The PrimarAI School: A manifesto and design proposal for an AI-native Australian primary school

Artificial intelligence is now part of the conditions in which Australian students learn. In NSW public schools a purpose-built chatbot is available from Year 5, and outside school students meet systems that write, explain, flatter and keep them company. This paper argues that primary schooling cannot respond to that change through technological integration alone. The deeper question AI raises is not which tool to add, but how a school should spend students’ time and what that time is for. Drawing on current research on AI and education and on the Castlereagh Statement on AI in Australian education, the paper sets out a view of what primary education is for and derives from it a founding principle, ten principles and a working school design. The proposed PrimarAI day is the ARC Day: six sessions on ordinary NSW bell times, two each of Augment (AI-supported mastery practice in mathematics and English under a teacher’s supervision), Reason (screen-free learning with a teacher, as a class) and Create (real-world learning organised through five Cs). Because the order rotates through the week, each part takes its turn at the first session of the day, when students learn most readily. The ARC Day is the latest of many versions of this school and the first that an existing school could trial with a single class. Digital literacy is taught as a subject from Kindergarten, and assessment is built into the fabric of everyday learning with the aid of purpose-built technology.