Want to know your MCP from your RAG to your LLM, ML, NLP and CLT? If not, you need the 2026 AI Almanac for Educators. AI and EdTech are at the forefront of thinking in most schools now. It shapes how we teach, lead, safeguard and operate, yet the language…
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been refining, checking, and double-checking my latest Periodic Table of AI Tools in Education. It isn’t exhaustive. It isn’t perfect. It isn’t meant to be. What I’ve tried to do is bring together genuinely useful AI tools that I know are already making a…
The BBC has launched a brilliant new campaign, the BBC Bitesize Guide to AI, to enable young people to thrive in an AI world. Thirteen informative, engaging and inspiring short films cover essential AI tool knowledge and showcase how AI is changing industry sectors and enhancing careers. I was so…
I’ve been developing the Periodic Table of Canva in Education for quite a while now, but with the brilliant work we do at NetSupport, BETT, the launch and work around the Digital Strategy Guide, headteacher conferences, supporting my school and trust clients, you name it – it’s taken some time! Here…
So here we are, day 24, the final day of the 2025 #24DaysOfAI Appvent Calendar. Where did that time go?! And as the door swings open, I wanted to focus as I’ve done every year on the calendar, it’s not a tool, app or technology I want to focus on,…
Today’s a bit different. On this, the penultimate day of the 2025 24DaysOfAI Appvent Calendar, I wanted to, instead of highlighting a tool, share five brilliant people you should be following as we move into 2026. These are educators and innovators who consistently deliver value, challenge thinking, and most importantly,…
As we move into the final stretch of this year’s Appvent Calendar, I wanted to do something slightly different. Today’s tool has been chosen by Dougie, my son, and his reasoning for picking it is refreshingly simple and deeply telling. It helps make lessons more engaging. Writing lyrics helps others,…
Most educators juggle a dozen different tools daily. One for creating presentations, another for editing images, a third for removing backgrounds, something else for generating worksheets. Add in the copyright minefield of finding classroom-appropriate images and you’ve lost hours before you’ve even started teaching. Then there’s the accessibility challenge –…
As is the case each year, whilst I call this the ‘Appvent’ calendar, I don’t always follow the rules and share an app. As would be the case, the disruptor that he is, today’s guest contributor, Al Kingsley, has kept the tradition of doing things a bit differently, and so…
Welcome to Day 19 of the #24DaysOfAI Appvent Calendar! I simply cannot believe we’re on the 19th December already, with only 5 more entries left to go on the calendar, where has this month gone?! Today’s recommendation comes from Joe Arday, a passionate advocate for diversity in EdTech, who suggested…
Day 18 of the #24DaysOfAI Appvent Calendar comes from guest contributor Kieran Buckley, who brings a brilliantly practical classroom lens to today’s tool. This one tackles a familiar teaching moment many of us recognise instantly and offers a simple, effective way to improve clarity, explanation and pupil understanding without adding…
Helping students learn is a core part of a teacher’s daily life. Many students, though, struggle to capture information accurately in class, organise it in a meaningful way or build the assurance needed to communicate their ideas clearly. Today’s Appvent entry explores a platform designed to strengthen these core learning…
Today’s Appvent entry comes from Jérôme Nogues, a respected educator and EdTech consultant who brings both classroom credibility and pedagogical clarity to his work with AI. Jérôme is the founder of the Poésíæ and Poésíært international language learning competitions, a Global EdTech Awards judge, and a regular contributor to professional…
Welcome to Day 15 of the #24DaysOfAI Appvent Calendar! A lot of tools in the AI space are broad-stroke tools, ones that can have use across a broad range of subjects. From the likes of Gemini or Copilot, NotebookLM or Brisk. As tools and edupreneurs start to consider AI and…
As Artificial Intelligence becomes more present in the lives of young people, one of the greatest challenges schools face is helping pupils understand it well. Not just what it does, but how it works, how it affects their lives and how they can engage with it thoughtfully and responsibly. That…
As AI becomes increasingly present in schools, one of the biggest challenges for leaders and teachers is not access to tools, but confidence. Confidence in understanding what AI is, how it works, where the risks sit and how to talk about it with pupils, parents and colleagues. That is why…
Good questions sit at the heart of effective teaching because they help us check understanding, surface misconceptions and build retrieval into routines. Yet designing them well and doing so consistently is demanding. That workload challenge is exactly why I wanted to include QuestionWell in this year’s Appvent Calendar. AI Tool…
Day 11 of the #24DaysOfAI Appvent Calendar features a contribution from someone I respect hugely. Well worth connecting with on LinkedIn, Julie Carson, Director of Education at Woodland Academy Trust and this year’s ICT Evangelist Digital Leader award winner, has a gift for cutting through noise and focusing on what…
Research-informed teaching and learning should be de-rigeur nowadays. It’s been great seeing the shift towards this in British Education over the last three decades of my career; it simply wasn’t a thing when I trained to be a teacher. For me, working from a point of knowing ‘what works’ is…
One of the most joyful aspects of working with young learners is watching their imagination take shape in unexpected ways. Whether sketching characters, inventing creatures or building stories from the world around them, children show us daily how naturally they think in three dimensions. As immersive tools develop, there are…
Introduction Engaging with research is an essential part of our profession. Whether shaping curriculum, refining pedagogy or making strategic decisions, teachers and leaders rely on evidence to guide thoughtful practice. Yet many academic papers can feel dense, technical and time-consuming to interpret, especially during a busy school week. Today’s Appvent…
Day 7 of the #24DaysOfAI Appvent Calendar brings another thoughtful contribution from Teresa Menton. Teresa has chosen a tool that sits firmly within the day-to-day reality of classroom life and one that continues to gain momentum among teachers looking for practical, time-saving support with core tasks. Her post explores how…
Thank goodness it’s Saturday and what a week it’s been here on the 24DaysOfAI Appvent calendar! On Monday, we introduced the calendar with Consensus. Then on Tuesday we had Intelligent Evidence. Wednesday saw Emma Darcy introduce Gemini from Google with me taking over Thursday’s mantle with Seesaw. Yesterday’s brilliant AI…
Welcome to Day 5 of the 2025 #24DaysOfAI Appvent Calendar! It is fair to say that today’s tool is one that I have mentioned in almost all of my 85 keynotes, inset days and workshops across 2025 and shared even more widely in conversations on social media and with educators…
Welcome to Day 4 of the #24DaysOfAI Appvent Calendar. Today’s focus is Seesaw, a platform already familiar to many primary schools for the way it connects pupils, teachers and families. What stands out this year is how Seesaw is beginning to weave AI into the routines teachers already use, supporting…
In education, when it comes to your ecosystem, the productivity suite and core tools that frame most of your use, you normally sit in one of two camps. For the most part, you can often undertake similar activities when it comes to things like word processing, presentations, working with numbers…
Inspection preparation is a familiar pressure for school and trust leaders. The expectations of the new Ofsted framework require clarity, alignment and well-structured evidence, yet you rarely have the time you need to bring everything together in a coherent way. What should be a professional conversation often becomes a last-minute…
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