Scottish School Appoints First Dedicated AI Literacy Teacher to Help Pupils Question the Technology

A secondary school in East Renfrewshire has become what is believed to be the first in the UK to create a dedicated teaching post focused entirely on artificial intelligence literacy, as educators grapple with how to prepare young people for a world increasingly shaped by powerful new technology.

Mearns Castle High School has appointed Jamie Laycock, formerly a principal teacher of biology, to the newly created role of principal teacher of AI literacy. The position is thought to be unique in the UK, where most schools that have an "AI lead" assign the responsibility to a teacher who carries it out alongside their existing duties.

The guiding philosophy behind the appointment is straightforward: pretending AI does not exist is no longer a viable strategy for schools. Staff at Mearns Castle concluded that ignoring the technology would leave pupils ill-equipped to navigate its risks and opportunities.

Rather than encouraging pupils simply to embrace AI tools, Laycock's mission centres on equipping them to interrogate, challenge and use the technology responsibly. He argues that schools have a duty to help young people understand both the potential benefits and the significant dangers.

In one of his first lessons, pupils were presented with a mixture of genuine and AI-generated images and asked to identify which were fake. The exercise proved far harder than many of the teenagers anticipated, underlining how rapidly so-called deepfakes are improving and how difficult they are becoming to detect.

Beyond spotting manipulated images, the course addresses a range of AI-related pitfalls. One key concept is "hallucination" — the tendency of AI systems to state information confidently that is simply fabricated. Laycock describes the term itself as imperfect, but says it captures how these tools invent content while sounding entirely assured.

He warns that pupils who lack what he calls "foundational knowledge" may struggle to distinguish between a reliable fact and an AI invention. The solution, he argues, is to teach young people to treat any AI output with scepticism and to verify claims independently before accepting them as true.

Another hazard the lessons tackle is "anthropomorphisation" — the human tendency to treat chatbots as trusted friends or knowledgeable experts simply because they communicate in a natural, human-like way. Laycock stresses that despite appearances, these systems are machines, and maintaining that perspective can be particularly challenging for young people.

He also cautions that AI tools are frequently "sycophantic", tending to flatter users and agree with their ideas rather than pushing back. This dynamic, he says, creates real risks for pupils who might accept answers without applying critical thought, potentially becoming over-reliant on the technology.

The curriculum further explores how AI systems can reflect biases, shaped by the data on which they are trained. Lessons are being tailored to suit different ages and stages, with younger pupils concentrating on foundational knowledge and critical thinking before progressing to practical applications of AI.

Laycock is careful to stress that the school is neither promoting nor condemning AI. The aim, he says, is for learners to understand how to use it appropriately, to recognise that they are interacting with a machine, and to ensure the technology does not undermine their own capacity to think and evaluate critically.

At Mearns Castle, all pupils in S1 and S2 will receive AI literacy lessons, while older year groups will encounter the subject through citizenship and personal and social education classes. An elective course will also be offered to senior pupils, and Laycock will train colleagues and develop materials that other schools can adopt.

The creation of the role followed growing interest from parents and pupils, many of whom have questions about how AI will reshape future careers. A number of S6 students have volunteered to work alongside Laycock to help shape how the subject is taught across the school.

The appointment comes after a report published earlier this year by Edinburgh University concluded that Scottish schools have lacked the time and capacity to prepare adequately for the rapid rise of AI. That finding adds weight to the argument that dedicated expertise, rather than an add-on responsibility, may be necessary to close the gap.

The move reflects a broader debate about how education systems should respond to generative AI, which has spread quickly through classrooms via homework assistance, exam revision and coursework. Some teenagers have embraced such tools enthusiastically, while others avoid them altogether — a split that leaves schools searching for a coherent approach.

By placing critical thinking at the heart of AI education, Mearns Castle is betting that the most valuable skill it can give pupils is not fluency with any particular tool, but the judgement to question what those tools produce. Whether other schools follow its lead may depend on resources, staffing and the willingness to treat AI literacy as a subject in its own right.