Scottish School Appoints First Dedicated AI Literacy Teacher to Teach Pupils Critical Thinking

A secondary school in East Renfrewshire has become what is believed to be the first in the UK to appoint a teacher whose sole responsibility is 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 created the role of principal teacher of AI literacy, a position that focuses entirely on helping both pupils and staff understand the risks and benefits of AI tools that are already reshaping how teenagers study, revise and complete their coursework.

The job has been taken by Jamie Laycock, who previously served as a principal teacher of biology at the school. His appointment reflects a deliberate decision by school leadership that ignoring AI is no longer a viable strategy for modern education.

The central philosophy behind the new post is straightforward: schools cannot simply hope that AI will disappear or that pupils will somehow learn to navigate it without guidance. Instead, Laycock argues that young people must be equipped to question, challenge and responsibly use the technology.

Rather than encouraging pupils to embrace AI uncritically, his mission focuses on building scepticism and critical evaluation skills. In one of his first lessons, pupils were shown a mixture of genuine and AI-generated images and asked to identify which were fake.

The exercise proved far more difficult than many students anticipated. Laycock says distinguishing between real and fabricated content is becoming harder by the day, pointing to the rapid advancement of so-called deepfakes that can now fool even careful observers.

Beyond identifying manipulated images, the course covers a range of AI-related concepts that educators believe are essential for young people to understand. One key topic is "hallucinations" — instances where AI systems confidently present information they have fabricated.

Laycock describes hallucination as a poor choice of word for the phenomenon, but explains that it essentially means the technology makes things up. He warns that without what he calls foundational knowledge, young people may struggle to determine whether information generated by AI is accurate or entirely invented.

His advice to pupils is to remain sceptical of any AI output and to independently verify information before accepting it as fact. This approach, he argues, helps students develop the research and critical thinking skills they will need throughout their lives.

Another danger the course addresses is anthropomorphisation — the tendency for people to treat chatbots as trusted friends or knowledgeable experts simply because they communicate in a human-like manner. Laycock emphasises that despite appearances, these systems are merely machines.

For young people in particular, he says, maintaining that perspective can be genuinely difficult. The human-like qualities of AI chatbots can create a false sense of reliability that may lead students to accept answers without proper scrutiny.

Laycock also cautions that AI systems frequently flatter users and agree with their ideas rather than challenging them. He describes this behaviour as sycophantic, noting that the technology consistently tells users they are amazing and that their ideas are great.

This tendency creates particular risks for young people who may become over-reliant on AI and stop thinking critically for themselves. The lessons aim to prevent students from becoming trapped and hooked into the technology in ways that undermine their own intellectual development.

The curriculum also examines how AI systems can reflect biases towards certain norms because of the information on which they are trained. Pupils will learn to recognise these biases and understand how they can shape the responses AI systems provide.

Teaching will be tailored to different ages and stages of development, with younger pupils focusing first on foundational knowledge and critical thinking skills before progressing to practical applications of AI. All pupils in S1 and S2 will receive AI literacy lessons, while older year groups will cover the subject through citizenship and personal education classes.

An elective course will also be available for senior pupils who wish to explore the topic more deeply. Laycock will additionally help train colleagues on using AI and develop teaching materials that can be shared with other schools across Scotland.

The role was established following growing interest from parents and pupils, many of whom have been asking how AI will affect future career prospects. A number of S6 pupils have volunteered to work with Laycock on developing the most effective ways to teach AI across the school.

The appointment follows a report published earlier this year by Edinburgh University which concluded that Scottish schools have lacked the time and capacity to prepare adequately for the rapid rise of AI. Many schools in the UK have teachers who take on AI responsibilities alongside their existing duties, but Mearns Castle is thought to be the first to designate a specific role dedicated entirely to AI literacy.

Laycock is careful to emphasise that the school is neither advocating for nor condemning AI. The goal, he says, is to ensure learners know how to use it appropriately so they can get the best from it while remaining aware they are interacting with a machine.

Ultimately, he wants pupils to develop the ability to think and critically evaluate information independently, ensuring that AI does not diminish their own cognitive capabilities. For students like Tomo, one of the pupils at the school, the lessons raise questions about whether AI could transform his chosen profession before he even graduates.