Working with thousands of primary schools and Trusts/MATs gives me a valuable insight into what is happening across primary education around the country and across the whole curriculum. Not just in foreign languages.

I see first-hand how new initiatives, educational trends and changing expectations are being translated into everyday classroom practice. I also see how teachers and subject leaders are responding to those changes and, most importantly, the impact they can have on pupils.

Recently, I had my first real encounter with the use of AI in teaching and learning in a primary school. It raised some important questions. One being:

'What happens when AI gets the wrong answer?'

It can and does get things wrong. An example I saw most recently was when a document containing planning for KS2 Spanish was ‘put through’ AI by SLT. What was produced wasn’t read through or questioned. Simply handed back to the foreign language subject lead.

There was no context.

There was no reference to the amount of curriculum time available.

There was no consideration of the school's class structure.

There was no mention of what the pupils had already been taught.

There was no consideration of the school's previous approach to language teaching.

Most of all, there was no clear understanding of where the school was ultimately trying to get to.

There no professional discussion. No questions about the context. No conversation about what could be improved.

Just an AI-generated response. This is where I think we need to be careful. AI is a tool, not a professional.

AI is indeed an incredible tool. It can save us time. It can help us generate ideas, analyse information, structure documents and approach problems from different perspectives.

I use AI myself, but I use it alongside my own knowledge, experience and professional judgement.

Never instead of them.

There is an obvious temptation to believe that because AI can produce an articulate and convincing response, that response must also be accurate, appropriate and relevant.

It isn't.

AI can produce something that sounds authoritative while being factually incorrect or completely inappropriate for a particular school context.

Education is full of context. Good decisions require more than good-looking planning! Educational leaders don't  and shouldn't be expected to know everything about every subject.

A primary headteacher or senior leader may be highly experienced educationally while having limited specialist knowledge of, for example, foreign language pedagogy.

That's completely reasonable.

So what should happen when questions arise about an area of the curriculum where specialist knowledge is limited?

Ask questions. Seek expertise. Understand the context. Talk to the subject leader. Contact your resource provider.

Look at what pupils have actually been taught. Consider the curriculum requirements.

Have a professional conversation. Join professional associations like https://www.languagescpdhub.com/

 AI can absolutely support that process.

It can help a leader understand terminology, generate questions, explore different approaches or identify areas that may warrant further investigation.

But it shouldn't replace the professional conversation.

There is no substitute for understanding the classroom

A piece of planning, on its own, can tell you quite a lot. But it cannot tell you everything. To understand whether a curriculum is appropriate, you need to understand the pupils who are following it.

You need to understand the time available. You need to know what has already been taught. You need to understand the school's starting point, its priorities and its intended destination. You need to understand the teachers delivering the curriculum and the challenges they face. You need to understand what is actually happening in the classroom.

That's professional judgement.

The best educational decisions are rarely made simply by analysing a document.

They are made by bringing together evidence, expertise, experience, context and professional discussion.

So, in my opinion should schools use AI?

Absolutely.

The question isn't whether schools should use AI. The question is how they use it.

Used well, AI has enormous potential to support teachers and school leaders. It can reduce administrative workload and give professionals more time to focus on the things that really matter.

But we shouldn't confuse efficiency with expertise. We certainly shouldn't confuse a confident-looking AI response with professional judgement.

A prompt cannot automatically understand the culture of a school, the experience of its teachers, the needs of its pupils or the journey that school has already been on.

No prompt can provide all of that context unless the professionals themselves bring it to the conversation.

Perhaps the real opportunity is not to ask whether AI can replace professional judgement, but to ask how AI can give professionals more time and better information with which to exercise it.

That's where I believe AI can make a genuinely positive difference to education.

Use AI. Challenge it. Check it. Question it. And most importantly, bring your professional knowledge and judgement to the conversation.

Ultimately, education is about people. Good decisions about children should never be made without understanding the people, places and classrooms involved.