The Mount School hosts York’s AI Pioneers, Sparking Critical Discussion to Lead Educational Innovation
The Mount School theatre hall hosted a packed and engaged audience last night to hear an esteemed panel discuss AI in Literacy, cementing The Mount’s role in establishing York as a hub for AI expertise.
The Mount’s Head of Computing, AI & Digital Strategy, Dr Beth Lane invited fellow AI pioneers, based or working in York, to present their expertise before a panel discussion and questions from the audience.
The Spark Lecture, titled ‘Making Sense of AI: Literacy & Learning for the Next Generation,’ forms part of The Mount’s new Ignite rewards programme, which encourages Sixth Formers to expand their education beyond standard A Levels. The highly successful evening drew close to 200 attendees, including pupils from all year groups, parents and professionals from across York. Mount senior school girls were instrumental to the event, offering intelligent questions while assisting with the panel discussion.
Professor Dan Franks, Data Science Professor at University of York and Founder of Causa, spoke about Language Learning Models (LLMs). He said AI is useful for research e.g. drafting a framework, summarising long documents but should not be fully trusted without verification.
Dr Beth Lane, is not only Head of Computing, AI & Digital Strategy at The Mount School, she is also a highly active AI pioneer. She founded AI In Schools to enhance AI, programming, and engineering education, and co-founded both the online platform CS RE:Boot and The Institute of AI Education (in partnership with York St John University). Dr Lane emphasised that AI Literacy is intrinsically linked to human literacy. She stressed that technology cannot replace human agency and value, highlighting that critical thinking, ethical judgement, and problem solving are and will remain intrinsically essential human skills.
Narinder Gill, also an AI Founder, educator, and DfE RISE Advisor, centred her talk on the vital need to integrate AI literacy into every subject within the curriculum, starting as early as primary education. Her goal is to leverage children’s natural curiosity so they can safely and efficiently use AI techniques, with a core emphasis on developing essential critical thinking skills that will serve them throughout adulthood.
Suneet Misra, software engineer, co-founder of halobase, and educator, tackled AI’s impact on plagiarism. He advised that AI should be restricted to research frameworks, not to form completed essays, to avoid unintentional plagiarism. Misra warned against inaccurate ‘AI workslop’ and underscored the need for users to employ careful prompting and critical curation of all generative output using their own skills.
Sean Connell, a creative, investor, and co-founder of halobase, focused on data sovereignty – the crucial question of where data inputted into AI goes and how it is used. He warned that unauthorised data usage by companies poses financial and ethical implications. Connell advised teachers to promote control over unrealistic restrictions and to equip pupils with safe AI tools.
Dr. Keither Parker, Head of Initial Teacher Education at York St John University (YSJ), chaired the panel discussion and Q&A. She offered thoughtful observations and celebrated York’s emergence as a significant centre for AI literacy expertise, paralleling London.
Head Anna Wilby said:
“We were delighted to host this informative evening to share topical learning with our school and local community. AI Literacy is a shared endeavour and relevant to us as a school with our aims to ensure our pupils step forward confidently in STEM subjects. This is especially relevant for our girls in senior school where every day we remind them they can excel in any career that interests them and equip them to do it.
It is our responsibility to ensure all our pupils develop the critical thinking skills so essential in the world today, and to integrate AI techniques into the curriculum, where appropriate, so children and young people can navigate AI safely and effectively to extend and enhance their knowledge and learning.”
A Year 9 Mount pupil said:
“The night was so interesting. I’m considering Computer GCSE myself with Dr Lane as I love her lessons and we got a new suite of fast computers in September. It was helpful to hear about the blurred lines between plagiarism and research, which will be helpful when we use AI in our studies at school. Our teachers already guide us to use AI safely as a tool to help us find out things quickly but then use our own ideas to complete homework and projects.”
This successful Spark Lecture underscored The Mount School’s commitment to equipping its pupils and the wider community with the essential AI literacy and critical thinking skills needed to navigate the future confidently and safely.
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