Announcement

National AI Awareness Day is here! — and it’s a UK first.⁵

AI Awareness Day Team

For the first time, the UK has a national day dedicated to AI literacy in schools. That’s not a small thing. It’s the result of a year of conversations, collaboration, and quiet determination from a community that believed this country’s young people deserved a proper introduction to the technology shaping their future.

Today, that introduction begins.

📊 By the Numbers — A National Movement

What started as an idea has become something none of us imagined.

  • 🎯 1 million+ reach — through our work with MATs, charities, organisations, and educational providers
  • 🏫 750,000+ students estimated to be touched by today’s activities, with a clear path to 1 million in the coming months
  • 💼 37,117 LinkedIn impressions in just 6 months of operation
  • 💬 912 reactions, 60 comments, 35 reposts from educators, leaders, and policymakers across the UK

These aren’t just numbers, they represent real schools, real teachers, and real conversations happening right now in every corner of the country.

Our Ambition, From Day One

When we set out to build this campaign, we had one simple aim: to give teachers a gateway into AI a way in that didn’t require expertise, jargon, or a tech background. Just curiosity, and the willingness to start.

We chose June deliberately. Across the UK, this is the month the country turns its attention to technology and we wanted schools, teachers, and pupils to be part of that national conversation, not on the sidelines of it.

This campaign is built range of thought leaders and education specialist a special thank you goes to Mark Martin MBE (UKBT), Richard Cummins (UKBT), Justin Spooner (Unthinkable Digital), Anna Bailey (Bett), Capital City College in partnership with charities, Multi-Academy Trusts, schools, universities, and teachers from every corner of the country.

A Quick Look Back

When we launched at the BETT Show in January 2026, we knew we were taking on a mammoth task. We also knew we had to get it right because the teachers and pupils this campaign exists for deserved nothing less.

The months since have been amazing and humbling.

We’ve discovered schools and Multi-Academy Trusts already doing extraordinary things with AI quietly, brilliantly, and often in spite of the concerns surrounding the technology. We’ve partnered with over 20 charities whose passion and commitment to education has genuinely moved us. And a special shoutout to the passionate teachers who took it upon themselves to share their work, mentor others, and lead from the front you are the heartbeat of this campaign.

We’ve watched the day be championed across every corner of social media — from Members of Parliament to primary school classrooms. That tells us something important: this conversation matters, and people are ready to have it.

Why These Five Strands?

Everything we’ve built sits on five foundations: Smart, Creative, Responsible, Safe, and Future.

They aren’t just lesson topics they’re the skills the next generation will need to live and work alongside AI for the rest of their lives. Understanding how it actually works. Using it creatively. Questioning it critically. Staying safe with it. And thinking carefully about where it goes next.

The aim is simple: Know it. Question it. Use it wisely. to help people understand how to live in a world where AI is everywhere. To recognise it when it’s being used around us and to spot it impacting our daily lives. Because AI isn’t just in the apps we choose to open. It’s in the news we read, the decisions made about us, the images we scroll past, and the answers we’re given. Knowing how to see it is the first step to thinking clearly about it.

This campaign was shaped, in part, by conversations happening at the highest levels — including the work being done on AI and workers’ rights in the UK.

🎬 Premiere Today: The MAT & Digital Leaders

We’re proud to premiere a first-of-its-kind collaboration today bringing together AI and Digital Leads from across Multi-Academy Trusts and schools to share what’s actually working in classrooms:

  • Jonathan O’Donnell (Harris Federation)
  • James Radburn (Star Academies)
  • Elisabeth Bowling (Inspiration Trust)
  • Chris Goodall (Bourne Education Trust)
  • Adam Lockwood (Outwood Grange Academies Trust)
  • Emma Darcy (Denbigh High School)

👉 Watch the premiere: YOUTUBE LINK

🎙️ A Message For Your Pupils

Everything we’ve built, we’ve built for you.

You are the first generation who will live and work alongside AI in every part of your lives. So ask the hard questions. Don’t be afraid to push back. Be curious, be critical, and be brave.

This is your future. Today is your day.

Student Voice, Front and Centre

Championing student voice has been a core part of AI Awareness Day from the start. A powerful example landed in the last 24 hours: two students from Capital City College shared a thoughtful piece on mental health, AI, and healthcare — honest, well-argued, and well worth your time: 👉 https://aiawarenessday.co.uk/timeline/

Want to Share Your Day With Us?

If you’re doing something for AI Awareness Day today a lesson, an assembly, a project, a conversation — we’d love to see it. Send us your videos, images, research, or reflections: 📧 info@ukblacktech.com

Or Tag Us In: #AIAwarenessDay or #AIAwarenessDay26

Everything shared today will be captured on our timeline, so you can revisit, share, and learn from it long after today is over: 👉 https://aiawarenessday.co.uk/timeline/

This Is Just the Beginning

Today marks AI Awareness Day but it doesn’t end here.

We’re committed to keeping the momentum going all year round. Together with our partners, we’ll continue bringing you conferences, new resources, events, and fresh content so the curiosity sparked today becomes something lasting.

Here’s a taster: The Raspberry Pi Foundation just shared an amazing page of resources and activities with us yesterday! https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/ai-education-resources-ai-awareness-day

Apps for Good is officially launching its brand new, project-based AI for Good 2.0 free to sign up now!

BCS quietly launched AI Confidence a brilliant, free platform packed with practical toolkits and prompt libraries. It’s built for anyone in a school building (including admins and governors) to learn safe, realistic AI use in under an hour. Explore the tools or share them with an educator friend at BCS AI Confidence.

To every teacher, school leader, charity, MP, parent, and pupil who has stood with us on this journey:

Thank you. You’ve made history today.

Now……….go and have a go. 🚀

Know it. Question it. Use it wisely.

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