P1-S6 Form teachers and parents: a parent communication pack on AI use at school

• StageP1-S6
• SubjectForm teachers and parents
• Learning strandreflection on the application of AI
• Official documentsBlueprint for Digital Education Development in Primary and Secondary Schools · AI Literacy Learning Framework for Primary and Secondary Schools · Guide to Using AI in Teaching in Primary and Secondary Schools
• Time needed to prepareabout 90 minutes the first time (letter, questions, consent arrangements), then reviewed once a year

An editable parent communication pack: a letter to parents, nine frequently asked questions each with an official basis, consent and non-participation arrangements, home guidance written separately for junior and senior primary, and a one-page photocopiable consent form. The consent arrangements are this resource's suggestion; the official documents contain no direct clause on parental consent.

• AudienceParents Teachers
• ThemeResponsible AI use

• EquipmentEditable Word document; photocopy or send electronically; the form teacher's class records
• Version1.0
• Last updated2026-10-26

What parents most want to know is not which tool the school uses. It is two things: how my child will be treated, and whether I can say no.

What this solves

Once a school decides to use AI in class, the questions reach the form teacher within the same week. Is my child using AI for homework? Will it keep records about my child? Can I refuse? And if I refuse, what happens to my child then?

Three common responses all leave the same damage behind:

• A letter with no questions answered. However well it is written, parents ring up one by one, and each colleague who answers says something slightly different.
• Answering with “the Education Bureau requires it”. Calling a school-based practice an official requirement makes it impossible to change later, and it does not survive a parent asking to see the clause.
• Consent with no arrangement for saying no. The letter explains consent but not what happens afterwards, so parents ask each other in group chats and the school explains it again, with a new version each time.

This resource puts four things together: a letter to parents, nine frequently asked questions each with an official basis, consent and non-participation arrangements, and home guidance written separately for junior and senior primary, plus a one-page A4 consent form that can be photocopied.

One thing must be said first. The official documents this resource draws on — the Blueprint for Digital Education Development in Primary and Secondary Schools, the AI Literacy Learning Framework for Primary and Secondary Schools, and the Guide to Using AI in Teaching in Primary and Secondary Schools — contain no direct clause on parental consent. The consent arrangements below are this resource’s suggestion for schools to adopt; they are not an Education Bureau requirement. A school may adopt, change or decline them, and should say in its letter that the arrangement is the school’s own.

Purpose

With this pack, a form teacher and the school can:

1. Use a two-page letter to state how the school does use AI in class, and how it does not.
2. Answer the questions parents actually ask from nine prepared replies, each pointing at a document the parent can look up rather than at what the school happens to think.
3. Write consent and non-participation as an arrangement that can be carried out: what a non-participating pupil does, who arranges it, and how it is recorded.
4. Give home guidance separately for junior and senior primary, because the same instruction has the opposite effect in P1 and in P6.
5. Collect parents’ decisions on one A4 page and file them by class.

How to use it

Step 1: Write the letter (about 30 minutes)

The attachment has the letter laid out in four paragraphs; the school fills in its name, the date and the contact.

1. Why we use it — not because it is the trend, but because the school’s curriculum and development plan are meant to build pupils’ AI literacy. One sentence is enough; no clause-quoting.
2. How we use it — in which subjects, in what kind of activity, and who is accountable. Write only what has been decided. Anything undecided (the number of lessons, the tool’s name) should stay out of the letter, because whatever is written has to be delivered.
3. How we do not use it — AI will not replace the teacher’s assessment decision; identifiable pupil data will not be entered into an unapproved tool; pupils will not be asked to present a tool’s output as their own writing.
4. How you can ask — the form teacher, the subject head and the school’s contact details, and a note that the consent form comes with the letter.

Write to parents, not to the Bureau. Avoid “literacy”, “empowerment” and “ecosystem”; use “in class”, “homework”, “records”.

Three things not to write:

• No named commercial tool, and no demonstration link. Tools change and the letter does not get reprinted; naming one means explaining the change to parents later.
• No promise about lesson time that has not been decided. “Two lessons a week” in a letter becomes a parent’s expectation.
• No promised outcome. “Raises attainment” and “guarantees progress” cannot be verified, and they invite comparison between children.

Step 2: Choose the nine questions (about 20 minutes)

The attachment has nine. A school may add or drop, but every one needs a basis; a question with no basis is better deleted than answered with “the school considers”.

Table 1: nine questions parents ask, and the basis for each answer

In this table the three documents are shortened to the Blueprint, the Framework and the Guide; their full titles are in “Official documents” below.

Keep the words “school arrangement”. They tell a colleague which sentences they may reword, and which ones require telling parents again if changed.

Step 3: Deal with non-participation (about 15 minutes)

The consent form has a “do not agree” option. Without an arrangement behind it, that option just hands the problem to the form teacher.

• Non-participation is not absence. The pupil stays in the room and does the same learning objective without AI. The subject teacher prepares it; parents are not asked to supply tools or make it up at home.
• The alternative has to be genuinely equivalent. If the AI version is “use the tool to organise material from three sources”, the non-AI version is “do the same with three photocopied sources” — not “copy out your notes again”.
• Record it on the class arrangement sheet, not on the report card or the conduct column. Taking part or not is an arrangement, not a behaviour.
• Do not ask the pupil to explain why in class. No pupil should have to justify a parent’s decision to classmates.

Step 4: Write home guidance separately for junior and senior primary (about 20 minutes)

The same instruction has opposite effects at the two ends of primary school: juniors need a parent beside them, seniors need a parent beside them who does not take over.

Junior primary (P1-P3)

• A parent sits alongside, on the same screen. One device each does not work at this age.
• The parent types; the child says what to ask. Typing is the adult’s job; saying the question clearly is the child’s practice.
• Guess first, then ask. Before each question, the child says what they think the answer is; afterwards the two are compared.
• No AI-written sentences. The child writes first, then compares their own sentence with the tool’s and says which sounds more like them.
• When an answer looks wrong, look it up together. This is the main lesson at this age: the tool is sometimes wrong, and checking is normal.

Senior primary (P4-P6)

• The child operates it; the parent watches without answering for them. The parent’s job is to watch the process, not the product.
• Ask the child to show the process. What they asked, which words they changed, why they trust the answer. If they cannot show the process, the work has not been done.
• Three things not to do: do not enter your own or a classmate’s personal data; do not present the tool’s words as your own; do not use it for homework that requires first-hand observation — measuring, interviewing, experimenting.
• Check one answer together. Find a second source and see where the two differ; that session is worth more than ten more questions.

Step 5: Send out and collect the consent form (about 10 minutes)

The form is one A4 page with four columns: consent to take part in learning, consent to display work, date signed, school contact. Photocopy it, or send it electronically with the letter; the form teacher files the returned forms by class, and reviews them once before the year ends.

Three points:

• “Do not agree” is a complete answer and needs no reason. Requiring a reason turns a right into an application.
• The two consents are separate. A parent may agree to the learning and decline the display; merging them into one “I agree to take part” leaves only all or nothing.
• The school contact column names a person and a number. A parent needs to know who to ring, not just “the school”.

Review checklist

The test: after reading it, a parent knows how their child will be treated, and what happens if they say no. Miss either and the letter is only a notice.

Files

Parent communication pack on AI use (editable Word document)

Five parts: the letter to parents (two pages, with the school name, date and contact left blank), the nine questions with their official basis, consent and non-participation arrangements, home guidance for junior and senior primary, and a one-page A4 photocopiable consent form with four columns — consent to take part in learning, consent to display work, date signed, school contact. School name, date, named colleague and telephone number are left blank.

Official documents

Every resource in this library is written to the AI Literacy Learning Framework for Primary and Secondary Schools and falls within the policy scope of the Blueprint for Digital Education Development in Primary and Secondary Schools.

This resource maps to:

• Blueprint for Digital Education Development in Primary and Secondary Schools (three-fold leaflet, p.2): requires digital and AI education to be planned in the school development plan, with the arrangements explained to parents and other stakeholders; the “why we use it” paragraph follows it.
• Supplement I: AI Literacy Learning Framework for Primary and Secondary Schools (pp.1-6 to 1-10): sets out progression across the learning stages in the three learning strands; the home guidance is separated by learning stage rather than by age alone.
• Supplement II: Guide to Using AI in Teaching in Primary and Secondary Schools (pp.2-2 to 2-5): sets out what is required when AI is used in teaching, including teachers’ professional gatekeeping; the three questions on homework and assessment are answered from it.
• Supplement II: Guide to Using AI in Teaching in Primary and Secondary Schools (pp.2-4 to 2-9): sets out the requirements on learning data and data handling; the personal-data question is answered from it.

Learning strand: reflection on the application of AI

Official documents page: https://www.edb.gov.hk/en/edu-system/primary-secondary/applicable-to-primary-secondary/it-in-edu/debp.html

This page is an independent Beets resource for schools, not an official EDB document. The official documents it draws on contain no direct clause on parental consent; the consent arrangements, the alternative tasks and the home guidance are this resource’s suggestion for schools to adopt, not an Education Bureau requirement. A school should say in its letter that the arrangement is its own.

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