Leadership, IT and AI in Education.
Hi, I’m John, a current primary headteacher with lots of experience in UK education, including advising and supporting schools. I’m exploring how AI and digital tools can reduce workload, simplify school systems and give staff more time to focus on children and learning. Through The Digital School Leader, I share what I’m learning: useful tools, practical ideas and a critical look at the evidence behind the claims. **Join the free weekly update** for a clear, practical roundup of what’s changing and what could make a difference in your school.
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I aim for The Digital School Leader to provide you with free updates on AI in education share some resources and approaches that we are experimenting with or using.
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All articles →AI tutoring matched human tutors in the lesson, but not on the test: the Eedi and Google DeepMind trial
A trial with 1,179 secondary pupils found AI tutoring helped pupils correct mistakes in the lesson as well as expert human tutors, but produced no clear gain on an independent maths test.
Similar schools, different stories: will the new attendance expectations stay low stakes?
The DfE has updated its similar schools attendance reports and each school's Attendance Baseline Improvement Expectation. Comparing schools in context is better than relying on national averages, but only if it stays a tool for improvement. Recent history suggests that is a big if.
Google Classroom introduces AI summaries of pupils' Gemini Notebook conversations
Teachers using Gemini Notebook in Google Classroom can now see AI-generated summaries of how pupils interacted with an assigned notebook, alongside full conversation transcripts. It is a promising step towards supervised pupil access to AI, but schools need clear procedures before switching it on.
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About John
I'm a practising school leader with a particular interest in school improvement, systems, workload reduction and the thoughtful use of technology in education.
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