St Mary MacKillop’s Approach to AI Integration EP helps deliver scaffolded, safe AI learning across junior and senior levels
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St Mary MacKillop College is an independent Roman Catholic co-educational Prep to Year 12 school on the outskirts of Canberra. The secondary school is divided into a Year 7-9 junior campus of about 1000 students, and a Year 10-12 senior campus with a similar number of students. Trent Wilson serves as the school’s Head of Digital Learning. He leads the strategy for integrating emerging technologies, particularly Artificial Intelligence (AI), across curriculum and pedagogy. Through his work, Trent supports staff capability building, student digital literacy, and responsible use policies for generative AI tools.
A Clear Framework for Responsible AI
MacKillop Catholic College is among a growing cohort of schools taking a structured, curriculum-led approach to AI integration. Central to this effort is the adoption and adaptation of Leon Furze’s AI Assessment Scale, which the school uses to frame how and when students are permitted to use generative AI in their learning and assessment tasks. Trent has led the implementation of this model, which is now embedded across both junior and senior campuses. The scale, which ranges from Level 1 (No AI) to Level 4 (Full AI), enables clarity for both teachers and students.
“We took the structure from Leon Furze’s scale and adapted it to what we needed. It gives us common language and clear expectations.”
- Level 2 – AI Planning allows students to use AI to help understand assessment tasks, clarify concepts or generate research ideas.
- Level 3 – AI Collaboration enables more back-and-forth interaction, such as students inputting marking criteria into an AI tool to receive feedback on their drafts.
- Only at Level 4 – Full AI do students use AI to generate content directly, and even then, the focus is on evaluating the process and prompting skills rather than the end product alone.+
Senior students, particularly in Years 10–12, are often working at Levels 2 and 3, using AI for planning and refinement under teacher guidance. For example, students might begin an assessment at Level 2 – AI Planning by using AI to help deconstruct the task, brainstorm ideas, or map out structure. As they progress, they may move to Level 3 – AI Collaboration, inputting drafts into an AI assistant to receive feedback aligned with the marking rubric.
Education Perfect and AI in the Senior Secondary School
EP has become an integral part of this framework. Teachers are creating scaffolded EP tasks that align to specific levels of the AI scale. In English, students are assigned EP lessons that include writing prompts, success criteria, and embedded AI assistance to encourage thoughtful interaction with generative tools. For those operating at Level 3 – AI Collaboration, EP’s AI feedback helps them refine work independently, while still operating within a controlled environment.
“With EP, we can design tasks that match our AI expectations, so a Level 2 – Planning student might use it to analyse an example, while a Level 3 – Collaboration student uses it to improve their own draft. EP provides a secure and curriculum-aligned environment where teachers can confidently integrate AI without exposing students to the unpredictable outputs or ethical concerns of public AI tools.”
– Trent Wilson, Head of Digital Learning
Importantly, these levels are explicitly communicated to students in relation to each assessment task, ensuring consistency across subjects and year levels.
“We’re not just saying ‘AI is allowed’ or ‘AI is banned’,” says Trent. “We’re guiding them through what responsible use looks like for that specific piece of work.”
EP and AI Use in the Junior Secondary School
On the junior campus, St Mary MacKillop College is taking a structured, purpose-led approach to AI, using EP’s in-platform AI-Powered Feedback Tool as the foundation.
“We’ve been using EP as our tool and not letting students use other sites, because we like the fact that EP’s AI is internal. It’s not a chatbot students can prompt back and forth, it’s teacher-led and task specific. This gives teachers full control over content and the type of feedback students receive, without exposing younger learners to the unpredictability of public AI platforms or requiring them to master prompting,” says Trent.
Initially, junior students engage with AI at Level 1 or Level 2 on the Furze AI Assessment Scale, either not using AI at all or using it with scaffolding for planning and idea generation. This aligns with the school’s broader philosophy around mindset.
“We’re trying to change the thinking that AI is just something that does the work for you. We want students to see it as a tool that assists, not replaces, their effort. Engaging with EP’s AI this way helps develop that assistive mindset.”
Increasingly, Trent and junior teachers are exploring Level 3 – AI collaboration. For example, when students are preparing for a written response, teachers build custom EP lessons including assessment instructions, success criteria, and exemplar responses. Students then complete their work and receive real-time AI feedback aligned to the task.
Increasingly, Trent and junior teachers are exploring Level 3 – AI collaboration. For example, when students are preparing for a written response, teachers build custom EP lessons including assessment instructions, success criteria, and exemplar responses. Students then complete their work and receive real-time AI feedback aligned to the task.
“We’re not just using EP’s curriculum content. We’re creating new lessons that link directly to our assessment tasks. Instead of waiting for a teacher to look at a draft, they’re getting detailed, reliable feedback straight away. That’s been an exciting thing to explore this year.”
EP’s flexibility has allowed this approach to expand beyond the traditional subject areas of Geography, History, English, Science, and Languages, and into subjects they wouldn’t usually use EP for, like Religion.
“By making customised lessons in the English folder, we can create activities linked directly to their Religion assessment tasks. The AI still provides relevant, meaningful feedback, even if the content isn’t traditional for that subject.”
This creative use of EP has enabled St Mary MacKillop to embed AI support in ways that are both safe for juniors and pedagogically aligned, while also encouraging staff to think expansively about how digital tools can support learning across the board.
Supporting Teachers and Parents
A critical part of the college’s AI strategy is building confidence and clarity for both teachers and parents. For staff, Trent runs professional learning sessions focused on integrating the AI Assessment Scale into everyday practice, helping teachers map assessments to appropriate AI levels, design tasks accordingly, and explore how tools like EP can be adapted across subjects.
“Teachers appreciate having a shared, nuanced tool like Furze’s Assessment Scale. It gives them confidence they’re making informed decisions, not just reacting to hype.”
For parents, the college has developed clear communication through newsletters, information sessions and webinars to explain how AI is being used and why.
“We’ve found that when we show parents the structure behind our approach, the scale, the safeguards, the mindset we’re trying to build, they’re actually reassured. It’s not about banning or blindly adopting AI. It’s about teaching students how to use it well.”
Preparing Students for a Future with AI
St Mary MacKillop College is taking a forward-looking, structured approach to integrating AI in education. By anchoring its policy to Leon Furze’s AI Assessment Scale, the school ensures transparency, supports digital citizenship, and builds confidence among staff, students and parents. With guidance and purpose, AI becomes a tool for creativity, reflection and deeper learning, not just a novelty.
Education Perfect plays a key role in this journey, offering a secure and flexible space to build those skills gradually and with intention. This structured use of AI, anchored in both pedagogy and technology, is helping students build future-ready skills with confidence. Trent and his team are excited about the potential for AI, when guided well, to reshape learning for the better.
