Responsible, Confident Use of AI in Education at Sydenham and Dulwich Girls GDST

At Sydenham and Dulwich Girls GDST our goal is to ensure pupils leave school with the knowledge, skills and confidence to thrive in a rapidly changing world. This includes preparing them to engage thoughtfully and effectively with artificial intelligence, both as a learning tool and as a defining technology of their future pathways.

We want our pupils to use AI in ways that enhance their learning while maintaining academic rigour and subject mastery, particularly in preparation for public examinations. Alongside this, we place equal emphasis on understanding AI’s wider societal impact, including its limitations, ethical challenges, and questions of fairness and bias.

Ethical understanding and safeguarding are central to our approach and are embedded across both the curriculum and our wider school life. For example, in Computer Science, pupils in Years 8 and 9 explore machine learning, data bias and how biases can become embedded within AI systems. In Religious Studies, Year 8 pupils take a more philosophical approach, using units on robotics and AI to consider questions of personhood, responsibility and moral decision-making.

Our PSHE programme builds a sustained understanding of digital wellbeing and online safety from Years 7 to 13. This includes critical discussion of algorithms, deepfakes, data use, and the impact of AI on future employment and society.

From September, we are introducing a bespoke AI Bias Awareness course for all Year 9 pupils that sits within our pioneering Futures Curriculum, Elevate. The AI bias course will be delivered over six timetabled lessons and is designed to give pupils a structured and confident understanding of how bias emerges in AI systems and why this matters. This leads into the Year 10 unit, AI for Impact, that adopts a media literacy perspective. The unit culminates in a workplace simulation where pupils use AI to create a product for a brief.

As a girls’ school, this work is particularly significant. We want our pupils not only to be confident users of emerging technologies, but also to see themselves as future creators, leaders and innovators in fields such as computer science and AI. Addressing bias directly helps ensure that confidence is grounded in critical awareness, not assumption.

Our approach is underpinned by a clear and consistent digital culture. Our unique SPARK framework guides pupil interactions with technology, ensuring that all use of edtech, including AI, is Skilful, Purposeful, Accountable,Responsible and Kind. Whole-school assemblies and enrichment activities reinforce these principles, including Safer Internet Day tutor time sessions and a sixth form programme on AI in revision and independent learning. In addition, a ‘digital geographies’ elective ran with partner schools, in which a group of Year 12 pupils chose to explore questions such as whether AI can be sustainable and how algorithms create new forms of spatial injustice in urban environments.

This culture is underpinned by clear governance that ensures pupil safety and wellbeing remain central to decision-making. A clear Generative AI Risk Assessment sets out defined use cases and mitigations, including the risks of pupils over-relying on AI for emotional support or turning to it for health-related advice. We have invested significantly in CPD over the last three years to ensure all staff are confident to have meaningful conversations with pupils about AI, and as part of the GDST we also draw on trust-wide professional development focused specifically on AI and girls’ experiences.

Ultimately, our work with AI is guided by a simple principle: technology should expand opportunity, not narrow it. By combining strong ethical foundations with forward-looking practice, we aim to equip pupils with the confidence to engage critically and creatively with AI, now and in the future.