AI and adaptive teaching: embracing the challenge

Matt Kingston, Curriculum Innovation Lead, Holme Grange School

Holme Grange’s teaching and learning focus this year has been adaptive teaching, a priority that brings with it many of the same challenges faced by schools nationwide. One of the most significant barriers has been the time required to create adapted resources that meet individual pupil needs. 

Most teachers can recall spending hours preparing resources, only for unexpected issues such as IT failures, printer jams, or a difficult lesson to undermine the best of intentions. As a result, many teachers have relied heavily on in-class adaptations to ensure accessibility – inevitably an uphill struggle. 

However, the emergence of new technologies has begun to shift this balance, offering teachers ways to maintain both their wellbeing and their ability to provide accessible, high-quality resources for all pupils.

This year, we have undertaken a focused exploration of how artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to support adaptive teaching, enabling all pupils to access the curriculum and work towards shared learning goals across a range of subjects. We began on a small scale, working within departments to adapt resources efficiently for diverse learners. This approach demonstrated a clear positive impact, giving us the confidence to begin rolling it out across the whole school.

Our starting point was a staff audit designed to understand how AI was already being used and how it was perceived. The overall response was positive, but three key concerns emerged. Only 11% of staff were using AI to adapt resources; there were significant worries about its impact on pupils’ critical thinking; and concerns around cheating were widespread.

The latter two concerns are being addressed through careful task design. If a task can be easily completed using AI and is difficult to detect, then it is worth questioning its educational value. As AI becomes harder to identify and increasingly difficult to restrict, particularly in homework settings, we have shifted our focus towards designing AI-resistant tasks. These include activities where pupils must defend their opinions, record voice notes to explain their thinking, or engage in flipped learning that is assessed in class using mini-whiteboards. By requiring pupils to articulate and justify their ideas, we strengthen critical thinking while making it harder to outsource learning to AI. Rather than viewing AI as a barrier, we are using it as an opportunity to refine our curriculum and teaching approaches.

In line with our school learning policy on adaptive teaching, it quickly became clear that there was a skills gap among staff when it came to using AI effectively. Our first step was raising awareness of how AI could be used safely and purposefully. This was introduced during an INSET session, where staff were presented with three practical strategies for using AI to support adaptive teaching. Each strategy included guidance on accessibility and impact, strengths and limitations, and example prompts tailored to specific learning needs.

For many staff, this session served as a reminder of AI’s potential. For others who had previously been hesitant, it provided the confidence to begin experimenting with new approaches. This was followed by a second session aimed at beginners, covering the fundamentals of prompt writing, data protection, and key risks such as GDPR breaches and AI ‘hallucinations’. The response was again very positive. While a full staff audit will be conducted later in the year, early indicators suggest a noticeable increase in staff using AI to support resource adaptation. This work will be reinforced through fortnightly ‘quick wins’ shared during staff briefings and in the weekly bulletin.

One of the most significant challenges AI has introduced relates to student use. Concerns around cheating were not unfounded, with pupils openly discussing their use of AI tools to complete notes and homework tasks. However, as AI will inevitably form part of students’ future lives, a blanket ban would do little to prepare them for what lies ahead.

Instead, we are focusing on educating pupils about appropriate and effective use. We are currently trialling a Year 9 tutor programme to explore how structured guidance impacts students’ understanding and use of AI. This programme covers how AI works, the risks it poses to learning, how it can be used positively, and what the future of AI may look like. Alongside this, we are piloting small-scale projects such as subject-specific GPTs that pupils are permitted to use independently. These tools are designed to guide thinking rather than provide answers, helping pupils to use AI as a learning aid rather than a shortcut.

Ultimately, this approach relies on pupils choosing to use AI responsibly. Developing this mindset will take time and ongoing dialogue. To support this, we will continue gathering feedback through staff audits, research, and CPD, while also establishing a digital student council to give pupils a voice in shaping how AI is used within the school.

We are still at the very beginning of a long journey with AI. However, the willingness of both staff and pupils to engage thoughtfully with this challenge has been encouraging, making what could be a daunting task an exciting opportunity for meaningful change.

Holme Grange School, Wokingham, has been accredited with the NACE Challenge Award since 2013, and is a NACE Challenge Ambassador School.