We know that for many school staff, AI can seem like a bit of a distraction. When you’re already spinning so many plates, learning how to weave AI into your daily work might feel like a job in itself.
That’s why at Arbor, we’ve built our AI tools into the core of our MIS – they’re an extension of the Arbor you know and love, rather than a separate system to get your head around. In our recent webinar, Steven (Arbor’s Head of Data and AI) sat down with three school leaders to discuss how they’re using Arbor AI to free up time and analyse their data more easily.
What is Arbor AI?
Seamlessly built into your MIS, Arbor AI turns your requests into actions and makes everyday tasks even easier. Key features include:
- Ask Arbor: Your built-in AI assistant. No more clicking through menus, exporting into Excel or waiting on colleagues. Just ask a question and get the data straight from Arbor – instantly.
- Suggest Comms: Drafts emails, SMS, or in-app messages for you in seconds. It can write in your preferred tone of voice and even translate into different languages
- Suggest Student Summary: Pulls qualitative teacher notes together with attendance and assessment data to create a holistic student overview for parents or pastoral meetings
- Auto Absence: Transcribes voicemails and logs absence codes so you can just check and approve, saving attendance officers at least an hour a day
- Ofsted Inspection Companion: Pulls together the key data inspectors need to see and helps you add your unique context and narrative, ready for your 8am pre-inspection meeting.
How are schools really using Arbor AI?
Our guest speakers shared real examples of how they’re using Arbor AI features in their own settings. Here are just a few:
1. Reclaiming Sunday evenings
Rebecca Clark, Deputy Head at Sarah Bonnell Girls’ School, uses Ask Arbor to manage her weekly reporting. “Every week I do an attendance report for the whole school,” Rebecca explains. “In the past, it’s taken me an hour and a half, but this is probably a 30-minute job now. It’s saving a good hour on a Sunday evening, which I’m grateful for!”
2. Moving from admin to action
Jordan Swain, Pastoral Leader at The Halifax Academy, uses Ask Arbor to track attendance patterns in the morning. “Instead of me having to corroborate between three or four different spreadsheets and resources, I just get Ask Arbor to tell me which 10 students have been late three days this week. That saves me about 20-30 minutes of looking through reports, and I can then go and speak to the parents, speak to the kids and do actual work instead of just getting the data,” Jordan says. Ben Green, Headteacher at Brotherton and Byron Primary Academy, agrees that the real value of AI isn’t just the time saved, but what you do with it. “We know the big focus with attendance is early intervention. [Ask Arbor] gives us a very quick response, so we can then pick up the phone or go out across the village and knock on doors,” Ben explains. “We can do something about it much more quickly than we ever could.”
3. Taking the stress out of inspection prep
Ben Green also highlighted the value of Arbor’s new Ofsted Inspection Companion. “I went straight onto it, downloaded our report, and was absolutely blown away at the speed it was made, but also how useful it was. Even though we’re not in the inspection window right now, it gave me this fantastic summary of what an inspector might look at, and how we might like to respond.”
Top tips for getting started
If you’re looking to introduce Arbor AI to your school, our panel suggested a “walk before you run” approach:
- Find your “First Followers”: Ben recommends identifying the staff who are naturally excited by the tech. Empower them to champion the tools and coach their colleagues.
- Master the Prompt: AI is only as good as the information you give it. Jordan advises being specific—instead of asking for “Year 9 attendance,” ask for “Year 9 attendance for this week, formatted for a governor’s meeting.”
- It’s okay not to know all the answers: AI is moving fast. Rebecca and Ben both noted that creating a culture where it’s okay to “sit together and have a go” is more effective than rigid, top-down training.
- Safety first: Unlike some external AI tools, all data in Arbor AI is safe. We don’t use your data to train our AI models, and the system is fully GDPR compliant.
What’s next?
To join the conversation about Arbor AI and keep up to date with the latest developments, join us on Arbor HQ! Or if you’re not yet using Arbor and want to know more about our AI features, book a call with our team.
