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Stop 11 · Check · 35–38 min

Where are we now?

Come back to your own setting. For each area, pick the description that matches what a visitor would actually see this term. It’s about adult practice and children’s opportunities, never children’s readiness, and a lower rating can help you choose one useful change. This is a workshop reflection tool, not a validated assessment or a measure of school quality. Select N/A when an area does not fit your setting; another effective approach is welcome.

Start the audit Then: where can we go?
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The audit

Four levels, six areas

0Not yetIt rarely happens, or only by chance.
1NoticingAdults notice moments and sometimes name them.
2InvitingWe plan for it in provocations and routines.
3EmbeddedIt’s shared practice, documented and revisited.
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How we’d know it works

What you’d see and hear

This is reflective evidence for your own setting, not proof that the approach causes later AI literacy. Pick one or two signs, look before you start, and look again a few weeks later.

Signs to look for in each year group
Year groupThe AI threadYou might see or hearA quick check
Nest & NurseryMachines are made by people. Dilon is pretend, so we wave goodbye.A child takes part in returning a device, with the support they need. They may point, wave, speak or observe the pretend framing.Hold up a tablet: “Who made this?” Pointing to a grown-up, or saying “people”, counts.
ReceptionSome technology listens or watches. What can it hear and see, and who made it?A child points to a camera or microphone, or asks “Can it hear us?” A child explores pictures of people, toys and machines; a toy can also be a machine. Accept gesture and home languages.Explore six pictures with overlapping hoops: person, toy, machine. Invite more than one label; note reasons, gestures and support.
Year 1Apps can suggest and guess. Who made the choice: me, a grown-up or the app?“The app suggested it, but I chose.” A child spots a guess: “It might be wrong.”Show a pretend app screen that suggests a video: “Who chose? Do we have to watch it?”
Year 2When a machine helps make a picture or an idea, we still say who made what, and we check it.A child credits who made what on a poster or story. A child suggests a way to check: a book, a person, a second source.Share a “machine-made” fact card with one mistake in it: “How could we check?”
A before-and-after talk-back
  1. Choose one sign from the table and two or three children. Keep any child-level observations in your school’s approved system under its policy. Do not enter names, initials, codes or identifying observations in this site’s My notes panel.
  2. Before your strand starts, ask the quick check and write their words exactly.
  3. Run the strand for three or four weeks.
  4. Ask the same question in the same way. Write the words again and compare.
  5. Share what changed, and what didn’t, with a colleague.
Add it to your plan
When to look more closely

Ordinary pretend play and affection for a toy are not problems by themselves. Look at context, sustained distress and interference with participation; one behaviour is not a diagnosis.

  • Real distress at goodbye time, beyond ordinary sadness.
  • Insisting the character is real after repeated, gentle framing.
  • Preferring the character to friends or adults, or wanting it close all day.
  • Doing things “for” the character, or worrying it will be sad or cross.
  • Talking to a device or toy as if it knows or loves them.

If you notice them: record what you saw in your usual observation notes. Keep the framing warm and honest (“Dilon is pretend; people made him, and we love pretending”). Use the character less for a while and lean on people. Talk with the family, and involve your SENCO or safeguarding lead if it sits alongside other concerns.

These are practice suggestions drawn from the sources, not validated measures: Woolley & Ghossainy (2013) · Aguiar et al. (2019) · Flanagan, Wong & Kushnir (2023) · Common Sense Media (2025) · all sources

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Next: where can we go?Build a plan from your lowest area. The playhouseIdeas for every room. FamiliesIf families are your lowest area.
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