The PrimarAI School
A school that uses AI to give kids back their childhood
Every day has two sessions of Augment, two of Reason and two of Create, and they take turns at the first session, where the real learning happens.
A complete model for an Australian primary school, published openly in 2026 and now being read beyond Australia.
The research agrees with teachers. When the economist Nolan Pope studied nearly two million students in Los Angeles, he found they learned more in morning classes than later in the day. A Danish study of children across the country's public schools found that test scores fall with each hour of the school day, and that a 20 to 30 minute break lifts them again. That is why the ARC Day shares the morning fairly and protects its breaks.
The idea
The first session is where the real learning happens
Every teacher knows it. Children arrive rested, the room is settled and new ideas stick, and by the last session the same lesson is much harder going. So in the ARC Day no single part of learning owns the morning. Every day has two sessions of Augment, two of Reason and two of Create, kept in pairs so there is time to focus, and the order rotates so each part takes its turn first thing.
Augment
Learning with AI. English, maths, and history and geography with an AI tutor at each child's own edge, and a teacher in the room.
Reason
Learning with a teacher. English and maths with the screens off, and every science and technology lesson, taught as a class and often outdoors.
Create
The human factor. Creative arts, PDHPE and sport, team building, buddies, making and enterprise.
The timetable
A week of ARC Days
Six sessions a day on ordinary NSW bell times, with two sessions each of Augment, Reason and Create. All six key learning areas are taught every week, close to NESA's K to 6 time allocation advice. English and maths take 52 per cent of the week, with maths at 22 per cent, and science and technology, HSIE, creative arts and PDHPE each take between 7 and 9 per cent. PE, team games and sport add up to 145 minutes of planned physical activity, with daily movement breaks on top.
Why it can start anywhere
An ordinary school day, shared differently
The ARC Day keeps the shape of a normal NSW school day: a 9:00 start, crunch and sip at 9:45, recess at 10:45, lunch at 12:40 and home time at 3:00. Nothing about the building, the staffing or the length of the day has to change. What changes is how the six sessions are shared, which means a school could trial it with one class.
Beyond Australia
Built in Sydney, read overseas
The ARC Day draws on two of the most closely watched experiments in AI and schooling, Alpha School in Texas and Estonia's national AI Leap, and turns them into something an ordinary NSW school could run. It is now being read well beyond Australia. A team planning a new primary school in Mauritius has been in touch to explore it as part of their research into school models around the world. If you are working on something similar, anywhere, I would like to hear from you.
Three ways in
01 The Model
The ARC Day in full: what each part is for, how the week rotates, how it meets the NSW curriculum, six layers of assessment and fifteen graduation requirements.
02 A School Day
An ordinary Wednesday on the ARC Day, from the 9:00 roll to 3:00 home time, and what the rest of the week looks like.
03 The Blueprint
The full plan, September 2026 edition. Free to read, adapt and argue with.
Latest writing
Founder
Dane Smale
Dane Smale is a NSW primary teacher and parent. He has run AI literacy sessions in NSW primary classrooms through PrimarAI since 2025, and wrote the PrimarAI School plan.
Track the progress
Occasional emails when something real happens.