VIEWS
Speaking up: how immersive learning supports every child’s voice to be heard
Education Today hears from STEVE MCCOURT, Artistic Director and co-CEO, Punchdrunk Enrichment.
Oracy remains a key focus across UK primary schools and for good reason: too many children are beginning secondary school without confidence in these key skills. Since 2008, Punchdrunk Enrichment has been utilising the principles of immersive theatre as an educational tool to help pupils find their voice. We call this practice Immersive Learning. By taking curricular outcomes and wrapping them in a narrative, we create classroom based adventures that cast your pupils as the main characters of the story with
a mission to complete. To achieve the task at hand, children must discuss, debate and decide their next move.
It may be that two tiny people escape from a picture book and embark on mischievous adventures across a school, and children create adventure stories to return the characters safely to the pages. Or a mythical bird may be let loose, and sharing research into local history is the only way for it to be captured. Time and again we observe children who are so focused on their role in the story, they forget they are actually learning. Children drive the experience forward, and our carefully developed pedagogy utilises their innate childhood instinct to play. It helps to bring parity to the learning experience, empowering each child to know the worth of their voice and to find its power. As the adventure develops so does children’s confidence in sharing their opinion or putting pen to paper, knowing their impact on the story is directly helping a character.
A recent three year study of the impact of immersive learning in eight primary schools found that participation was ‘associated with improvements in pupil’s happiness, wellbeing, positive attitudes for learning and pupil’s ability to learn from mistakes’. Research showed the experience made school feel more joyful and encouraged better relationships between pupils and the wider school community.
This is brought to life when we talk to teachers about the impact they see. Recently, I was at a North West London school when a teacher presented me with a piece of paper with a name and two sentences of writing. The teacher explained that the child who wrote this was such a reluctant writer they had worked with a scribe throughout their school life. After experiencing our Immersive Learning practice at their school they had asked to be left alone to write.
There is consistency in this instinct, as highlighted by James Searjeant, Headteacher at Wyborne Primary School: “We found that the children are much more engaged in their learning, enthusiastic about writing stories, and immersed in their work. Children who usually never spoke in class contributed, and families reported that children were writing more stories at home.”
Feeling confident opens doors for us all. It is exciting that Immersive Learning is helping to boost the confidence of so many children, enabling their voices to be heard and, hopefully, opening new doors for them.
To get started with Immersive Learning, you can download a free taster toolkit from
punchdrunkenrichment.org.uk
Building GenAI literacy safely and ethically in school ALEX DAVE, Safeguarding Lead at LGfL-the National Grid for Learning, shares her insights.
There’s no disputing that generative AI (GenAI) is already embedded in our everyday life. So it’s important schools don’t shy away from the question: how do we teach pupils about it, and keep them safe?
It’s also crucial that young people not only understand what GenAI is, the risks it poses and how to use it safely, but also the wider applications and implications. They need the skills to critically evaluate AI, understand the ethical implications of its use, and make informed decisions about whether or how to engage with it. They need to understand its impact, not just from a safeguarding perspective,
but through a wider lens: how this technology can and might affect us as individuals and societies.
It’s best to start with pupil learning outcomes. We have a valuable opportunity to help young people explore issues such as ethics, fairness, decision-making, bias, safeguarding, and the longer-term impact of new technologies on our world.
As of September 2026, the updated RSHE guidance places clear expectations on schools in relation to Gen AI. Elements about AI are dotted throughout both the primary and secondary curriculum, especially in the online safety section.
In the primary curriculum, references include: evaluating online relationships and sources of information; how to recognise harmful content or harmful contact; exercising caution when sharing information; and
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where to seek support and advice if they come across inappropriate or upsetting content.
The secondary guidance is unsurprisingly more detailed and expansive, with references including: learning about rights and responsibilities; understanding risks; spotting fake and misleading material; being aware of disinformation and illegal content; and recognising the dangers around sharing harmful imagery, including child sexual abuse material. Now is a good time for RSE/RSHE leads, and wider teams, to start reviewing where GenAI currently features in the curriculum, and how confident they feel in delivering this learning. Consider areas where the curriculum may need strengthening; will staff require training to fill skill gaps; how might pupils and parents be involved in shaping the curriculum, and what are pupils already experiencing in their everyday digital lives? Simply asking pupils how they use AI can be very revealing. If chatbots and AI tools are already commonly used by your pupils, this can help guide what needs to be prioritised in lessons. Taking time for this kind of reflection can support schools in creating learning about AI that feels relevant, balanced and meaningful.
Your school’s annual online safety audit – as per Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) – also offers an excellent starting point. Working through it with curriculum leads, senior leaders, governors and trustees, can help highlight strengths and identify gaps for development. A growing range of high-quality resources already exists to support schools to review and strengthen curriculum and policies. Common Sense Media offers strong curriculum materials focused on AI and online safety, while the OECD has begun developing an AI literacy curriculum that provides a broader perspective. The free LGfL online safety policy template and AUPs have been updated in light of GenAI developments and KCSIE requirements; along with other free resources available from
genai.lgfl.net.
May 2026
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