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PrimarAI

AI in NSW Primary Schools. 
 

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Image by Markus Spiske

What will you find here?
 
 
 
 

 

  • Weekly writing. Essays on what primary school could look like when AI is taken seriously.
  • Classroom observations. What is actually happening when primary kids meet AI, written from inside the work.
  • The Paper. A practical, costed, NESA-aligned model for the Australian primary school day. 
 
Pedagogy, timetable, syllabus map, staffing model, NESA pathway, costs, the lot. Free to read. Free to argue with. 
 
The full paper is published here. It will be updated regularly. 
 
This version 1.1 - 25th may 2026
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​​I'm Dane Smale, a NSW primary school teacher and the founder of PrimarAI
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One of the first Australian ventures to build a primary-specific AI education program.
 
Over the past three years I've developed and implemented the PrimarAI curriculum: seven NSW-syllabus-aligned sessions drawing on the best of global models, Alpha School, the AI Assessment Scale, MIT's Day of AI, adapted for Australian classrooms.
 
PrimarAI has built a public profile as one of the few Australian voices working on AI specifically for the primary years.

Blog

Weekly writing on what Australian primary education could look like when AI is taken seriously. Classroom observations, syllabus critique, and the in-progress thinking behind the manifesto and Blueprint.

The manifesto did not arrive out of nowhere. It is the product of three years of work in NSW classrooms, in conversation with teachers, parents and principals. Three threads of that work are still active, and continue alongside the manifesto and Blueprint.

The work that led here

Future Ready: The AI power-up for students

A seven-session, NSW-syllabus-aligned program delivered to upper primary classrooms. Covers the past, present and future of AI; hands-on AI use; how AI actually works; generative AI; prompting and ethics; AI and social media; and creating AI guidelines.

 

The program continues to run, and the curriculum has informed the morning structure proposed in the manifesto.

The past, present and future...

  • We give the students context and space to ponder and discuss

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  • We look at where we all were a year or so ago, whats AI is being used for now (live demonstrations and discussion), and a fun and eye opening demonstration of how it will affect every students' future.

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Session 2

Getting hands on. lets get our hands dirty and use it!

  • Students experience hands on the power and excitement of various forms of AI, using teacher led explorations.

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  • This brings the class to common level of understanding.

Session 3

Essentials session

'It's not a magic box, but I can create magic...'​

  • Students learn how AI actually works, and start seeing it as a tool they can shape.

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  • Students begin to familiarise with training their own models and understanding prompts tokens and bias, 

Session 1

Essentials session

Session 4

  • Generative AI

  • How Ai can create something new.

  • Generative AI: Showcasing AI systems that create stories, music, artwork, and conversations through tools like ChatGPT.

  • How AI creates: Exploring how AI learns patterns from existing content to generate new variations through large language models.

Session 5

  • How to approach AI effectively and ethically.

  • How to get it to do what you need it to do.

  • Developing strategies for effective "prompting" while navigating important ethical questions about responsible AI use.

  • Students become prompt engineers, crafting clear instructions while exploring considerations like privacy and bias.

Session 6

Essentials session

  • AI and Social Media

  • AI Safety, Data Privacy and Consent

  • Social media is flooded with misleading and disturbing text and images. this session reveals for students how algorithms analyze online behavior to curate personalised content on social platforms.

  • Students learn how AI collects personal information and they develop strategies to protect their data while online.

Session 7

  • Creating AI Guidelines

  • Deepfakes, elections and AI

  • Students synthesise knowledge to develop frameworks for responsible AI use, balancing technology with human judgment.

  • Identifying AI-generated content and developing critical media literacy to verify information in a digital world.

Real Intelligence Book cover

REAL INTELLIGENCE:
THE EMPOWERED CLASSROOM IN THE AGE OF AI

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Due for release 1st December, 2026.

The AI tsunami is coming—are your students ready?

"For the first time in world history, technology came too fast."
Ian Dunt & Dorian Lynskey, 2025

The Empowered Classroom fills the current silence in Primary AI education, attempting to give strength and empowerment to students instead of approaching their future as voiceless bystanders. It approaches education's biggest blind spot: Primary education. the very cohort of students who it will affect the most.

This is not a typical tech-in-education guide. Instead, independent and unafraid, it proposes a revolutionary framework where AI becomes not just a classroom tool but a collaborative partner in learning.

This approach values the uniquely human capabilities in education, while showing how primary schools can work alongside AI systems.

Primary teachers will discover immediate, practical strategies for AI-enhanced assessment, personalised learning pathways, and ethical AI integration.
 
The book that started PrimarAI. Written for primary teachers facing a wave of AI in classrooms with almost no guidance from the system. Real Intelligence makes the case that AI should be a collaborative partner in primary learning rather than a tool feared or banned. Many of its ideas have been carried forward, sharpened, and extended in the new manifesto.

Resources

Your essential guide to understanding, implementing and navigating AI in primary classrooms.

Practical resources tailored for parents, students and teachers.

Teachers

Parents

Students

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Teacher, principal, parent, board chair, investor, Castlereagh signatory, or just someone with a strong opinion. Get in touch.
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