. Use the data you gather to make informed decisions, and regularly check in with surveys for staff and students to assess how things are going. If something’s not working, adjust it.
12. Design for Rapid Change - Stay Agile
AI is evolving fast, so your approach should be agile. Set up termly review points to assess what’s working, what’s not, and what needs tweaking. Use living documents that can be updated as tools, models, and ethical dilemmas evolve. The goal isn’t to chase every new trend, but to build a culture that can adapt with speed and purpose.
AI isn’t coming. It’s already here. Your leadership will decide its impact.
⚡️ Ready to put all this into practice and lead your school through a successful AI integration?
I’m here to help! I'm providing tailored professional development sessions and consultation services for schools. Whether you're just getting started or looking to refine your strategy, I’ll be your guide on this exciting journey!
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