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Example of Using a Local LLM in Schools: Empowering New Teaching Assistants with Instant Pupil Data Insights
Onboarding a new Teaching Assistant (TA) often involves a time-consuming handover of crucial pupil data, which is often scattered across various paper and digital files. This prototype demonstrates how a local Large Language Model (LLM) can instantly summarise a pupil’s background, including behaviour and exclusion reports, by processing secure, internal documents. Crucially, every piece of…
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How a Local LLM Can Transform SEMH Support for Pupils in UK Schools
Educators struggle to provide effective, immediate support for pupils with SEMH needs because critical data is often scattered, buried, or forgotten. We propose using a private, secure Local Large Language Model (LMM) that is trained exclusively on the pupil’s individual data, reports, and specialist advice. This innovative system acts as an ‘organisational memory,’ preventing valuable…
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Local LLM vs. Cloud LLM: Key Differences & Guide for Schools
This blog discussing the difference between a local LLM and a cloud LLM. What is a Local LLM? A local LLM is different to a cloud LLM. The main, and most obvious difference is that a local LLM is created and stored locally on a single computer. This ensures that the local LLM is private…
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Simple explanation of LLMs for non technical people aged 40+ years old
I’ ve created this short video that explains what an LLM is, how it is built and how it works. This is a non technical explanation for anyone aged 40 years plus that has no technical background.
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What on Earth is an LLM? Cutting Through the Jargon with a Super Smart Talking Parrot
I’ve created this short video that explains what an LLM is, how it is built and how it works. This is a non technical explanation for anyone aged 5 years plus using a talking parrot to describe the key principles. There is an additional simple LLM explanation for anyone non 40 plus years old here.…
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From Paperwork to Partnership: The Power of NotebookLM for SENCos and Teachers to support pupils with additional needs
After watching this video yesterday, I’ve been having a bit of a tinker with Google’s NotebookLM recently, and a genuinely exciting possibility for its use in schools has sprung to mind. As many of you know, I’ve previously explored how we can responsibly harness AI to support our pupils. If you missed them, I’ve written about using ‘Gems’…
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How to use Google Gems in Education: A Step-by-Step Guide
Following on from my previous post about building a local Large Language Model (LLM) to help assess and document pupil Social, Emotional, and Mental Health (SEMH) needs—which you can read all about here—I’ve had a rather fascinating afternoon yesterday playing around with Google Gemini. I’ve been creating a few custom AI agents, or ‘Gems,’ and I…
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Why Ray Dalio’s AI Clone validates my approach to SEMH support (and highlights a public sector problem)
For the last few moths I have been exploring building a local LLM specifically trained on data from pupils with additional SEMH needs and also SEMH frameworks and approaches. Yesterday I read an article from Ray Dalio discussing building an AI Clone of himself that is trained on his 40 years experience in finance. I…
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Reflections on a Half Term Exploring the Use of AI in Education
The main thing I have learnt this half term is that AI is a tool and should be treated as such. To harness its massive power, you need to be clear on the desired outcome and be able to effectively articulate that in a prompt. Your ability to effectively write prompts for AI will be the…
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A Thought Experiment: Building Organisational Memory in Schools with Local LLMs
This is a an idea I’ve been thinking about in using local LLMs in schools as part of an approach to using AI in education. Schools and trusts invest huge amounts of time, energy, and money in training and developing staff. But often, much of that professional learning fades over time — buried in slide…
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AI, Therapy & Schools: What OpenAI’s Therapist Network Can Teach Us About Local LLMs for SEMH Support
Recently Forbes published an article by Lance Eliot announcing that OpenAI plans to augment ChatGPT with an online network of human therapists. The concept is that, when ChatGPT detects signs of distress, it would hand off to a vetted therapist within its platform. This merges AI’s pattern‑recognition abilities with human professional judgment, creating a hybrid…
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How Schools Can Use AI Beyond Just Making Picture, Video and Lesson Plan using “GenAI”
Artificial Intelligence (AI) in schools isn’t just about creating content. It’s about predicting, supporting, optimising, and empowering — giving teachers more time, students more opportunity, and schools more efficiency.
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Bridging Policy and Practice: A Local LLM for SEMH in Schools
In the Department for Education’s Areas of Research Interest report, AI is presented not as a silver bullet but as a tool with powerful promise — one that must be deployed with care, equity, and rigorous evaluation. My project to build a local LLM at my SEMH provision is very much in step with that…
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Building a Local LLM for Schools: A Privacy-Focused Guide to assess and document pupils’ SEMH needs and progress
At the SEMH provision I run, I been working on creating practical tools to help staff capture daily observations of children’s social, emotional, and mental health (SEMH) progress in a structured way. The aim is to ensure that day-to-day insights can feed into AI systems to generate weekly reports, 24-week (end of placement) progress reviews…
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Mr Vullo - Alternative Education 