As AI has moved into classrooms, most schools have felt the need for a clear position on it, and many have found that harder to write than expected. A good AI policy is not a long document that anticipates every eventuality. It is a short, clear one that pupils and staff will actually read and follow. This post walks through what to include and how to keep it usable.
Why your school needs one
Without a policy, everyone invents their own rule. One teacher treats AI use as cheating, another encourages it, and pupils are left guessing where the line is. That inconsistency is the real problem a policy solves. It gives pupils a clear sense of what is acceptable, gives staff a shared position to teach from, and gives the school a considered stance to point to when a parent or governor asks.
Keep it short and usable
The most common mistake is length. A ten-page policy that tries to cover every scenario will not be read, and a policy nobody reads changes nothing. Aim for something a pupil could understand in a few minutes and a teacher could hold in their head. Clarity beats completeness.
What to cover
A workable policy tends to address a handful of areas.
Acceptable use is the core: where AI use is encouraged, where it is fine as long as it is acknowledged, and where it is not appropriate. Academic integrity follows from it: how pupils should reference any AI use in their work, and what counts as passing off AI output as their own. Data and privacy matters too: what pupils and staff should never enter into a tool, and which tools the school does and does not sanction. Safeguarding sits alongside: how AI links to the school's wider online safety approach, and what a pupil should do if something concerns them. And staff use deserves its own lines, since teachers using AI for planning or feedback raises its own questions.
Covering those areas clearly is enough. You do not need to predict every future tool.
Write for pupils as well as staff
It helps to think of two audiences. Pupils need plain language and clear expectations. Staff need a little more, including guidance on their own use and on how to respond when pupils use AI. Some schools write one document with a section for each; others write a short pupil version and a fuller staff one. Either works, as long as pupils get something written for them rather than a policy written for adults.
Treat it as a living document
AI tools change quickly, so a policy written once and filed will date. Build in a review, and expect to revise it as the tools and, before long, the curriculum change. A policy that is revisited stays trusted; one that is visibly out of date undermines itself.
From policy to practice
A policy sets the rules, but it does not teach pupils the judgement to follow them. The two work together: the policy says where the lines are, and a structured AI literacy programme teaches pupils why they are there and how to stay the right side of them. Teaching that judgement, and being able to show pupils have grasped it, is what we built Curio to do. If it would help to talk it through, we're happy to.