Online PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP
AI in Schools: Who’s doing the thinking?
What AI changes for student learning and professional expertise
- A facilitated whole-staff workshop with Simon Breakspear, delivered live via Zoom.
- Wednesday 27 OR Thursday 28 January 2027 (Choose your preferred date) | 9:45 am – 12:15 pm AEDT
- Join Simon live, or run it yourself at a time that works for you.
- Fee: $1,490 plus GST (one registration covers your whole staff at one school site)
- Enrolments close on 20th January 2027 (or when sold out)
Format
2 × 60 min live-streamed workshops
date
27 or 28 January 2027
TIME
9:45 AM – 12:15 PM
WHO
All staff or individuals
Start the year thinking together
How To Think About AI in Education Before It’s Too Late
- The first days of a new school year offer something rare: a pause. Your whole staff, one room, space to think. This workshop uses it for a conversation every school now needs to have. The first wave of AI hype is giving way to harder decisions about if, when and how to use it in learning and work. Making those decisions well means turning to what we know about learning, expertise and human development – and asking some important questions, for our students and for ourselves.
- For students: AI can polish the work they hand in. But handing in better products with a tool is not the same as better learning – and the thinking AI removes may be the very thinking that builds knowledge, judgement and a mind of their own. What must students keep doing for themselves?Â
For staff: AI can strip the grunt work out of everyday tasks, from drafting routine emails to formatting documents and summarising notes. But could relying on AI to think for us quietly stunt the very skills and fluency our work depends on? What can we safely offload, where should we partner with it, and what should we keep doing ourselves?
- Underneath them all sits one question: when AI does more of the work, who’s doing the thinking?Â
- Join Simon live online on 27 or 28 January, or use the recording and facilitation guide to run the workshop with your staff at a time that suits your school.Â
Three things your people will walk away with
1. The research your staff deserve to see. A clear summary of the current evidence on AI, thinking and learning, with time to consider what it means for your school.
2. Shared frameworks for thinking about AI. Learn and apply frameworks from cognitive science and human development to make better decisions about AI use.
3. Space to decide together. Discussion prompts and structured conversations where each person can explore what this means for their students and for their own work.
GETTING SET UP
Who should be in the room
Both sessions are designed for your whole staff, whatever your school’s size or sector – teachers, education support staff and school leaders. Office and administrative teams are welcome too.
AI is reaching every classroom and every role, and these sessions give every adult in your school a shared picture of what it means for thinking and learning – so your school responds with one considered voice rather than a hundred private guesses.
Gather in the hall, staffroom or library: one screen, everyone together.
Agenda
Times shown are for the live event. Running it from the recording? The same structure works whenever you schedule it.
Session 1 | 9.45 AM – 10.45 AMÂ
Student Learning
Hard Thinking: protecting the cognitive work that builds lasting knowledge and capability
- Learn from past education technology missteps and avoid repeating the most predictable of them
- Understand how cognitive offloading and cognitive surrender can remove the very thinking that builds knowledge, fluency and judgement
- Make the case for deliberate non-use by identifying the tasks and stages of learning students should always complete without AI
- Double down on the enduring teaching practices that help students learn how to think and, in time, learn what they think
Break | 10.45am – 11.15am
30-minute coffee and conversation break – we’ll pose one question for your team to carry into it.
Session 2 | 11.15am – 12.15pm
Professional Work
Working with AI: what we offload, where we partner, and what we keep
- Understand the expertise dividend: cognitive work pays twice, once in the output and again in the skill and fluency it builds and sustains
- Distinguish among three kinds of work: where AI should do the lifting without guilt, where it should extend our thinking and where human effort is essential
- Build a shared way to decide if, when and how AI belongs in a task, then design one small experiment your team can run and review together
Session 1 | 9.45 AM – 10.45 AM Â
Student Learning
Hard Thinking: protecting the cognitive work that builds lasting knowledge and capability
Break | 10.45am – 11.15am
Session 2 | 11.15am – 12.15pm
Professional Work
Working with AI: what we offload, where we partner, and what we keepÂ
How the workshop will run
This workshop gives your staff time to think and talk together, not simply listen. Across the sessions, Simon will introduce evidence and practical ideas, followed by time for colleagues to reflect, discuss what these mean for their school, and plan how they might apply them in their own practice.
It will be helpful to have at least one staff member on a keyboard that can share some of your questions and insights back into the live community thinking.
Why trust Simon with this conversation?
Simon brings an unusual combination to this topic: a doctorate in Education from the University of Cambridge, a first-class honours degree in Psychology, experience as a high school teacher, and week-in, week-out work with schools and school systems.
He offers a calm, evidence-informed read of what AI means for learning, thinking and expertise formation. No platform to push: just the latest evidence, helpful frameworks and the prompts for the conversations your staff needs to have.
TAKEAWAYS
What your school receives
- Two hours of live workshop content for your whole staff, with a 30-minute coffee and conversation break
- The full recording, available by the end of the day you choose to attend and accessible until 9 April 2027
- A workbook to enable reflection and planning throughout the session, sent at least 48 hours in advance (A PDF you can print and share)
- The full session slides
- A facilitation guide for schools running the workshop from the recording, with prompts and timings for each discussion
- A pre-recorded 15-minute summary of the key ideas, ready to share with parents and caregivers interested in how AI is shaping learning, thinking and human development
- A set of discussion prompts your school can use to continue the conversation in team and faculty meetingsÂ
All materials are licensed for use at the registered school site.
REGISTER HERE
Register below or simply email us to register at team@simonbreakspear.com
F.A.Q
Can we run the workshop at a time that suits us?
Yes. Join live on 27 or 28 January, or run it from the recording at any time that works for your school. The recording is available by the end of the day you choose to attend, the facilitation guide gives you prompts and timings for each discussion, and access runs until 9 April 2027. You can run it anytime during Term 1.
Can we participate as a whole staff team?
Yes, and this is the recommended approach. AI is reaching every classroom and every role, and the conversations that emerge when a full staff team works through this together are where the real work takes root.
Should we all come together in one place?
Yes. One registration covers one school site, on one screen, with everyone in the room together. The workshop is designed for discussion and shared reflection, so gathering in your hall, staffroom or library means your team can build on the conversations in real time. If you’re a multi-campus school, please get in touch to arrange additional connections.
What do we need to organise on the day?
A room where everyone can see and hear one screen, a reliable internet connection, and a copy of the workbook for each participant. We send the workbook and materials at least 48 hours ahead, so you can check you have everything you need before the day.
Do staff need AI experience or accounts?
No. Nothing in the workshop requires anyone to use an AI tool on the day. The session is about thinking and learning, and it works whether your staff are daily AI users or have never opened a chatbot – and with whatever tools your school or system provides, from EduChat to Copilot to none at all.
Can individuals or small teams take part?
The workshop is designed for whole staff participation. If you’re an individual or small team hoping to join, email us at team@simonbreakspear.com.
We are a small school – do you offer adjusted rates?
Yes. If your school has under 100 students, get in touch, and we’ll provide a discounted rate.
How will the workshop be delivered?
Live on Zoom. After you register, we’ll send you the link to join along with a calendar invite. If you’re running it from the recording instead, we’ll send access details as soon as the recording is ready.
What time zone is the live event held in?
9:45am – 12:15pm AEDT (daylight saving time for NSW, Victoria and the ACT).
 If the live time doesn’t work for your state, run the workshop from the recording at a time that does.
NSW / VIC / ACT: 9:45 am – 12:15 pm
QLD: 8:45 am – 11:15 am
SA: 9:15 am – 11:45 am
NT: 8:15 am – 10:45 am
WA: 6:45 am – 9:15 am
Why more caution for students than for staff?
Because the same use of AI can do different things to different people. What matters is the purpose of the task and the expertise the person brings to it. When the purpose is to build knowledge, doing the cognitive work is part of the learning. The same act of handing a task to AI can be a genuinely different event for someone still building their knowledge and someone applying expertise they already have – the workshop helps your staff make that call without turning it into a blanket rule.
Get in touch
For any questions, contact our team at team@simonbreakspear.com
About Simon Breakspear
Facilitator
Simon is a researcher, advisor and speaker on educational leadership, policy and change. Simon develops frameworks and tools that make evidence-based ideas actionable and easy to understand. Over the last decade his capability building work has given him the opportunity to work with over 100,000 educators across more than 10 countries.
Simon is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at UNSW. He serves as an advisor to the NSW Department of Education and sits on an expert steering committee for the Australia Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL). Simon received his BPsych (Hons) from UNSW, his MSc in Comparative and International Education from the University of Oxford and his PhD in Education from the University of Cambridge. Simon began his work in education as a high school teacher.
Why trust Simon with this conversation?
Simon brings an unusual combination to this topic: a doctorate in Education from the University of Cambridge, a first-class honours degree in Psychology, experience as a high school teacher, and week-in, week-out work with schools and school systems.
He offers a calm, evidence-informed read of what AI means for learning, thinking and expertise formation. No platform to push: just the latest evidence, helpful frameworks and the prompts for the conversations your staff needs to have.