Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools have the potential to reduce leader, teacher and support staff workload. Exceed Academies Trust’s ‘Reducing Workload Utilising Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy’ sets out our ambition to achieve this. We have also issued an Acceptable Use Agreement for our staff to sign and return to their headteacher before beginning to use AI (see below).

Generative AI model, like Microsoft Copilot and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, need users to add ‘prompts’ to tell them what to do and the format of the output the user desires. Prompts are just instructions, but some prompts generate better outcomes than others. However, prompts do not need to be complex.

This Prompt Craft guide begins to support the school and trust leaders to use and ‘craft’ prompts to produce outcomes more quickly and efficiently. You can copy the prompts we have created as a starting point for common time intensive tasks (at least compared to how quickly generative AI can produce the outcome!). These prompts can then be modified to suit your needs and, we hope, inspire you to create further prompts for other tasks.

With experience, your prompt craft will develop and you’ll begin to write your own prompts – simple or complex, short or long, single or multi-stepped – to fulfil your needs. We hope the prompts provided here begin to exemplify how generative AI can start to be used in educational settings to reduce workload. Please try out new prompts and share what works with us so we can disseminate these to other leaders, teachers, and support staff users of generative AI.

There are a wide range of generative AI tools available. We’ve made suggestions you may wish to consider using based on our experience of creating this guidance. Generative AI is developing quickly and the functionality of these tools and others have and will evolve, and our suggested AI tool may be replaced by other that are better suited to the task in hand.

Please remember not to share any personal data (including your own and that of pupils/students) in any format with generative AI tools that do not include Commercial Data Protection. You are bound by your school/trust Data Protection and Internet Security and related policies. Please consult with your Headteacher, Trust or responsible body.

Exceed Academies Trust staff should review, sign and return the Acceptable Use Agreement to your Headteacher prior to using Artificial Intelligence.