The book
The School AI Governance Handbook
for the slightly overwhelmed
The site gives you the pieces. The book gives you the order they go in and the reasons for each one: thirteen chapters that walk the whole job from a standing start, in the same plain English as the guides, with the legal detail kept to the notes where it belongs.
Paperback £19.99 · Kindle £9.99. [Buy the paperback] [Buy for Kindle] A PDF licensed for your whole school, to share with staff and governors, follows after launch.
Get an email when it's out.
One click to unsubscribe. Your address is never shared.
What is inside
Part One
- Chapter 1: Why every school now needs an AI position
- Chapter 2: What these tools actually are
- Chapter 3: The regulatory map
Part Two
- Chapter 4: Data protection foundations for AI
- Chapter 5: DPIAs for AI tools, done properly
- Chapter 6: Evaluating and procuring AI tools
- Chapter 7: Writing the AI policy
Part Three
- Chapter 8: Safeguarding and pupils
- Chapter 9: Assessment integrity
- Chapter 10: Staff use and workload
- Chapter 11: Teaching pupils about AI
Part Four
- Chapter 12: Implementation: the first hundred days
- Chapter 13: The horizon
Appendices
Every appendix is free on this site, editable and kept up to date.
Appendix A: the model AI policy
Appendix B: the DPIA template
Appendix C: the vendor question bank
Appendix D: the one-pagers
Appendix E: the glossary
Appendix F: sources and onward reading
Who it is for
Heads and senior leaders who have been asked to "sort out AI". Governors and trustees who want to know what to ask. DPOs, DSLs, exams officers and business managers who hold one part of it and want to see how the parts fit. Anyone in a school, trust or college in England who would rather read one book than forty documents.
How it works with this site
The book explains; the site does. Every template in the appendices is here as a Word file, kept current when the guidance moves, and the policy builder assembles a school's policy from the same clauses the book prints. When the rules change between editions, the What's changed page says what moved and which page of the book it touches.
Details
Published [publication date] by School AI Governance. First edition. About 140 pages, 6 by 9 inches. ISBN [ISBN paperback]. The law and guidance are stated as at [date stated as at].
Written for England. A page at the front says what still applies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and what does not.
About the author
Wes Akram. Exams officer, data manager and data protection officer at a secondary school. More than a decade in classrooms before that, from primary to GCSE resits. Independent: no vendor money, no affiliate links, no sponsored tools.