A School for Tomorrow

Reimagining education for a world turned upside down

I guess I’m not the only person doing this right now. Thinking about the future of schools since ChatGPT smashed headlong into the world back last November.

It’s not that I think the whole world of education will be upended overnight. Things tend to take a while to filter through to the classroom. But a lot of us are talking, and we all seem to be saying a similar thing. That education is going to radically change in the next few years, so we may as well start thinking about what that means.

I’ve been having some fun doing a little thought experiment. Exercising my creativity. Why not? After all, none of us have anything to lose. These ideas have been swirling around in my head for years now, some of them since I first started bringing iPads into the classroom back in 2011. None of them have seemed feasible until now.

The below is my starter for ten: my possibly crazy, perhaps not crazy enough, ideas as to how a typical school may look in the near-ish future. They’re certainly not meant to be taken as gospel: I don’t have a crystal ball. But they might generate some discussion, which is always a good thing.

Meet Mark

Mark arrives at school at 7am. He grabs a coffee and pastry from the cafe and sits to go through his group’s learning plans for the day. He’s with a mixed year 10 and 11 group for the morning, so checks their analytics from the day before to assess whether there are any particular students or groups he needs to focus more attention on.

The school’s visual tracking system means there’s no need for him to register the group before starting.  In fact, by the time he finishes his coffee and arrives in the learning hub, half them have arrived early and are already engaged in their project. Most of them have also grabbed a coffee or tea from the cafe - they’ll eat and drink whenever they want throughout the day as there are no formal break or lunchtimes. The cafe is open all day so they’ll have a pastry, sandwich or soup whenever they’re feeling hungry.

The Learning Genie

Each student has access to their own learning ‘genie’: an AGI mentor bespoke to each student, who has learnt the student’s strengths and weaknesses, and who acts as an always-ready guide through each student’s learning journey. This has changed Mark’s role considerably, as he now sees himself as another support and guide, just like the AI genie. He’s usually able to offer students a different point of view, often more nuanced or ‘human’ than the genie, and can also offer students more pastoral support and challenge; something the genie struggles to do. 

There are no ‘teachers’ as such in this school - Mark is known as a ‘learning coach’ or LC, and more senior staff are known as ‘senior learning coaches’, (SLCs). Other than the Head of School there are no senior leaders, as all the data management and analysis (for both progress and behaviour) is done by AI, removing the need for a broader SLT. The flat structure has created a real feeling of collegiality, one Mark very much appreciates.

There are very few behaviour problems so the school doesn’t need an ‘enforcer’: learning is so tailored to each student, and is so intrinsically motivating, that there aren’t really any reasons for children to misbehave. Any that do struggle are quickly supported by LCs, who are always on hand to address concerns.

Augmented Learning

Mark checks in on each group. One group is working at a large table on an AR design for a new form of renewable energy, their AR headsets on, staring at what to Mark looks like a blank table until he puts on his AR headset and can see them looking at a 3D ‘blueprint’ of their design. They use haptic ‘gloves’ to move the 3D design around, zooming in to discuss certain elements they could improve. One student asks their AI genie for ideas for how to make these designs even more cost effective and impactful, and the genie comes back with five ideas to improve. The students discuss these ideas between themselves and Mark, weighing up the pros and cons, before including one into the design. 

Another group is working on a computer game which teaches students about climate change. They use their AI genie to generate the code they need to create the game, inputting the design elements they wish to alter or the narrative they wish the game to have. At certain points their genie makes suggestions for how to move things along, perhaps shifting the storyline so it focuses more on climate change at some points and more on developing character in another. There is a real sense of collaboration: between the students, their genies, and with Mark’s input at key moments, perhaps reframing the questions being asked, or bringing students back to the big question they’re exploring

A day of two halves

Mark is with this group for the morning: the day is broken into halves, with mornings spent on immersive projects and afternoons spent on the school’s ALPACAS programme (Active Leisure, Programming, Arts and Creative Activities, and Service). Students can choose from a menu of options, but must cover physical activities, computer programming, creativity and service at least once per term. Some students are working through a course on advanced Python through the Replit platform (even though their genie can do most of the programming work, the school still believes that is important for students to learn the language of AI); others are playing football; one group are learning mindfulness techniques (a compulsory module on the ALPACAS programme), a third group are working on a play that will be performed at the end of term. 

All afternoon activities are mixed age group: indeed, one of the service elements of the school involves the older students supporting younger students with guided reading, or helping out in the learning support area, with students who need a little extra encouragement and guidance. What is clear is that, because of the accelerated learning that is possible with AI, there is more time for students to engage their minds and bodies in creative and physical ways. The school has seen a considerable improvement in student wellbeing and learning outcomes as a result. 

No More Mr Jones

The nomenclature of the school has changed subtly over time. Mark is no longer ‘Mr Jones’ - all students call him Mark, and he is fine with that. There are no longer classrooms: spaces are given names relative to famous people linked to computing and AI: the learning hub for example is known as ‘Turing’, and there are various sized rooms throughout the school with names like Hopper, Knuth, McCarthy and Altman. 

There is in fact little need for students to be assigned spaces throughout the day; they use them relative to the type of work they are engaging in. For example, there are a few rooms that can hold around 20 students which are ideal for initial briefings, either from learning coaches or if a student is taking the lead in an initial knowledge harvest around a big question.

Most of the spaces are open plan, with rooms off the main spaces being smaller, for small group and pair work, and there are little cubbyholes dotted around the campus when students want time alone to think. There are a few soundproof pods for total silence or when a student needs to make a video call, for example to an expert who can help them move their learning along. The school has a bank of fully vetted experts in different fields, and students can independently book them for a video call when they need support from ‘the real world’. 

Real Time Analytics

In the afternoon, while students are engaged in the ALPACAS programme, Mark has time to analyse the learning progress of his class that morning. He notices that one of the girls, Sarah, has performed significantly below her norm: her attention was unusually low and her input into group discussion minimal. He finds Sarah, who is reading Jane Eyre sitting on a beanbag. He asks if she is ok and she gets tearful. She tells him that her parents were arguing last night and she didn’t sleep much. Mark books her a slot with Claire, the school counsellor, who spends some time with her that afternoon. Mark is able to intercede quickly because of the analytics he has access to - Sarah is a quiet student and often falls ‘under the radar’, so having data to compare her normal performance to how she was that morning helps Mark to make quick decisions as to how to support. 

The standard day finishes at 4pm, but the school remains open until 6pm for students, so that working parents can collect them later if need be. Most students who stay late are happy to continue with their project work or play additional sports - they tend not to need baby sitting as they have become self-sufficient, even at a young age. Staff are dotted around the campus working,  supporting and playing sports with students: there is little direct supervision - most of the time staff passively supervise. However, due to the tracking system in place, assigned staff know exactly where every student is so that they can’t wander off unsupervised. 

At 6pm the school holds a family learning session, showing year 11 parents and their children how best to use their genie for revision. Then from 7pm the doors are open to the local community, who come to use the school’s facilities for adult learning and leisure bookings.

Apprentices and Entrepreneurs

The following day will be an exciting one for the year 13 students Mark has been working with: they are having a Young Apprentice event, with five heads of recruitment for some of the largest businesses in the area visiting the school to hear the pitches of the 18-year-olds who are vying for places on fully funded ‘work and learn’ placements at their companies. Increasingly, students are opting out of going to university, instead preferring to go straight into a work placement where they can receive the training they need (both academic and vocational, again supported by AI) to get them ready to properly enter the workforce. They also receive a small expenses allowance. At the end of the two year placement, if they do well they are guaranteed a place in the business as a salaried employee. 

However, there is a third group of students who neither wish to go to university nor compete for a work and learn placement. These are the young entrepreneurs, and they spend time in an incubator on site, working with local successful entrepreneurs to develop their business ideas and write pitch decks for funding. Local investors have become increasingly interested in the school’s incubator, as last year a former student created an app which was valued after one year at almost half a billion dollars. Entry into the incubator is highly selective: only the very best ideas, likely to make it to market, are selected. This group also includes the influencers, who have already made a name for themselves through social media. 

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How much of this is a pipe-dream, and how much will be realised? My belief is that I am being conservative, as there will be so much more on offer as we learn how AI will turn teaching and learning on its head. What I think will become increasingly apparent is that our current ‘one to many’ model, privileging one teacher to many students, will soon be inverted into a ‘many to one’ model, with learning advisers, AI, experts, entrepreneurs and local business leaders all surrounding the student, giving them the support they need when they need it. 

What is most clear is that, with AI already able to do the bulk of both lower order and middle order processing work (planning, brainstorming, writing outlines, essays, strategic plans and such forth), we must begin to push students into higher order thinking more quickly. The above ideas reflect this, as they privilege a combination of real world, immersive learning experiences and exercise for the mind and body. 

And as for Mark? He feels privileged to be part of the profession. And for good reason!