Five Minutes on Friday: Issue # 8 โ€“ 19th June 2026

Hello everyone! Welcome back to your weekly Five Minutes on Friday digest. We have curated the latest tech updates, curriculum ideas, and major digital developments to keep you up to speed with the world of educational technology and innovation.

Grab a coffee, take five minutes, and dive in!

๐Ÿ“ฑItem 1. Landmark Move: Social Media Ban for Under-16s

In a historic announcement, the UK Government has confirmed landmark legislation to ban social media access for children under the age of 16. The policy aims to “give kids their childhood back” by legally compelling tech companies to enforce strict age verification measures, completely removing this burden from parents’ shoulders.

“Social media platforms will face heavy financial penalties if they fail to systematically block underage users from accessing their services.”

This move comes in response to growing evidence linking prolonged social media exposure in early adolescence to increased rates of anxiety, depression, and body image issues. Tech giants will be expected to deploy robust digital ID and verification tools to comply with the new statutory framework.

  • Read the official announcement: Gov.uk Government News
  • Curriculum Support: Twinkl has created a dedicated hub featuring a developing range of articles, videos, and curriculum-aligned tools to help schools navigate these updates.

๐Ÿ’กItem 2. Online Safety Hub Highlight: Navigating “Sharenting”

With ongoing conversations surrounding teen privacy and safety, the South Tyneside Online Safety Hub has published a critical guide on a concept affecting even our youngest pupils: “Sharenting”โ€”the habit of parents sharing photos, videos, and milestones of their children online.

While typically done with the best intentions, safety experts warn that early digital footprints heavily influence a child’s emerging online identity long before they are old enough to consent. Over-sharing can accidentally expose personal detailsโ€”such as school uniforms, locations, and birthdatesโ€”which can be harvested by data brokers or malicious actors.

๐ŸItem 3. Annual Live Summer Quiz: By the Numbers!

What a day of virtual trivia, high energy, and incredible teamwork! On Tuesday, 16th June 2026, classrooms across our region transformed into live game shows as we hosted our annual Live Summer Quizzes via Google Meet.

This year marked our biggest tournament in history, packed with flawless scores, nail-biting tiebreakers, and a massive surge in participation. Here is how an unforgettable day of quizzing unfolded by the numbers:

AchievementStatistic
Total Children Participating Live1,073
Teams Battling it Out42
Schools Represented19
Teams with a Perfect 30/30 Score7

A massive congratulations to all the students and staff who made the day so vibrant and competitive!

Upcoming CPD Courses

Ready to sharpen your skills for the upcoming terms? We have some fantastic online courses coming up.

Course NameDate & TimeDescription
Google Drawings Duo Course (Y5)Thursday 25th June
4:00 PM – 5:30 PM		Learn to teach Vector Graphics effectively using Google Drawings.
DUO Course: Tinkercad SandcastlesWednesday 1st July
4:00 PM – 5:30 PM		Bring 3D design into the classroom with a fun, summer-themed Tinkercad session.

Pricing & Booking Information

  • Service Agreement Schools: These CPD courses are FREE to all schools within our current service agreement.
  • Other Schools: External schools are more than welcome to join us for ยฃ40 + VAT per course.
  • How to Book: Get in touch directly with Julia to secure your spot!

Thank you for reading this week’s edition! Stay tuned for more edtech news, practical classroom ideas, and leadership tips in next week’s update.

Have a topic you’d like covered? Feel free to reach out to the team with your suggestions or feedback.

Have a great weekend!

Phillippa Chippendale

ICT in Schools Team

The Prompt (Issue 3): Statutory Safeguarding Updates, KCSIE Compliance, and AI Primary Lesson Builders

by Steve Robert – ICT in Schools Team

Welcome to Issue 3 of The Prompt, your educational briefing on AI technology integration across local settings. As generative AI establishes a massive footprint in administrative tasks, our priority shifts toward aligning classroom tools with emergent statutory compliance.

๐Ÿ“ข Setting Action: Please share this weekly tech brief with colleagues in your educational setting!

๐Ÿ“… AI Champions Working Group

There is still time to join our tech lead workgroup and guide safe technology deployments in your cluster.

To lock in a workshop seat, please contact Julia Small at [email protected].

๐Ÿ›ก๏ธ Item 1: ๐Ÿšจ KCSIE and AI โ€“ The “4 Cs” Safeguarding Survival Guide

AI is no longer just an admin time-saverโ€”it is an explicit statutory safeguarding priority under current Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) frameworks. Settings must actively monitor tool access and incorporate AI safety into student digital citizenship blocks.

Here is how the statutory “4 Cs” risk matrix applies directly to artificial intelligence in your school:

1. Content (What pupils see)

Generative engines suffer from “hallucinations”โ€”convincingly framed, completely fabricated facts. Under KCSIE, these fall under critical online misinformation and verification hazards.

  • Setting Action: Remind all instructional staff that public tools like Gemini require a minimum age of 13+ and must never be accessed via student-facing logins.

2. Contact (Who/What pupils interact with)

National guidance explicitly highlights the emotional risk of children forming parasocial relationships with open-ended AI companion apps or receiving unvetted guidance from automated virtual “friends”.

  • Setting Action: While blocked on managed network filters, these tools remain highly accessible at home. Settings must proactively provide home safety toolkits for parents and carers.

3. Conduct (How pupils behave)

KCSIE explicitly categorizes unconsented AI face-swapping, deepfakes, and synthetic media alteration under self-generated intimate image harms.

  • The Rule: If a student uses an AI app to alter a peerโ€™s photo for harassment or humiliation, the incident is treated with the exact same disciplinary severity as physical child-on-child abuse.

4. Commerce (Financial and Data risks)

Free-to-use generative platforms frequently leverage aggressive “freemium” monetization designs to trap children into costly premium micro-transactions. Furthermore, bad actors use hyper-realistic voice clones and phishing text generators to target school administrative offices.

๐Ÿ“‹ Your Immediate 3-Step AI Health Check:

  1. The Data Shield: Double-check that staff never input identifiable pupil information (such as real names, tracking tables, or EHCP details) into public engines like Gemini or NotebookLM.
  2. AUP Update: Ensure your schoolโ€™s Acceptable Use Policy explicitly outlines bans on creating unconsented deepfakes or altered media.
  3. The Approved Log: Maintain a central register of approved staff AI utilities, ensuring a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) is finalized for each platform.

๐ŸŽต Item 2: Prompt of the Week โ€“ The Dual-Objective Lesson Builder

Leverage the high processing speeds of Gemini 3 Flash to effortlessly map out targeted, cross-curricular primary structures. This structure features a “role-reversal” configuration technique to align the output context perfectly with the UK national curriculum.

Copy and paste this template prompt into Gemini, modifying the brackets with your specific objective parameters:

“Act as an expert UK Primary School teacher. I need a lesson plan for Year [Insert Year Group, e.g., 4] that links our History topic on [Insert Topic, e.g., Anglo-Saxons] with a [Insert Other Subject, e.g., Computing] objective. The lesson needs to include: A 5-minute engaging hook. Three levels of differentiated activities (Working towards, expecting, and greater depth). A quick formative assessment idea at the end. Please frame the formatting using clear headings and bullet points so it is easy to read.”

๐Ÿ—ฃ๏ธ We Value Your Insights!

Please share your local feedback! Submit your deployment successes, anonymous tech questions, or classroom anecdotes to our community AI Newsletter Feedback Form.

For technical queries or topic requests, reach out directly to Steve Robert at [email protected].

The Prompt (Issue 2): Safeguarding Student Images, AI Jingles, and Emoji Storytelling Corner

By Steve Robert – ICT in Schools Team

Welcome to Issue 2 of The Prompt, providing tactical, time-saving edtech guidance across our South Tyneside community. This weekly briefing covers everything from critical national safety policy changes to simple lesson plans designed to save you hours of structural prep time.

๐Ÿ“ข Setting Action: Please share this weekly tech brief with colleagues in your educational setting!

๐Ÿ“… AI Champions Working Group

Ensure your school has active tech leadership by registering an AI Champion for our strategic digital working group.

To book a place or ask questions, please contact Julia Small at [email protected].

๐Ÿ›ก๏ธ Item 1: Protecting Your Setting’s Images from AI Manipulation

The “Deepfake” Risk: Why School Photos Need an AI Upgrade.

The UK Online Harms Early Warning Working Group has published urgent best-practice guidance addressing image exploitation risks associated with AI image manipulation. This technical document details the responsible publication, sharing, and protection of photographic media and video files featuring children across school websites and official institutional social media channels.

What the national guidance covers:

  • Actionable security protocols to defend young peopleโ€™s online identities and imagery.
  • An evaluation of the emergent risks when publishing student photos publicly online.
  • A clear action roadmap for Senior Leadership Teams to audit.
  • Direct reporting instructions on what to do if student profiles are altered, misused, or abused by external users.

Resource Links:

๐ŸŽต Item 2: Prompt of the Week โ€“ Create Catchy Classroom Jingles

Transform your lesson plans into an energetic pop track or custom song in under 30 seconds! Using the Music feature inside the Gemini app, teachers can easily generate 30-second audio cues with full structural control over genre style and vocal delivery.

๐Ÿ“‹ The Template Prompt:

“You are an expert music producer. Create an upbeat, 30-second [Musical Style] track about [Topic Here]. Make the vocals energetic and easy for [Year Group] to sing along to, with a moderate tempo and catchy lyrics.”

๐Ÿ’ก The Prompt in Action (Geometry Focus):

Try copying and pasting this exact text directly into Gemini to build a vibrant math lesson starter:

“You are an expert music producer. Create an upbeat, 30-second pop track about how to find the area of a triangle based on the UK Maths curriculum for UKS2. Make the vocals energetic and easy for Year 6 to sing along to, with a moderate tempo and catchy lyrics.”

Want to review an example track before you generate your own? Click here to listen to our custom “Triangle Trick” Demo Track.

๐Ÿ“– Item 3: Emoji Literacy Stories via the Gemini Storybook

You can use standard device emojis to serve as the narrative engine for creative writing and literacy blocks. By using the specialized Storybook Gem inside Gemini, teachers can turn arbitrary strings of emojis into structured children’s short stories.

For instance, evaluate the exact prompt string used to generate our short story model, “The Crab Who Danced on Ice”:

“Make a 200-word children’s short story for 10-year-olds based on these 5 emojis: ๐Ÿฆ€๐Ÿ‘ธโœจ๐Ÿฉฐโ˜ƒ๏ธ”

Once generated by the Gem, you can listen to the output text directly inside the browser window, or download it as a print-ready PDF book for your classroom library corner. You can easily scale this workload trick by varying vocabulary lists, maximum word counts, or structural parameters to fit your current target term topic.

๐Ÿ’ก Windows Keyboard Shortcut: If you are building prompts on a Windows desktop, press the Windows Key + . (Full Stop) to pull up your visual emoji picker layout immediately!

๐Ÿ—ฃ๏ธ We Value Your Insights!

Help us improve future editions by sharing your local feedback! Please submit any tool comments, structural suggestions, or active student task examples to our secure AI Newsletter Feedback Form. Anonymous entries are fully accepted, and file uploads are encouraged.

For direct curriculum support questions, connect with Steve Robert at [email protected].

The Prompt (Issue 1): School AI Strategy, Cartoons for MFL Vocabulary, and the Risks of Unregulated Chatbots

by Steve Robert – ICT in Schools Team

Welcome to Issue 1 of The Prompt, your weekly home for the tools and digital principles defining the future of education. As artificial intelligence continues to reshape the educational landscape, our mission is to ensure that local settings stay safely and strategically ahead of the curve. Each week, we deliver essential updates explicitly curated to reduce teacher workload, save time, and enhance learning across our community.

๐Ÿ“ข Setting Action: Please share this weekly tech brief with colleagues in your educational setting!

๐Ÿ“… AI Champions Working Group

Haven’t nominated an AI Champion for your school or setting yet?

There is still time to join our working group and lead the change in your department.

To book a place or ask questions, please contact Julia Small at [email protected].

๐Ÿ›ก๏ธ Item 1: Managing AI Safety and Strategy in Schools

Is AI usage in your school safe, strategic, and effective? AI tools are already making their way into modern classrooms. However, leadership teams must ensure staff are following school-approved platforms to avoid the unintended consequences of misuse.

  • Follow Your Policy: Always verify that the generative tools you use align with your setting’s strict internal AI policy.
  • Don’t Have a Policy? Ensure your school nominates an AI Champion immediately, and reach out to the core ICT in Schools Team for direct support and custom resources.

Special thanks to Alan Ellis for compiling and providing the community presentation slides.

๐ŸŽต Item 2: Prompt of the Week โ€“ Creating MFL Visuals in Gemini

Bring foreign language learning to life visually! You can use Gemini to generate highly specific, dual-language cartoons to build custom vocabulary lists for your pupils.

๐Ÿ“‹ The Template Prompt:

“I am working on learning [Language]. Please draw me a cartoon 4k image of a [Classroom Setting/Location] that is suitable for language learning. For each object in the scene, please write the correct name of the object in clear, legible text in two languages, in [Language] and in English. Double-check that all words are correct. Include the definite article and place the words in a text box. Add a title too.”

๐Ÿ’ก The Prompt in Action:

Try copying and pasting this explicit variation directly into Gemini to generate an immediate French lesson starter:

“I am working on learning French. Please draw me a cartoon 4k image of a kitchen that is suitable for language learning. For each object in the kitchen, please write the correct name of the object in clear, legible text in two languages, in French and in English. Double-check that all words are correct. Include the definite article and place the words in a text box. Add a title too.”

Teacher Workload Hack: You can modify this prompt to generate accompanying vocabulary worksheets or translate the setting into completely different target languages.

โš ๏ธ Item 3: Dola โ€“ Friend or Foe?

Schools and parents need to be actively aware of the risks surrounding Dola AI and unregulated external chatbots.

Dola is an artificial intelligence chatbot app that is currently heavily marketed directly toward young people on social media platforms like TikTok. While marketed superficially as a helpful homework assistant, it presents serious safeguarding issues for children under its strict statutory usage age of 13.

Why Dola is a major classroom concern:

  • Weak Content Filters: The platform allows the generation of images and videos with highly fragile safety filters, risking immediate exposure to inappropriate themes.
  • Safeguarding Gaps: Dola entirely lacks functional parental controls and relies on unverified third-party bots, rendering student interactions unmonitored.
  • Academic Dishonesty: The “Homework” features actively encourage bypassing the learning process altogether rather than supporting structured revision.

Immediate Action Points for Settings:

  1. Inform Families: Advise parents to audit home devices for the app and discuss the vulnerabilities of unregulated AI.
  2. Staff Awareness: Ensure your educators understand the mechanics of companion bots to lead informed student circle times.
  3. Promote Safe Alternatives: Redirect your classes to school-approved digital learning resources that champion critical thinking.

๐Ÿ—ฃ๏ธ We Value Your Insights!

Your field experience makes our community stronger. Please drop your success stories, questions, or classroom examples into our official anonymous AI Newsletter Feedback Form.

For queries or suggestions regarding upcoming technical digests, contact Steve Robert at [email protected].