The PrimarAI School
A primary school for the world our own kids are actually growing into
08:45
15:15
2
hours of mastery
Deep focus on literacy and numeracy with an adaptive AI tutor and me by their side.
4
hours of being human
Creating, moving, building, and learning how to lead and follow other people.
A Balanced School Day
09:00—11:00
Mastery: Core Essentials
I see it every day in my NSW classroom: kids need to work at their own pace. Based on the successful US Alpha Schools model, our mornings use AI for the drill and practice it excels at. This frees me to do what teachers are for: watching expressions and helping the child who has gone quiet.
11:00 Recess. Outside, rain or sun.
11:30—15:30
The long afternoon: building, moving, performing, arguing
As a parent, I want my child exhausted from doing things that don't get cheaper as tech improves. We spend these four hours making real things, solving social friction, and running projects together. The efficient morning buys us this human time back.
Latest Notes
Join the journey
BUILD
Technology buys us time.
When AI handles the repetitive core learning, our kids get four hours a day for the studio, the garden, and the woodshop. I want them to learn how to live alongside these powerful new tools.
MOVE
GROW
DARE
A Wednesday at PrimarAI
An ordinary day I have designed for the world our children are stepping into.
09:00
11:00
12:30
15:00
14:45
15:15
An ordinary day I have designed for the world our children are stepping into.
Mastery time. Every child works through their custom path in maths and reading with a tutor and a coach.
Fresh air, then small-group work on writing and presenting for a real-world audience.
Studio time: we might be building a drone, cooking for a local cafe, or fixing a broken bike.
Community circle to reflect on the wins, the fails and the goals for tomorrow morning.
Things will break. We fix them together, and that becomes the most important lesson of the day.
What a child leaves my school able to do
By Year 6, your child should be ready for an AI-saturated world and a deeply human life. My outcomes focus on the durable skills that stay valuable when everything else is automated.
Think deeply.
Fix real things.
Speak with intent.
Lead with empathy.
Use tech as a lever for good.
Know when to put it away.
Self-direct when no one is giving them the instructions.
The Blueprint
Two hours for core skills, four hours for the soul. This is my plan for a NSW primary school that takes the future seriously, heavily inspired by the pioneering model at Alpha Schools in the US.
About Dane
I am Dane Smale. I’m a NSW primary school teacher and a parent with a kid in the current system. After fifteen years in the corporate world watching this tech arrive, I wanted to build the school I wish existed for my own child. PrimarAI is my live project, a working model I'm building out in the open where you can see it and challenge it.