AI at Tring School Parent Information Session

Summary

Purpose and context

Tring School’s parent information session explains what generative AI is, how the school plans to manage its use, and how families can help students use AI safely and thoughtfully.

The central message is that AI can support curiosity, creativity, and learning, but it should not replace human judgment, effort, or independent thinking. The school presents this as a shared responsibility among staff, students, and parents.

What AI is

• Artificial intelligence (AI) is a broad area of computer science involving systems that perform tasks associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, and decision-making.
• Traditional AI mainly analyzes data or recognizes patterns—for example, identifying an object in a picture or detecting possible fraud.
• Generative AI, such as ChatGPT or Gemini, creates new content—including text, images, music, video, or code—based on patterns in its training data.
• Because generative AI can sound fluent and human-like, users may mistakenly assume it understands or knows what it is saying. The presenter recommends describing its output as something an AI model generated, rather than saying that “ChatGPT said” something.

Tring School’s approach

The school says its approach aligns with Department for Education guidance and wider government plans, while also responding to parent feedback supporting practical AI education.

• Filtering and monitoring: The school uses Securly, including an AI safety module. Attempts to access AI sites may be redirected to an education-focused platform that can be configured not to write essays or solve maths problems, but to offer ideas or guidance.
• AI literacy: Students receive guidance through life-skills lessons and assemblies, and staff receive regular training. Students are taught to verify information, write effective prompts, and keep human judgment, voice, and creativity central.
• Use by teachers: Teachers are not generally using AI to mark students’ work, partly because of concerns about bias and reliability. Some teachers use carefully prepared AI tools to generate feedback based on materials such as past exam papers, exemplar answers, and mark schemes. Students are told when this is done.
• Current student access: At the time of the presentation, students are not generally permitted to use AI for their schoolwork, and the school’s AI toolkit is for staff. The school plans to introduce age-appropriate student access gradually, with closer supervision for Years 7–9 and greater autonomy as older students’ digital literacy develops.
• School-approved tools: The school’s staff toolkit mainly uses Google tools, including Gemini and NotebookLM. The presenter says information entered into these school Google tools remains within the school’s Google environment and is not used to train the AI model. Student access is planned for the future, not presented as already available.
• Assessment and curriculum: The school is reviewing its curriculum. The presenter noted recommendations to strengthen digital, media, and data literacy and to embed AI awareness across subjects, not only computing.

Planned student AI-use scale

The school plans to introduce a framework clarifying how much AI assistance is permitted for different assignments:

1. Level 1 — AI-free zone: No AI use.
2. Level 2 — Planning and refinement: AI may assist with limited tasks such as checking grammar, providing a definition, or generating revision questions.
3. Level 3 — AI as a collaborator: AI may help brainstorm, structure an essay, or explore different perspectives. It must not do the student’s work. Students remain responsible for evaluating and editing the output and producing the final work themselves. Using AI at this level is optional.

For assignments where AI use is allowed, students will be asked to include a reference box stating:

• Which AI tool they used.
• The level of use under the school’s AI scale.
• The prompt they entered.
• What they did with the AI’s output.

Five risks of AI and ways to reduce them

1. Safeguarding

AI can be used to create convincing fake images, videos, or voice recordings using someone’s likeness, including material intended to humiliate, harass, or sexually exploit them. AI can also make bullying easier by generating insults, rumors, or impersonations quickly.

Advice for families and students:

• Talk openly about AI-generated and manipulated images, and help young people question what they see.
• Explain that creating or requesting sexualized images of someone is serious digital abuse.
• Consider making social-media accounts private and limiting who can view or download photos.
• If harmful material appears, do not engage with or share it. Preserve evidence safely and report it to the school and/or police.
• Do not participate in digital bullying; report harmful content instead.

2. Misplaced trust

AI can produce fabricated content that appears credible, including deepfakes and inaccurate answers. The presenter distinguishes:

• Misinformation: False information shared without an intent to deceive.
• Disinformation: False information deliberately created or shared to mislead.
• AI hallucination: A confident-sounding but false response. AI predicts likely patterns in language; it does not necessarily know whether an answer is true.

Chatbots may also mirror users’ emotions or beliefs in ways that feel supportive, even though their primary purpose is interaction rather than genuine care. In addition, AI platforms may collect account information and the contents of conversations.

Advice for families and students:

• Check AI-generated claims against reliable sources. Ask where information came from and whether it can be verified elsewhere.
• Pause before believing or sharing content. Check sources and look for signs of manipulation, such as odd lighting, distorted speech, or suspicious URLs.
• Treat chatbots like strangers online: be polite, but do not share personal details, photos, addresses, or school information.
• Avoid uploading someone else’s image, voice, or personal information into an AI tool.
• Use age-appropriate, school-approved tools when available, and remember that information entered into other services may be stored or reused.
• Keep profiles private and consider disabling location tagging and photo sharing.

3. Ethical considerations

AI systems learn from human-created data, which can contain social, cultural, and historical biases. Their outputs may reproduce stereotypes, omit perspectives, or favor some groups while appearing neutral. AI also has environmental costs: training and running large models can require substantial electricity and water.

Advice for families and students:

• Ask who created the data, whose perspectives may be missing, and who benefits or may be excluded.
• Consider whether an output seems balanced and fair.
• Use AI purposefully rather than making unnecessary queries, and be mindful of its resource use.

4. Academic rigour

Using AI to generate essays, solve problems, or complete coursework can bypass the reasoning and practice that learning is meant to develop. Polished output is not the same as understanding.

Advice for families and students:

• Treat AI as a learning partner, not a substitute for original thinking.
• Where permitted, AI may help with brainstorming, organizing, or refining work, but students should do the reasoning and create the final work themselves.
• Encourage transparency about AI use and value effort, reflection, and progress over perfect-looking answers.

5. Over-reliance and cognitive debt

The presenter links over-reliance on AI to the “Google effect” or digital amnesia: people may remember where to find information rather than the information itself. If AI continually supplies answers, students may practise less independent reasoning and become less confident in their own judgment.

Advice for families and students:

• Use AI as a starting point, not a shortcut.
• Test its suggestions, question its assumptions, and make independent decisions.
• Aim for a balance that preserves curiosity, judgment, and independent thinking.

Further support and revision

The school has an AI policy available on its website and plans to add links to recommended resources for parents. The presenter said there were few established courses teaching AI fundamentals at the time, although future curriculum developments were being considered.

Possible AI-supported revision activities mentioned include:

• Asking AI to create model answers.
• Providing work and a mark scheme and asking for feedback.
• Asking it to help create a revision timetable.

The school plans further parent sessions, including one on using AI to support revision. The recording of the session was also expected to be made available on the school website.

Speakers and sources featured

Speakers

• Emma Ferris — Tring School’s digital learning lead and main presenter.
• Chris Lickfold — Assistant headteacher; gave closing remarks.
• Brianna Lorton — Tring School’s AI lead practitioner, mentioned as part of the AI team but not present at this session.

Sources and school materials referenced

• Department for Education guidance on generative AI in education.
• The government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan.
• The Curriculum and Assessment Review.
• Tring School’s parent survey, curriculum review, AI policy, planned AI-use scale, and approved AI toolkit.
• Tring School’s Securly filtering and monitoring system.
• School life-skills lessons and online-safety assemblies.