For school leaders
How to communicate with parents about AI: a guide for school leaders
Parents in international schools pay the fees, and most of them judge school against their own education, often a generation ago, before AI existed. In my experience, when AI comes up, what parents really want to know is what it means for their child's future. Schools need a way to answer it that parents can use at home and that matches what teachers say in class.
One picture parents can use
Students use AI in two ways. Sometimes it's a vending machine: press the button and take the answer. Sometimes it's a thinking partner, where the student does the thinking and uses AI to check it or push it further. Quick answers have their place, and an adult who already knows a topic uses AI that way all the time. For a child who's still learning, the thinking is the point of the homework.
It also answers the question about the future. As AI takes on more routine work, the skills that keep their value are the ones the thinking partner builds: checking what AI says, weighing up options and working out what the problem actually is.
The Thinking Pendulum gives school and home the same words for this.
What to tell parents about your school's approach
Parents want to know where the school stands. If you've built AI into task design, tell them plainly:
- AI is allowed at some stages of a task and not at others, and the task says which.
- Students declare what AI did in their work.
- Teachers mark the thinking as well as the finished product, using evidence students hand in along the way.
- The school doesn't rely on AI detectors, because they aren't reliable enough to accuse a child. The academic integrity page has the evidence.
Three questions parents can ask at home
- "What did you work out yourself before you asked the AI?"
- "What did the AI suggest that you didn't use, and why?"
- "Could you explain this part to me without looking?"
Making it stick
Parents need to hear this more than once. I'd use three places:
- a short parent letter at the start of the year
- ten minutes at a parent evening, walking through one real homework task
- teachers using the same words in reports and conversations, so parents hear one message
Questions parents ask
Will AI take my child's future job?
Nobody can say for certain which jobs will change. People who can check AI's work and decide what to ask it will be in a stronger position than people who only press the button, and that's what the school is teaching.
Should I stop my child using AI?
For younger children, holding AI back makes sense. Older students meet AI everywhere, so it helps more to know how they're using it. The three questions above are a good place to start.
Is using AI cheating?
It depends on the task. Using AI where the task allows it, and saying what it did, is fine. Handing in AI's work as your own is cheating.
My child is in primary school. Does this apply?
Yes, in a simpler form. Younger children can do the thinking out loud with you: a guess before they look anything up, and a reason when they change their mind.