What Are the Best AI Tools for Primary Schools?

There's a big difference between AI tools designed for teachers and AI tools designed for pupils. Here's an honest guide to what's worth using, what to avoid, and what age-appropriateness really means.

First — an important distinction

When people search for "AI tools for primary school students", they're usually asking one of two different questions. The first is: what AI tools are primary school teachers and staff using? The second is: what AI tools can primary school children use directly?

These are very different questions with very different answers. Let's take them in turn.

AI tools for primary school staff — the ones making a real difference

These are the tools being used by teachers and admin teams across UK primary schools right now. They save time, reduce workload, and free up staff to focus on teaching.

Teachmate

Built specifically for UK schools, Teachmate is the tool we recommend most often at AskColin. It's GDPR compliant, CyberEssentials certified, meets DfE AI Safety Standards, and does not train its models on your school's data. Teachers use it for lesson planning, resource creation, report comment banks, newsletters and policy documents. It's designed for education, which means the outputs are much more relevant to a UK primary context than a general-purpose AI tool. Read our full review →

Oak National Academy — Aila

Oak's AI lesson planning tool is built on their existing library of curriculum-aligned content. It generates structured lesson plans for UK primary and secondary teachers that feel coherent and curriculum-appropriate rather than generic. It's free and designed specifically for teachers. Read our full review →

Microsoft Copilot (via school account)

Available to schools using Microsoft 365, Copilot is useful for drafting communications, summarising documents, and producing administrative content. It should only be used via a school-managed Microsoft account — not a personal one. Read our full review →

Google Gemini (via school Workspace account)

Similar to Copilot but within the Google ecosystem. For schools already using Google Workspace for Education, Gemini is a natural addition for drafting and planning tasks. Again — school account only. Read our full review →

Curipod

An interactive lesson creation tool that generates engaging, participatory lessons with polls, word clouds, drawing activities and quizzes. Teachers use it to create lessons; pupils then participate through their devices. It's one of the better tools for teacher-led pupil engagement rather than independent pupil AI use. Read our full review →

AI tools for primary school children — the honest picture

This is where the answer gets more careful. At primary level — particularly for younger children — most AI tools are not appropriate for independent use by pupils, for several reasons:

• General AI chatbots like ChatGPT have no age verification and no content filtering appropriate for young children
• Children at primary age are still developing the foundational skills — reading, writing, number sense — that AI can shortcut in ways that harm learning
• The data protection implications of children entering information into AI tools are significant

That said, there are some age-appropriate, teacher-supervised uses of AI that can genuinely support learning — particularly for children in Year 5 and 6. Interactive tools used in class, under teacher guidance, for specific purposes (exploring a concept, getting an explanation in a different way) can add value.

How to check what your school is using

Ask your school directly — most headteachers are happy to share this information. Look for an AI policy on the school website. If there isn't one, that's worth raising. A school using AI tools should have a policy that's accessible to parents. If you'd like to understand what good looks like, our guide on responsible school AI use covers exactly that.