How to use these
Open ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Copilot on your phone. The free versions are fine, and most let you talk instead of type. Paste a prompt, swap the [brackets] for your own details, and read the answer before you use it.
These are for you, not for handing to your child. AI chat tools set their own minimum ages, so check the tool's rules before a child uses one.
Don't type your child's full name, school, date of birth or address, and don't upload their photo. "My 9-year-old" is all the tool needs. Anything about health or a child's safety goes to a real person: your GP, the school or a helpline.
School and admin
Reply to a school message
It needs an answer and you have two minutes.
Write a short, polite reply to this message from my child's school. What I want to say: [your answer, e.g. yes to the trip, a question about pick-up time]. Friendly and clear, under 80 words. Leave gaps for names. Message: [paste the message with names removed]
Pull the dates out of a long newsletter
The newsletter is three pages and you only need to know what to do.
Here is a school newsletter: [paste it]. List only what a parent of a child in [year group] needs to do, with the date for each, in date order. Then list anything that costs money. Do not add anything that is not in the newsletter.
Tip: Check each date against the newsletter before it goes in the calendar.
Raise a worry with the teacher
Something isn't right and you want to say it calmly.
Help me write a calm, respectful email to my child's teacher. The worry, in general terms: [describe it]. What I have noticed: [facts, not guesses, and no names]. What I would like: [e.g. a ten-minute chat, to know what the school has seen]. Under 150 words. No blame. Leave gaps for names.
Questions for parents' evening
You get five minutes and want to use them well.
I have a five-minute parents' evening slot for my child in [year group]. Give me six short questions that will tell me how they are really doing, in learning and in friendships, and what I can do at home. Put the two most useful first.
Homework, without doing it for them
The aim is for you to understand the homework well enough to help. If AI writes the answer, your child learns nothing and the teacher learns the wrong thing.
Explain it to me first
They ask about something you last saw thirty years ago.
Explain [topic, e.g. long division, fronted adverbials, photosynthesis] the way it is usually taught to a child in [year group] in [England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland]. Use one worked example. Then give me three questions I can ask my child to check they understand, without telling them the answer.
Tip: AI makes mistakes, in maths especially. Work the example through yourself, and if it doesn't match the school's method, go with the school's.
Practice questions for the weak spot
A test is coming and one topic keeps tripping them up.
Write ten practice questions on [topic] for a child in [year group]. Start easy and get slightly harder. Put the answers at the end with the working shown. Keep the wording friendly.
A quiz for the car
Spellings or times tables, and nobody wants to sit at a table.
Turn this list into a quick spoken quiz I can read out: [paste the spellings, times tables or facts]. Mix up the order, add one silly bonus question at the end, and give me the answers in a separate list.
Books they might actually read
"I don't like reading."
Suggest eight books for a [age]-year-old who likes [interests, e.g. football, comics, animals] and reads [a lot, a little, only when made to]. Give one line on why each might hook them. Include some that are short or have pictures.
Tip: AI sometimes invents book titles. Search for each one before you promise it.
The weekly juggle
Dinners from what's in the house
It's Sunday night and the fridge is half empty.
Plan five weeknight dinners for [number] people using mostly these ingredients: [list]. Each must take under 30 minutes. One person doesn't like [food]. Give me a short shopping list for what's missing.
Tip: For allergies, read every label yourself. Never rely on AI for what is safe to eat.
A calmer school morning
Every morning ends in an argument about shoes.
Help me plan a calmer school-morning routine. We need to leave at [time]. The children are aged [ages]. The sticking points are [e.g. getting dressed, screens, finding shoes]. Give me a simple routine with times, and what to get ready the night before. Keep it realistic.
A birthday party plan
Twelve children, two hours, one of you.
Plan a two-hour birthday party for [number] children aged [age] at [home, a hall, the park]. Budget: [amount]. Give me a timeline, three games that need almost no kit, simple food, and a list of what to do the day before.
Hard conversations
Words for a hard conversation
You need to talk about something difficult and don't know where to start.
Help me find words to talk to a [age]-year-old about [e.g. a pet dying, moving house, a grandparent being ill, starting a new school]. Give me three ways to open the conversation, phrases to avoid, and questions they might ask, with honest, simple answers.
Tip: You know your child. Take what sounds like you and leave the rest.
Check before you use it
- Is it true? AI makes confident mistakes. Check dates, facts and sums against the real thing.
- Does it sound like you? Change the words until it does.
- Would you be happy for the school to see how you used it?
- Is your child still doing the thinking?
Read more
- Our checklist: What never to paste into AI
- For older children who use AI to study: AI for students
- New to all this? A gentle start with AI