Distinguish · Notice
Ask · Check
Compare what people, characters, objects, and systems can do. Ask where answers come from and how to check them.
Curriculum / Human Agency and Relational Agency
AI literacy
across the school years.
How do children develop agency around intelligent, persuasive, and creative technologies? This working direction connects early childhood curiosity with later judgement, design, and responsibility.
Public development draft · v0.2Keep the feeling valid. Keep the model accurate.
Keep the feeling valid. Keep the model accurate.
Keep choice and people in reach.
Year groups are planning emphases, not universal developmental milestones or a scale for judging a child. The public direction is distinct from DCB’s school-owned seven-strand framework.
Six questions that travel
A planning lens, not a score.
Each age group has a different emphasis. These questions return as children meet new systems, new pressures, and new responsibilities.
- NoticeWhat is happening in me and around me?
- ModelWhat can this system perceive, remember, infer, and do?
- Read the designWhat response is the feature inviting, and for whose benefit?
- ChooseWhat do I want the tool to do, and what boundary fits?
- ReconnectWhen does this need another person, source, or service?
- ShapeWhat should designers, schools, communities, or governments do?
Distinguish · Notice
Choose · Explain
Evaluate · Participate
Explore how design shapes interaction; practise boundaries, judge usefulness, and contribute to shared norms.
Navigate · Critique
Govern
Consider identity, influence, system design, and the responsibilities of schools, families, companies, and communities.
Disclose · Design
Lead · Steward
Create transparently, design more responsible systems, assess evidence, and revise decisions under uncertainty.
Relational Agency
Notice how an interaction feels and how it is designed; model what the system can and cannot do; choose boundaries; keep accountable human support in reach. A response can feel meaningful without carrying the knowledge or responsibility of a person.
Six recurring lenses: Notice · Model · Read the design · Choose · Reconnect · Shape.
Six lesson examples / Early Years to Sixth Form
EYFS · 20 minutes · no devices
What Can It Do? What Needs a Person?
Sort living beings, characters, ordinary objects, and responsive technologies using observable clues. A visibly teacher-voiced character makes a mistake; children correct it and match everyday situations to different kinds of help.
KS1 · 30 minutes · printed scripts
Kind Words, Different Knowing
Compare three responses to a fictional drawing. Map what information each source could have, what it may be guessing, and what responsibility it can carry.
KS2 · 45–50 minutes · role-play
Helpful, Flattering, or Both?
Compare an enthusiastic response with a constructive one. Separate what feels encouraging from what improves a plan or supports a decision.
KS3 · 55–60 minutes · fictional simulation
Pause the Pattern
Pause fictional transcripts to identify a feature, a response it might invite, a possible design explanation, and a proportionate next step.
KS4 · 60 minutes · case and design brief
From Fictional Case to Human Handback
Map a fictional week of AI use, then redesign a feature so that consequential needs lead back to accountable support. Consider dignity, privacy, and accessibility.
KS5 · two 55-minute sessions
Evidence, Position, Translate
Label sources by method, claim, and limitation. Practise fair disagreement, then co-design a short screen-free activity for Year 2 with a primary colleague.
What these lessons assess
Reasoning, evidence, choices, and revision. Use shared fictional cases, equivalent opt-outs, teacher-controlled materials, and ordinary local safeguarding routes. The activities do not require personal disclosures or live chatbot accounts.
Read the research context