This September many parents in the Diocese of Nottingham might notice a new addition to their child’s school consent form – Artificial Intelligence (AI).
A charter for using AI in schools has been developed at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Multi-Academy Trust (OLOL CMAT), for its 36 schools across the diocese. It will provide a clear set of principles for how AI will be used across the academy trust.
Lisa Floate, Director of Performance and Standards at OLOL CMAT, is undertaking the daunting task of creating a charter to help staff use AI, drawing on expertise within the schools themselves and from the central team within the academy trust.
“I’ve been really lucky,” Lisa said, “they helped to shape the guidance, the steering group’s made up of teaching assistants, school leaders, teachers, middle leaders, there’s over 20 of them with a wide range of roles. We’ve also a working group of central team staff, so they’re providing advice on Human Resources, finance, chaplaincy, other school policies.
“The thing with AI is it’s so evolving – so the charter lays out a practical approach, rather than as a ‘here’s what you must do’.”
But what are the benefits? To help reduce teacher workload, Lisa gives examples such as AI supporting adaptive teaching by enhancing resources for specific pupils or year groups, and by generating sample test papers.
What underpins the in-progress OLOL CMAT charter is Catholic Social Teaching, particularly around human dignity. Any AI used will be to support learning and teaching, not dictating to students or replacing teachers, and subject to regular evaluation. In this the Vatican’s Antiqua et nova. Note on the Relationship between Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence, published in January, has proved useful.
But which AI should a school use? The charter provides a guide to systems like Microsoft Co-pilot or TeachMate AI, among others, which have ethical data use policies enabling children to retain ownership of their work and respecting their privacy. The charter has also been informed by recent guidance published by the Department for Education and the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), which represents exams awards bodies.
Ethical considerations have also prompted the inclusion of AI on the parental consent form for the start of the next academic year.
The aim is to launch the charter by the end of Pentecost [summer] term, ready for the school term starting again in September. There will also be a staff training programme of continuing professional development at different levels, for teaching assistants, teachers and leaders.
“It’s about people trying things, and us taking ownership,” Lisa says, “you have to teach it.” The steering group is currently trialling different elements, and it is intended that an AI guidance document for students to use will also be made available.
The impact of AI in OLOL CMAT’s schools will ultimately be evaluated by those who use it, through staff surveys, including wellbeing indicators and workload audits.
Find out more
The Catholic Academy Trusts Training Collaborative (CATtColl) delivers continuing professional development in collaboration with the four Catholic universities and is part of the Formatio partnership of dioceses, Catholic MATs and universities. CATtColl is made up of more than 40 CMAT CEOs from all English dioceses, over 600 schools and 250,000 students with 20,000 staff, and is the largest network of academy trusts in the country.
