Guide
Ten questions to ask any school system about its AI
Every MIS has AI in it now. These are the ten questions that separate an assistant your safeguarding lead can sign off from one that simply has a chat box — and they are worth asking of every supplier on your shortlist, including us.
Our own answers are in the second column. Where the honest answer is “not yet”, it says so.
- 01
Can the AI open safeguarding records?
Why it matters. Keeping Children Safe in Education now covers AI. This is the first question your safeguarding lead will ask, and "it has been told not to" is a different answer from "it cannot".
Our answer. No. There is no question in its catalogue that reads a safeguarding concern, case, referral, body map or the Single Central Record. It is a limit in the software, not an instruction.
- 02
Who can see medical and SEND detail through it?
Why it matters. Special category data needs a tighter answer than "staff". Ask which roles, and ask whether anything smaller leaks to everyone else.
Our answer. Full detail — allergies, medical notes, SEN status, EHCPs — only for senior administrators. Two narrower signals reach staff who can already see them: the time a pupil was last given medication, and whether a learning-support need was noted on an admissions enquiry.
- 03
Can it change our records on its own?
Why it matters. There is a large difference between an assistant that drafts and one that acts. Ask to watch someone approve a change during the demo.
Our answer. No. It shows exactly what would change and waits for a member of staff to confirm, through the same audited path as doing it by hand.
- 04
Does anything get sent without a person reading it?
Why it matters. Automatic replies to parents are the place this usually hides. Ask what is switched on by default.
Our answer. One thing, and only if you turn it on: an acknowledgement of a new admissions enquiry, which says it is automated. Everything else — letters, reports, newsletters, replies — waits for a person to send it.
- 05
Where is our data held, and where is the AI processed?
Why it matters. These are two different answers, and suppliers sometimes give you only the first. Ask for the full list of sub-processors in writing.
Our answer. The database is hosted with OVHcloud; we name the location in our supplier list. AI requests are processed by Anthropic and OpenAI in the United States. Both are on the list we send before you sign.
- 06
Is our data used to train anyone’s AI models?
Why it matters. Ask about the supplier and about the AI companies behind them, and ask where it says so in the contract.
Our answer. No. We never use school data to train models, and the business terms of the AI providers we use exclude training on it.
- 07
Does the system still work with the AI switched off?
Why it matters. If the answer is no, AI is not a feature — it is a dependency, and your continuity plan now includes somebody else’s model.
Our answer. Yes. Every AI feature has a non-AI version, so a school that never touches it still has a complete MIS.
- 08
How is AI charged, and what happens when we hit the limit?
Why it matters. Metered AI is reasonable. Being unable to take a register because the meter ran out is not.
Our answer. A monthly allowance of credits, extra credits at a published rate, and a monthly ceiling you can set. If you run out, you lose the AI’s wording, never the feature.
- 09
Can pupils use it?
Why it matters. Anything pupil-facing brings in a much larger part of the DfE’s expectations — filtering, wellbeing, manipulation — so it should be a deliberate choice, not a surprise.
Our answer. No. The AI is for staff only. There is no chatbot for pupils and no AI in the parent portal.
- 10
What is logged, and what certifications do you hold?
Why it matters. You need to be able to show a governor who did what. And ask for certifications by name — the honest answer is sometimes "not yet", which is easier to live with than a vague one.
Our answer. Anything done through the AI is logged like any other action, and access to safeguarding, SEND and finance records is recorded with the user, the record and the time. We do not hold Cyber Essentials or ISO 27001 yet.
Take this to your shortlist
If a supplier cannot answer one of these in a sentence, that is useful information. We will answer all ten in writing for your governors, and show you each one working in a demo.