A school-wide strategy which helps students to use AI without hindering their ability to think for themselves
Written By: Author(s): Jonathan Marshall
7 min read
JONATHAN MARSHALL, ASSISTANT HEAD ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT, ST ALBANS HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS (STAHS), UK
Introduction
This article explores how an independent secondary school in Hertfordshire with 798 students drew up an artificial intelligence (AI) policy and strategy which balances caution with opportunities for students to learn to use the technology wisely.
Specifically, our aims are to ensure that students:
understand the need to think for themselves in order to learn, rather than resorting to cognitive offloading (Gerlich, 2025)
identify when the use of generative AI (GenAI) is helpful to their learning and when it is detrimental
think critically about AI-generated content (Walter, 2024)
are ethical in their use of AI, and uphold the highest of standards of academic integrity.
While commentators assert that AI has the potential to be a great leveller (Hughes and Linsey, 2025, Boys, 2024), such claims are contingent upon all having access to the technol
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