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Session 1. Setting Direction: A One-Page AI Policy
Objective. Lead colleagues in drafting a short school or department AI policy that covers acceptable use, academic honesty and data privacy, can be followed in daily work, and has an owner and a review date.
A policy is not paperwork; it is a promise colleagues can keep. Without one, each teacher invents rules alone and pupils meet a different answer in every room. With one page, a new teacher, a worried parent and a busy head can see the same thing: what is safe, what needs care and who to ask. This lesson goes beyond the key ideas and shows how to write rules that survive real days, and how to fit them into the school rules you already have.
Key ideas
Why a school needs a shared position
- Teachers and pupils already use AI, with or without a rule. A short shared position is better than silence or a blanket ban that nobody follows.
- A leader does not need to know every tool. The job is to set direction: what we allow, what we protect, and who decides.
- Courses 5.9 and 8.7 built your own practice. Here you set the frame for others, and keep it small enough to be read.
Three sections, one page
- Acceptable use: which tasks staff and pupils may do with AI, which only with conditions (checking, disclosure) and which not at all.
- Academic honesty: when pupils may use AI, how they say so, and what counts as passing off AI work as their own.
- Data privacy: what is never typed into an AI tool, such as names, marks, photos, health or family information, and which accounts are approved.
Write rules people can follow
- Use plain words and examples from your own school. Every 'not allowed' gets a reason and a safe alternative.
- Name an owner and a review date. A policy without an owner is forgotten; one without a review date is out of date within a year.
- Never contradict official instructions. Check the ministry and school rules first and get the head's approval before you publish.
Consult first, then adopt
- Talk with teachers, older pupils and parents before the final text. People follow rules they helped shape, and objections show gaps early.
- Explain the policy in a 10-minute staff slot with three real examples, not by reading it out.
- Offline first: a printed one-pager on the staff-room board works even when the internet does not.
Life of a school AI policy
Write rules about tasks, not products
Tools change every few months, so a rule that names one product is out of date by the next term. Write about tasks and data instead: 'Teachers may use AI to draft a quiz if they solve every item themselves', or 'Pupil work, names and marks are never entered'. Each rule has the same four parts: what is allowed, the condition, the reason and the safe alternative.
Test every rule with two questions. Could a Grade 7 pupil explain it to a parent in one sentence? Could a colleague break it by accident without noticing? If yes to the second, add an example. Rules with examples are followed; rules with only principles are argued about.
Fit the policy into rules you already have
Most schools already have a discipline code, a phone rule, exam regulations and consent forms. Read them first. Your AI policy should point to them, not repeat or contradict them: copying from a book and passing off AI work are the same honesty problem, so use the same consequences and the same procedure.
Add three small administrative parts: a version number and date, one named person who answers questions, and a route for exceptions, such as 'a pilot needs the head's written approval'. Check official instructions before publishing, because school rules cannot override them. Finally, plan how the policy reaches people: a staff slot, a notice board copy and a short note to parents.
Examples from the classroom
Tasks, not product names
Scene. Dilnoza leads the language department in a Samarkand school. The first draft says 'Do not use ChatGPT'. Jasur points out that pupils will use another tool next month. They rewrite: 'Pupils may use AI to explain a text, not to write the answer they hand in.' They add an example from a Grade 8 poem lesson and a paper alternative, a pair explanation. The department pins it above the staff table.
Insight. Rules about tasks and reasons outlast any single tool and are easier to apply.
Joining the phone rule
Scene. Aziz teaches in Bukhara. His school already bans phones during lessons except for teacher-approved tasks. Instead of writing a new section, he adds one line: 'AI tools follow the same rule: on a school device or with teacher permission.' He also links the honesty line to the existing copying rule. The head approves in one meeting because nothing contradicts what was agreed before.
Insight. Building on existing rules makes a policy shorter, consistent and easier to approve.
A disclosure tick for Grade 5
Scene. Malika teaches Grade 5 in a Russian-medium class in Tashkent. Her pupils cannot write long disclosures, so the homework cover has three boxes: 'I used AI: no / to understand / to check', and a line 'I changed:'. She explains it in five minutes and checks two covers per week. Parents see the same boxes on the school website and understand the rule.
Insight. Disclosure can be age-appropriate and quick, and it makes honest use visible.
Common pitfalls
- Naming a specific product, so the policy is out of date within a term.
- Writing forty pages that nobody reads instead of one page that everybody can use.
- Publishing without checking official instructions and existing school rules.
- Listing 'not allowed' items with no reason and no safe alternative.
Draft the One-Page Policy
- Open the Activity Kit: a SAMPLE school (School No. 21, Samarkand, 640 pupils, 38 teachers, no AI rule yet) and eight everyday situations (3 min).
- Pairs (12 min): sort each situation into ALLOWED, ALLOWED WITH CONDITIONS or NOT ALLOWED and write the reason in one sentence.
- Pairs (15 min): fill the one-page template: three rules for each of the three sections, an owner and a review date.
- Trios (10 min): swap drafts. Each reader tries to break the policy with a situation it does not cover, and the writers add one fix.
- Second short activity (10 min): consultation role-play with the script in the Kit. One person is a sceptical colleague, the other presents the policy in two minutes. Swap.
- Alone (5 min): write your school-based task from the Kit.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- Which situation was hardest to place, and what did the disagreement teach you about the rule?
- What did the 'break it' round find that the writers had missed?
- Who in your school must see the draft before the head signs it?
Reflect
- Where does AI use in your school happen today without any shared rule?
- Which rule would your most sceptical colleague accept, and which would they reject?
- What official rules must you check before you publish anything?
Try it tomorrow
- Take one current school rule (for example the phone rule) and write the one line that links AI use to it.
- Write two rules in the four-part form: allowed, condition, reason, alternative.
- Ask one colleague to read your draft and mark the first sentence they would not know how to follow.
Further reading and links
One page, three sections, plain examples, an owner and a review date, written with the people who must follow it.