Activity: Use a puppet story in which a character shares a picture without asking, feels upset by a message or cannot join a digital activity. Invite children to show what a helpful friend or adult could do.

• Who can help when something on a screen worries us?
• How do we ask before taking or sharing a picture?
• How can we notice when someone needs us to listen?

Practice: Teach a clear trusted-adult route. Offer accessible communication and include pupils whose devices support participation. Connect choices to kindness and each person’s dignity.

Activity: Give pupils a teacher-prepared claim with a real, checkable source and another with weak or invented support. Pupils identify what can be established and what remains uncertain.

• Who produced this, and what might their purpose be?
• Where could we check it independently?
• Does the evidence support the whole claim?
• What should we do if we have shared something inaccurate?

Practice: Model checking a claim against reliable material. Show that fluent wording, confident tone or a realistic image does not establish truth.

Activity: Compare a prepared AI-style explanation with a textbook, primary source or worked example. Find an error, omission or unsupported conclusion; revise the explanation and justify the revision.

• What subject knowledge helps us assess the answer?
• Which part of the task must we perform to learn?
• When could a tool help access without bypassing understanding?
• How should permitted assistance be acknowledged?

Practice: Establish task-specific expectations before work begins. Use pupil explanations, drafts and ordinary teacher knowledge to understand learning; avoid treating an automated detection score as a conclusive judgement.

Activity: Appraise a fictional proposal for an AI study assistant or digital wellbeing service. Examine its educational purpose, evidence, access, privacy, human oversight and commercial incentives.

• Which claims require evidence before adoption?
• Who benefits, who bears risk and who can challenge an outcome?
• What makes a decision accountable?
• Where should a human relationship remain central?

Practice: Ask students to produce a reasoned recommendation with conditions and a review plan. Follow current awarding-body and assessment rules for submitted work.

A pupil submits a fluent RE response containing a quotation attributed to a Church document. The quotation cannot be found in the source.

Discuss: How can the teacher establish what happened, preserve dignity and teach responsible source use? What does the pupil understand independently?

Possible response: Check the original document together, correct the attribution and ask the pupil to explain the revised argument. Apply the school’s assessment expectations fairly.

A parent misses an important message because the app is inaccessible on their device. Staff interpret the absence of a response as lack of interest.

Discuss: What assumptions have been made? How should solidarity and justice shape communication?

Possible response: Establish a workable contact route with the family, provide accessible information and review whether other families encounter similar barriers.

A pupil says a chatbot is the only place they feel listened to and is withdrawing from contact with peers.

Discuss: What does the pupil’s experience reveal? How can adults listen without shaming them? When should pastoral or safeguarding support be involved?

Possible response: Offer a calm conversation with a trusted adult, explore needs and concerns, and follow school procedures. Plan human support rather than relying on an automated service to meet pastoral needs.

A pupil uses a generated image in an art project. The class has not been told whether this is permitted, and assessment is intended to recognise drawing and composition skills.

Discuss: Which skills are being assessed? What choices did the pupil make? Were expectations clear and accessible?

Possible response: Clarify the learning purpose and tool boundaries, invite an explanation of the process, and ensure pupils can demonstrate the required skills through a fair task.

A colleague wants to paste detailed pupil records into an unapproved AI tool to draft support plans more quickly.

Discuss: What information would leave school systems? Who can assess suitability? How could workload be reduced through approved approaches?

Possible response: Do not enter the records into the unapproved tool. Seek the appropriate school and data-protection advice, consider approved alternatives and retain professional responsibility for the plan.

A team proposes removing all devices from lessons to improve concentration. Some pupils use assistive technology to communicate or access learning.

Discuss: What evidence identifies the problem? How can routines reduce distraction while preserving necessary access?

Possible response: Distinguish purposes and needs, involve affected pupils and staff, agree suitable arrangements and review learning and participation.