Ask a class of Year 5 children whether they have used AI, and most hands will go up. Ask them what it actually is, and the room goes quiet.
That gap is the reason this conversation matters.
Artificial intelligence is no longer something our children will meet one day in the future. It is already in the apps they use, the search results they see and the voices that answer back from the kitchen counter. Many parents are asking, quite rightly, what schools are doing about it.
Our answer is a balanced one. We want children to understand AI. We also want to protect the things that make childhood what it is. And we are clear that, whatever technology sits in the classroom, the core of primary education has not changed.
Raising global digital citizens
Our children are growing up in a world shaped by technology in ways none of us experienced at their age. Ignoring that does not protect them. It leaves them less prepared.
We want children to leave primary school understanding a few important things:
- What AI is, in simple terms, and that it is built by people
- That it can be helpful, and that it can also be wrong
- That not everything they see or read online is real
- How to think critically, ask questions and check information
- How to behave kindly, safely and responsibly in digital spaces
None of this requires children to spend hours using AI tools. Much of it is taught through conversation, discussion and carefully chosen examples. A child who understands that a chatbot can sound confident and still be mistaken has learned something valuable, and something that will matter for the rest of their life.
This is what being a global digital citizen means. Not simply knowing how to use technology, but knowing how to question it.
Protecting childhood
There is another side to this, and it matters just as much.
Childhood is short. The early years and primary phase are when children learn to play, to imagine, to negotiate with friends, to build something and watch it fall down, and to try again. These experiences cannot be outsourced to a screen, and they cannot be rushed.
There is a real risk that, in the excitement around new technology, schools forget this. That learning becomes something done to children through devices rather than something they experience with their hands, their voices and each other.
We are determined that this will not happen.
At Victory Heights, children still spend long periods playing, building, talking and exploring. They still read real books, get muddy outside and make things that do not work first time. These are not old-fashioned extras. They are the foundations of curiosity, resilience and independent thought, which are exactly the qualities children will need in a world shaped by AI.
Technology supports learning. It does not replace it.
We are a digitally connected school. From Year 2, every child has their own Chromebook. Parents are sometimes surprised, then, when they look through their child's books and see pages of handwriting, worked maths and drafted stories.
That is deliberate.
Our priorities in primary are clear:
- Reading, taught systematically and with real books at its heart
- Writing, developed with purpose, by hand, over time
- Oracy, giving children the confidence to explain, discuss and debate
- Mathematics, building secure understanding step by step
The devices are there to support that learning, not to replace it. They help with retrieval practice, give children access to high-quality content, allow teachers to see quickly who has understood and who needs more help, and teach children how to use technology well.
But children still work in books. They still write by hand. They still talk to each other about their thinking. Writing something down, crossing it out and trying again is part of how children learn to think, and no tool should take that struggle away from them too early.
The question we ask is never "how can we use more technology?" It is "what will help this child learn best?" Sometimes the answer is a device. Very often, it is a pencil, a book and a good conversation.
What this looks like in practice
In the early years, the focus is almost entirely on play, talk and hands-on exploration. Technology plays a very small part, and that is how it should be.
As children move through the school, they begin to learn about how technology works and how to use it safely. Older children explore what AI is, where they might meet it, and why its answers should be checked rather than simply trusted. They might compare an AI-generated answer with what they have learned in class, or discuss whether a picture is real.
Teachers use technology thoughtfully too, to plan, to give feedback and to understand where each child is. But the relationship between teacher and child remains at the centre of everything.
AI can do many things. It cannot know a child the way a good teacher does.
Working with families
Parents play a vital role here, and many are navigating these questions for the first time.
A few simple things make a real difference at home:
- Talk to your child about the technology they use, and ask them how they think it works
- Encourage them to question what they see online, rather than accept it
- Keep reading together, every day if you can
- Protect time for play, boredom and being outdoors
As with so much in primary education, the strongest results come when school and home are aligned.
Looking ahead
No one can say with certainty what the world will look like when today's primary children leave school. AI will almost certainly be part of it.
The best preparation we can give them is not early exposure to every new tool. It is a secure foundation in reading, writing, speaking and mathematics, the confidence to think for themselves, and enough understanding of technology to use it wisely.
We want our children to be curious about AI, not dependent on it. To understand it, question it and, one day, shape it.
And, for now, to enjoy being children.