RSHE: this is already law, not a plan
The revised RSHE guidance became mandatory across England on 1 September 2026. If your PSHE lead hasn't updated the relevant units yet, this isn't a planning exercise any more, it's a compliance gap.
The guidance specifically expands coverage of deepfakes and synthetic media. It's not enough to have updated a slide with the word "deepfake" on it - schools need to be able to show how a lesson handles disclosure, where a pupil goes if something's shared about them, and how staff are expected to respond. We covered what the guidance actually requires in detail in what the new RSHE guidance means for schools - and why deepfakes can't wait. Worth five minutes if your safeguarding lead hasn't already read it.
Do this: confirm your PSHE units name deepfakes and synthetic media specifically, not just "online safety" in general, and that your DSL can describe the disclosure route in one sentence.
The social media ban is moving faster than the classroom conversation
The government's under-16 social media ban is expected to reach Parliament before the end of the year, with the restrictions themselves coming into force in spring 2027. It covers platforms including Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, Facebook and X, alongside separate restrictions on livestreaming, contact from strangers, and AI companion chatbots. WhatsApp and Signal are excluded, and the government has said educational services will be narrowly exempted (gov.uk).
None of that is something a school has to enforce. But it changes the conversation you're having with pupils and parents right now, months before the law exists. Pupils currently in Year 5 and Year 6 will be the first cohort to grow up either side of it. That's already a live topic in assemblies and at the school gate, whether or not you've built a lesson around it yet.
Do this: get ahead of the parent questions before the ban is law, not after. A short, factual line in your next newsletter costs you nothing and heads off a lot of "have you heard" conversations.
The 2028 curriculum starts mattering in 2026
We've written before about the gap in the current computing curriculum in what does the national curriculum say about AI - and what are schools supposed to do about it? The government has now confirmed the reformed curriculum will be taught for the first time from September 2028, with the final version published by spring 2027 - giving schools four terms' notice (Schools Week).
Four terms sounds like a long runway. It isn't, if you're starting from nothing. Citizenship is becoming a mandatory primary subject, and part of that is teaching pupils to spot fake news and misinformation - which assumes a level of AI literacy most primary staff haven't been trained to teach yet themselves.
Do this: start building staff and pupil capability now, so 2027's curriculum document lands on something rather than nothing.
Ofsted's own toolkit changed on 1 September too
Less talked about: Ofsted's updated inspection toolkit, also in force from this term, requires schools to review their mobile phone policy and be able to show how it's communicated to pupils and parents (Schools Week). It isn't an AI-specific change. But it sits in exactly the same territory: what pupils do with a device, and whether the school has a clear, current position on it.
Do this: pair your phone policy review with your online safety curriculum question rather than treating them as two separate jobs for two separate meetings.
If you're a MAT, don't let this happen school by school
If you're leading across a trust, September is exactly when these things drift out of consistency - one school updates its RSHE units, another hasn't got round to it, and nobody's decided who owns the phone policy conversation trust-wide. We covered what consistent delivery actually looks like in AI literacy for multi-academy trusts: how to deliver it consistently across all your schools. The short version: pick one point of ownership now, before eight schools give eight different answers to the same DSL question in December.
The checklist at a glance
- Confirm PSHE units name deepfakes and synthetic media specifically (mandatory since 1 September 2026)
- Brief your DSL on the disclosure route for AI-generated or deepfake content
- Get ahead of parent questions on the under-16 social media ban before it becomes law
- Start building staff AI literacy capability ahead of the 2028 curriculum, not on its first day
- Review and communicate your mobile phone policy as part of the same conversation, not a separate one
- If you're a MAT, assign one owner for AI literacy across all schools now
None of this needs solving by half term. But it does need a plan by half term.
We deliver a Year 6 AI Foundations assembly that gives you a starting point without needing your own curriculum built from scratch. No specialist equipment, minimal preparation, and designed to work within your existing timetable.