As part of our commitment to developing our students as learners equipped to thrive in the world of the future, we must develop students' capabilities in AI, to allow them to be safe and effective users of the technology. In the coming weeks we will be rolling out changes to the way students access Generative AI when at the School. The main change is that Microsoft Copilot for Education will be released to students. This will allow them to access a safe and secure AI capability to assist them in their learning. Access to other tools such as Chat-GPT will be restricted while at school.

We will also be releasing an AI Homepage in Hive where parents and students can find up to date details on our School Policies, how to access approved AI tools and other useful information.

Why Co-Pilot for Education?

CoPilot is part of the Microsoft suite of products we use to deliver the core IT platforms at Ivanhoe Girls'. As such it is embedded fully with the environment the students access on a day-to-day basis allowing us to deliver AI safely, using the built-in safeguards provided. These are:

• Enterprise-Grade Privacy: Prompts and responses receive the same protection as school emails or SharePoint files. This data is never used to train public AI models
• Content Filtering: Microsoft 365 Copilot includes built-in safeguards to block inappropriate content, such as hate speech, violence, or adult material, ensuring a respectful learning environment
• Protection Against Manipulation: The system defends against "prompt injection attacks," preventing students or external actors from manipulating the AI into generating misleading or harmful content
• Date Isolation: All student data is isolated within the school’s specific Microsoft environment, meaning it does not leak into the public internet or other organisations' environments
• Administrative Oversight: School IT admins can monitor usage patterns, audit interactions, and enforce sensitivity labels to prevent oversharing of confidential school information