AI strategy for international schools
Niall Highland has spent twenty years teaching science, leading departments, and running schools across three continents. For the last three years, he has been showing international educators how to make AI the most powerful colleague they’ve ever had. Not eventually. Now.
Same objective. Five minutes on the clock. One teacher plans by hand. One teaches alongside AI. This is the difference the seed document calls out — made visceral.
Learning Objective: Starter: Main Activity: Differentiation: Assessment: Reflection: Homework:
Waiting for start
Standing by
What I do
The difference matters. A workshop ends. Fluency compounds.
6–18 months
Engagements that take a school from cautious AI policy to confident AI practice. Strategy, professional development, curriculum audit, leadership coaching, parent engagement — one integrated program, one point of accountability.
2–12 weeks
Focused work for a division, department, or specific problem. Curriculum audits. Policy drafting. Tool evaluation. Teacher coaching cohorts. Designed to produce something you can act on when I leave.
single-event
Board presentations, staff INSETs, parent evenings, conference keynotes. If you need to move a room of people from anxiety to agency in ninety minutes, this is what that looks like.
Demo · 02
Say what you’re teaching next. Get a complete, specific plan back in about the time it takes to make coffee. Save it, print it, teach it Monday.
Demo · 03
A 30-second version of what I do inside paid engagements. Paste what you’re currently teaching. See which outcomes are safe, which need redesign, and which could go further than you thought.
Paste a unit plan, syllabus excerpt, or list of learning outcomes. In thirty seconds you’ll see which outcomes are AI-proof, which are AI-vulnerable, which are AI-amplifiable — and the two or three changes that matter most.
AI-Proof
Safe. Double down.
Awaiting input
AI-Vulnerable
Redesign, not remove.
Awaiting input
AI-Amplified
Opportunity, not threat.
Awaiting input
Track record
2025 — present
Associate Principal
International School of KrakowPoland
2025
Science Teacher (transition)
International School BaselSwitzerland
2020–2023
Certificate in International School Leadership
Principals Training Center
2017–2021
Head of Science Department
International School ManilaPhilippines
2008–2017
Science Teacher — MS → HS IB Biology SL/HL
International School ManilaPhilippines
2002–2004
M.Ed., Secondary Education & Teaching
University of New Hampshire
earlier
Science teacher, grades 6–10
England
Departmental leadership
Led twelve science teachers and three lab technicians through the implementation of Next Generation Science Standards for grades 7–10. Built a culture where planning was collaborative, teaching was experimental, and professional development was weekly rather than annual.
Curriculum innovation
Introduced IB Biology SL and HL refinements that measurably improved student engagement and assessment outcomes. Organized the IB Group 4 interdisciplinary project across three successive cohorts, framing science as a connected enterprise rather than a set of isolated subjects.
AI integration
Since 2023, led faculty and parent workshops on the practical integration of AI into teaching and learning. Developed frameworks for AI-inclusive lesson design, assessment-integrity policy, and department-level tool adoption — now being adapted at schools across Europe and Asia.
Policies written before teachers have used AI produce brittle rules. Policies written after six months of faculty fluency produce durable practice.
Demo · 04
Five realistic AI dilemmas. Three response paths leaders default to. See which path the framework-led response takes — and why the other two tend to produce worse outcomes.
Five AI dilemmas, the way they actually hit a head’s desk. Three response paths — policing, permissive, and the framework-led response Niall writes in paid engagements. Pick one and watch it draft live.
Engage
Strategy, professional development, curriculum audit, leadership coaching, parent engagement — one integrated program, one point of accountability.
Discussed per engagement
See engagement detailFocused work for a division, department, or specific problem. Curriculum audits. Policy drafting. Tool evaluation. Teacher coaching cohorts.
Discussed per engagement
See engagement detailBoard presentations, staff INSETs, parent evenings, conference keynotes. Move a room from anxiety to agency in ninety minutes.
Discussed per engagement
See engagement detail