Shape the Future Leaders Coalition
Supported by Professor Rose Luckin and Educate Ventures Research
The Shape the Future Leaders Coalition serves those involved in school leadership, including the many stakeholders working within and around schools, to support safe, purposeful, and intelligent approaches to the use of AI by young people and the school workforce.
If you're a senior leader in your school or trust, apply below to join today. All schools are eligible to join.
Now available: a new report covering nine practitioner-led action research projects on AI in schools
Artificial intelligence is already present in England’s schools. Teachers use it to mark work, plan lessons, prepare materials, support pupils with special educational needs, and streamline administration. Students use it for research, writing, summarising, revision, language drills, and mathematics practice. But using AI tools does not necessarily mean learning with or from them.
Adoption of AI in England has been rapid, but it has also been uneven and largely unsupported by evidence. The Shape the Future Leaders Coalition research programme, supported by Good Future Foundation, and Cambridge OCR, was established to change that.
This new report presents the findings of the Coalition’s first research cohort: nine practitioner-led action research projects conducted over the 2025/26 school year by school and trust leaders from across England, in settings ranging from a preparatory school to a 48-school multi-academy trust, with pupils aged 4 to 18. The projects were designed separately, around different tools and questions, but read together they converge on six key findings and a common message: the tool is the smallest part of the intervention.
Shape the Future Leaders Coalition
The Coalition consists of education system leaders from schools, Multi Academy Trusts, and school groups, who collectively represent leadership in over 400 schools, encompassing approximately 32,000 staff, and ¼ million young people across England.
The Coalition serves those involved in school leadership, including the many stakeholders working within and around schools, to support safe, purposeful, and intelligent approaches to the use of AI by young people and the school workforce.
To join the Coalition, you must be (or nominate) a member of your trust's senior leadership team (or equivalent). This includes business leaders in a school or trust. All schools are eligible to join. See the case studies of schools successfully working with AI by clicking the button above.
We look forward to working together.
Credit to Fabian Broeker, Centre for Data Futures, Kings College London