AI that drafts. People who decide.
Pupil Protect uses AI for the writing, summarising and looking things up that take time away from children. A member of staff checks everything it produces, and your designated safeguarding lead (DSL) can see every time it was used.
A pupil asked for my personal phone number so they can message me if they’re worried. Is that OK?
- Explain kindly that you can’t share personal contact details.
- Tell them how to reach you or a DSL through school.
- Let the DSL know they asked. They may want to talk to someone.
What the AI does
Seven jobs, each in the place where the work happens. Everything it writes appears in a dashed frame like the ones below, says where it came from, and stays a draft until a person uses it.
Writing help
On the concern form, for all staffTurns rough or dictated notes into a clear, factual account. It points out opinions and missing details, and suggests a category. Words in quotation marks are locked, so the child’s words stay exactly as they were written down.
Next steps
On each concern, for the DSL teamLooks across the child’s record for patterns and suggests what to do next, with the reason. Adding a suggested action takes one click and can be undone. The DSL decides.
Pattern: the third food- or clothing-related concern in 30 days, attendance is 86.4%, and she has a child protection plan for neglect.
Meeting notes
In core groups and reviews, for the DSL teamOnly if everyone at the meeting agrees to be recorded. It transcribes who said what, hides the names of children who aren’t part of the meeting, and drafts minutes, decisions and actions. Nothing is saved until the chair approves the minutes, and then the audio is deleted.
Referral and change summaries
For the DSL teamDrafts a referral summary or an update for a social worker from the record, and says what it couldn’t find rather than guessing. For governors, it summarises what changed between two versions of a policy, and points to the tracked changes they actually approve.
On Fri 9 Oct Leo told a teaching assistant that an older male has been picking him up after school and giving him money to “drop things off”. He did not name the man. This is the first concern of this kind.
SEND plans and EHCP paperwork
In SEND, for the SENCODrafts a support plan or a review from what’s already on the child’s record: reports, past plans and notes from meetings. For an education, health and care needs assessment request, it fills in your local authority’s form from the record and lists the evidence it used. The SENCO checks every section before anything is saved or sent.
Section B, communication and interaction: Jas has a diagnosis of developmental language disorder. Despite small-group speech and language sessions three times a week since September 2025, his expressive language remains well below age-related expectations.
Ask
On every screen, for all staffStaff ask how to handle something and get a short answer from your own policies and statutory guidance, with the sources shown. Ask never looks at pupil records. If an answer is wrong, staff mark it “Not right” and it goes to the DSL.
- Telling parents can sometimes put a child at more risk.
- The DSL decides when and how parents are told.
Redaction suggestions
For subject access requests, for the DSL and DPOWhen a parent asks for a copy of their child’s record, it reads the entries being exported and suggests what to redact: other children, staff personal details and information that belongs to other agencies. You and your data protection officer (DPO) decide each one, and the DPO signs off before anything is exported.
The rules it follows
These aren’t settings. They’re how the product is built, for every school.
- It never decidesIt can suggest a category or a next step. A member of staff logs the concern, and the DSL decides what happens.
- It never changes a child’s wordsAnything in quotation marks is locked, in the account and in every draft made from it.
- It never sends or sharesNothing is submitted, sent or shared until a person checks it and chooses to.
- It says where everything came fromEvery draft and answer names its sources and says it’s a draft.
- Everything is loggedThe DSL can see each suggestion, who used it and what they changed.
- Each feature can be switched offBy the school, or by the trust for all its schools, at any time.
What it can and can’t see
Each feature reads only what it needs for the job in front of it. None of them can search across pupils.
| Feature | Who can use it | What it reads | What it never reads |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ask | All staff | Your school’s policies and statutory guidance | Pupil records of any kind |
| Writing help | All staff | The account being written on the form | The rest of the child’s record |
| Next steps and summaries | DSL team | The record the DSL has open: chronology, plan and attendance | Other children’s records |
| Meeting notes | DSL team | The recording of a meeting everyone agreed to | Anything once the audio is deleted |
| Redaction suggestions | DSL and DPO | The entries in that one export | Records outside the export |
The AI activity log
The DSL can see every suggestion the AI made, who it was for, and whether it was accepted, edited or dismissed, next to the sources it used.
Some things are set aside for a second look: an answer a member of staff marked “Not right”, or a question about a disclosure with no concern logged afterwards. If a policy caused a wrong answer, the DSL can correct the policy.
Questions asked in Ask are private to the member of staff, kept for 12 months, and visible to the DSL team in this log. Staff are reminded not to include pupils’ names.
- Removed an opinion and tidied wording. Child’s quotes left unchanged.Writing help, James P., for Amelia H.Accepted
- Drafted an update for her social workerNext steps, Sarah B., for Amelia H.Edited
- Asked how to respond to a pupil sharing images of herselfQuestion, Helen L.No concern logged
- Asked whether he can give a pupil a lift homeQuestion, Tom R.Flagged “Not right”
- Suggested removing “he’s obviously lying”Writing help, Karen L., for Reuben C.Dismissed
Switch any of it off
Each feature has its own setting in admin. Turn one off for the whole school, or limit it to the DSL team. Trusts can set the defaults for all their schools.
If a feature is off, the screens work exactly as before, without the suggestions.
- Safeguarding assistant (Ask)Answers questions about procedures from your policies and statutory guidance. All staff.On
- Write from my notesTurns rough notes into a factual account on the concern form. All staff.On
- Next steps and referral draftsSummarises a record, suggests actions and pre-fills referrals. DSL team.On
- SEND plans and EHCP paperworkDrafts support plans, reviews and needs assessment requests. SENCO.On
- Meeting notesRecords with everyone’s agreement, drafts minutes and actions. DSL team.Off
- Delete meeting audio once minutes are approvedThe transcript is kept.On
The model, the provider and your data
What you’ll need for your data protection impact assessment (DPIA). We’ll confirm each of these in writing before you sign.
- Model and provider
- GPT-6, through Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service
- Where it’s processed
- In the UK. The model is hosted in an Azure UK region.
- Training on your data
- Never. School data isn’t used to train AI models, ours or Microsoft’s.
- What the provider keeps
- Microsoft doesn’t store prompts or outputs. If its automated checks flag one as possible misuse, Microsoft may keep it for a limited time to review it, and that review can include a person at Microsoft.
- What Pupil Protect keeps
- Questions in Ask for 12 months. Meeting audio until the minutes are approved; the transcript is kept with the minutes. Every suggestion in the AI activity log for as long as the record it was made on, following your retention settings, so you can always see how a record was written.
- Contracts and DPIA
- [Data processing agreement, sub-processor list and DPIA wording, with links]
Questions schools ask
Something else? Talk to us.
Does the AI decide whether something is a safeguarding concern?
No. It can suggest a category or a next step, but a member of staff logs the concern and the DSL decides what happens. It can’t submit or send anything on its own.
Can staff use it to look up a pupil?
No. Ask only answers from your policies and statutory guidance. Writing help and next steps only work on the record a member of staff already has open.
What happens if it gets something wrong?
Staff review every suggestion before it’s used, and can mark answers as “Not right”. Those go to the DSL, who can correct the policy the answer came from.
Do we have to record meetings?
No. Recording needs everyone at the meeting to agree first. If anyone says no, the chair takes notes instead and nothing is drafted by AI.
Can we turn AI off?
Yes. Each feature can be switched off for the whole school in admin, or limited to the DSL team.
See the AI at work, then decide.
In a demo we’ll show each feature with example records, and how to switch each one off.