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SEND-first AI literacy curriculum, delivered through English, with links to PSHE and Computing

Teaching young people to think critically about AI, technology, and their future, through story, debate, and creative enquiry, built for every learner in the room.

Critical Minds · part of the OXIE accelerator
The problem
What we're hearing

The conversation young people are having

In our own scoping research across UK students aged 16–18 named intellectual over-reliance on AI as the single biggest threat they believe they face.

Not job loss. Not misinformation. Their own ability to think.

This aligns with ongoing research in other countries measuring anxiety among young people.*

* Ipsos BVA survey commissioned by CNIL (France's data protection authority) and Groupe VYV, reported May 2026 — 3,800 young people aged 11–25 surveyed across France, Germany, Sweden and Ireland; 28% met the threshold for suspected generalised anxiety disorder.

"AI is one of the most powerful tools to become available in this generation... an omniscient colleague. However, if we don't take the time to understand and instead delegate the thinking to AI, then soon enough we will realise that we cannot function without it."
— Maximilian, 22, The Dawn of AI: Edinburgh
"What better way to teach young people critical thinking than with the very topic of that which they believe is taking it away?"
— Bryanna Bone, Author of The Dawn of AI, Creator of Critical Minds
Why it matters
Key messaging pillar

Critical Thinking

There has never been a more urgent moment to teach it.

78%
of AI-assisted essay writers couldn't quote a single line of their own work after 4 months of relying on it. — MIT Media Lab, "Your Brain on ChatGPT," 2025
319
knowledge workers studied: the more they trusted AI, the less critical thinking they applied to it. — Microsoft Research & Carnegie Mellon, CHI 2025
100+
UK students aged 16–18 surveyed named AI over-reliance their biggest worry. — OXIE scoping research
53%
of web traffic is now bots, not humans — outnumbering us online for the first time. — Imperva 2026 Bad Bot Report
64%
of the time, AI armed with personal data out-persuaded humans in debate — an 81% jump in a randomised controlled trial. — Nature Human Behaviour, 2024 (EPFL)
Where it started
Key messaging pillar

Physical learning in a digital world

Critical Minds grew from a question: what if the most powerful tool for teaching young people about AI wasn't a screen, but a novel? The Dawn of AI, written by Bryanna Bone, became the spine of everything. A novel about a world reshaped by technology gave young people something no worksheet or explainer video could: a mirror, a world they recognised, and characters who they relate to.

40+
real-world tech innovations in The Dawn of AI
The Dawn of AI
What we offer

Teacher-ready curriculum

Everything is ready to deliver. No prior teacher knowledge of AI, no classroom technology, and no budget beyond the resources we provide.

Option 1
The novel, with discussion questions.
Option 2
+ the Critical Minds workbook and slide decks, ending in a debate speech or poem.
Option 3
+ an optional AI-integration layer, on the same final project.
Every school also connects into the wider OXIE family — Future Voices and Youth Innovation Days.
The curriculum
What it is

The humanities meets AI

  • 6 weeks. 30 lessons, one hour each.
  • KS2 and KS3.
  • Mapped to the National Curriculum — Reading, Writing, Spoken Language.
  • Every unit ends the same way: speeches ready for youth to submit to be presented at our Youth Innovation Events and be heard by decision makers.
Critical Minds workbook
Our audiences

Critical Minds is adaptable for

The platform
Key messaging pillar

Your voice matters

Every unit ends in a speech or poem — the strongest performed live at OXIE's Youth Innovation Days, the national tour from Edinburgh across the UK.

Youth Innovation Days UK tour — Edinburgh across the UK
From Edinburgh, across the UK
1
See the novel come to life
Meet the author and step inside The Dawn of AI at a live Youth Innovation Day.
2
Vote for the published ending
The novel has two endings. Students vote — Team Ada or Team Ayden — and the ending they choose is the one that goes to print.
3
Be heard by decision-makers
Their speeches and Youth Voice reports are carried to His Majesty's Government.
The Dawn of AI · Edinburgh
National Robotarium · 19 June 2026
What we promise

Inclusion is design, not accommodation

Always

  • SEND-first from the first draft — never adapted after the fact.
  • Screen-free delivery by default. Technology is optional, never required.
  • Meet young people with the real story and the real question.

Never

  • Require classroom technology, prior teacher AI knowledge, or extra budget to deliver the core curriculum.
  • Soften the big questions to make them easier to teach. We do not soften it — we meet it with them.
  • Treat the AI-integration layer as compulsory. It enhances. It never replaces.
Where we're headed
The model

From the page to the classroom to the platform

✓
Curriculum built
KS2 & KS3 units, sample lesson pack and workbook drafted — National Curriculum-aligned.
2
Ground-zero residency
A term-long partnership proving the curriculum in real conditions. Launching September.
3
Future Voices, national
School heats feeding into regional and national debate & poetry finals.
The opportunity
Why now

The conversation can't wait

The UK is moving towards restricting AI tools for students under 14. That may well be the right call. But keeping the tools out of the classroom doesn't mean keeping young people out of the conversation about a technology already reshaping their world.

A student's view
"Instead of living in fear of AI, we should aim to improve our critical thinking when using it instead of just teaching AI skills. A worker that uses AI is only as good as their ability to think."
— Deeo, 17
Who's behind it
Founder-led

Bryanna Bone

AI literacy expert. Author. Educator. Curriculum writer.

Bryanna spent three years teaching in the classroom, before becoming an AI literacy educator who has delivered sessions across schools, colleges and universities throughout the UK for two years while completing her debut Sci-Fi novel, The Dawn of AI. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from Oxford Brookes, is the Youth Voice Strategist for West Oxfordshire, and speaks professionally as an AI expert and futurist. Bryanna has 15+ years working directly with children and young people and is the person who built the Critical Minds curriculum from the ground up.

Currently recruiting: a Curriculum Lead / SENCO Advisor to help take the workbook from draft to classroom-ready.

The invitation

We back projects, programmes, and events that empower the next generation through the most complex technosocial shift in human history.

Start the conversationbbone@oxie.org.uk