AI in the classroom: how Keziah puts relationships first

I work in a diverse, inner-city school context with high levels of disadvantage. Over half of our students are eligible for free school meals, a significant proportion have SEND, and many students speak English as an additional language. In this context, ensuring that all students can access the curriculum and achieve highly is a key priority, and it shapes my approach to teaching and learning.

AI in the classroom

I have been using AI primarily as a tool to enhance my planning and teaching, rather than replace it.

I'm yet to use it to plan a full lesson and I think it will be a while before I do!

Practically, I use a structured prompt formula to generate high-quality retrieval and hinge questions, as well as scaffolded model answers that cater to varying literacy levels.

To make revision more engaging, I use source-bounded AI tools like NotebookLM to create revision materials and personalised podcasts. Because bounded AI only draws from the curriculum materials I upload, it drastically reduces hallucinations and ensures greater accuracy.

Beyond my own classroom, I have also supported colleagues in using AI to reduce workload and improve resource quality. For example, I worked with the Geography department to create revision resources for Year 11 students using the pre-release material, while also modelling how students themselves can use AI more effectively and responsibly when revising.

The impact of AI

AI has allowed me to actively support my students, ensuring the technology helps close the attainment gap rather than widen it.

Crucially, it has transformed how I design tasks for classwork and homework. It has pushed both me and my students to think more metacognitively, and to approach tasks with greater creativity.

I ensure that I teach my pupils when not to use AI – such as for the sake of reasoning, creativity, and sustainability so they remain independent thinkers.

In my classroom, the rule is simple: if you use AI, you should leave knowing more than when you started, not just with a better answer.

AI: more quality time

While the tailored resources and podcasts have been wonderful, the biggest and most consistent impact of AI is simply that my students are able to have more of me. As a busy Head of Year 7, DSL, and Science teacher, my time is incredibly stretched. If I am being completely honest, without the tools and developments of AI in recent years, I feel my students would not be getting the best of me.

By using AI to shoulder the heavy lifting of routine tasks and resource generation, I have reclaimed the time and mental energy needed to be truly present. It has allowed me to bring so many more of my great ideas to life in the classroom, rather than leaving them on the drawing board because I ran out of time!

AI has given me the capacity to focus on the human elements of teaching that matter most (to me) - building relationships, checking in with vulnerable students, and delivering engaging lessons.

I think my students are better off for it.

The AI Teaching toolkit (supported by Amazon)

My main motivation to use the AI Teaching toolkit is to deepen my understanding of how AI can be embedded sustainably within everyday teaching practice, rather than treating it as a trending, one-off tool.

I am also particularly interested in how it will approach the social and ethical considerations of using AI in education. Mainly as I want to ensure we are building accurate mental models of AI for our students. For example, by actively de-anthropomorphising AI and teaching students to say ‘the model predicts’ rather than ‘the AI thinks or understands’, we can help them maintain a critical distance and understand issues around bias, equity, and data privacy.

Starting out with AI

Start small, but be intentional.

Adopt a ‘Pedagogy First’ mindset rather than a ‘Tool First’ one. i.e. start with a specific teaching problem or existing process and then ask which AI tool can help you solve it or improve it.

Rigorously follow data risk boundaries. Stick to low risk tasks when starting out, such as creating generic lesson plans or quizzes. Never enter high-risk data such as SEND information, safeguarding notes, or identifiable pupil names into general AI tools.

Finally, remember that human oversight is non-negotiable. AI should be used to enhance your teaching, but it should not be used to automate decision-making. You must always remain accountable and keep human judgement at the centre.

Our AI Teaching toolkit, developed with the help of a grant from Amazon, is supporting thousands of teachers and leaders to use AI safely and thoughtfully in everyday teaching. From planning to classroom practice, it’s helping almost one million pupils become ‘AI ready’ – bringing vital digital knowledge to the communities that need it most.

Do you have a great story to tell about use of AI in the classroom? Get in touch.