“Our teachers use ChatGPT, but nobody knows what’s allowed.”
A short training and a one-page AI policy give your team something to hold on to: what’s allowed, what isn’t, and why.
for schools and school groups
AI at school, with agreements everyone understands.
We help schools with an AI policy, AI literacy training for your team and small AI workflows alongside Smartschool. We only use pupil data when it’s truly needed, and never to make decisions about pupils.
No obligation · 30 minutes · online, with someone who puts AI to work every day
Ethic is the AI studio of Zenjoy, the digital product studio from Leuven that has built and maintained software, platforms and integrations for more than 400 organisations since 2011.
At a glance
- Who it’s for
- Primary and secondary schools, school groups, adult education
- Where we start
- Training for your team or a 1-hour Pitstop
- Our limit
- No AI on marks, study-track advice, discipline or pupil support
Sound familiar
Four things we often hear at schools
“The school office starts every day with a mailbox full of questions from parents.”
An AI workflow sorts the emails and prepares a suggested reply. Your colleagues check it and send it themselves.
“New colleagues ask every week how something works.”
How do I report an absence, how do I request a school trip, what do the school rules say? A knowledge assistant answers from your own documents, with sources.
“Requests come in by email and we retype them.”
If a request fits in Smartschool’s Forms, use those. If requests for a school trip or in-service training still come in as free-form emails, an AI workflow turns them into a tidy request your team can follow up straight away.
Getting started
Three ways to start
01
AI literacy training
For teachers, school office and management. Half a day, at school or online, with examples from education.
A first step towards the AI literacy the AI Act requires.
02
AI advice
A 1-hour Pitstop for your first questions. Or a 2-to-3-week AI Scan: which tools and data your team already uses, where the risks are and what to tackle first. A plan for the next 6 to 12 months then follows in a Roadmap. We can also draft or review an AI policy.
Pitstop 1 hour · AI Scan 2 to 3 weeks
03
Pilot around one workflow
One task, for example the school office mailbox, for 4 to 6 weeks in your own environment. We measure how much time a task takes and how often your team has to make corrections.
Then you decide: roll out, adjust or stop.
After a first conversation, you get a proposal with a clear scope and a fixed price.
Integrations schools often use: Smartschool · Microsoft 365
Your systems
We build on the software your school already uses
You don’t need to change platform. We connect an AI workflow to what’s already there, with as little access as needed.
School platform
Smartschool
Smartschool has an API for developers, for things like signing in with your Smartschool account, sending messages and fetching user and class data. Reading incoming Smartschool messages isn’t part of it. Your school decides what access we get, and only for the fields the workflow really needs. Smartschool itself stores its data in Belgium.
Office and collaboration
Microsoft 365
Outlook, Teams and SharePoint: that’s where your emails, your procedures and your school rules live. A knowledge assistant or mailbox workflow works inside that environment and follows the permissions you have already set.
Sometimes you don’t need us.
If a request can go through Smartschool’s Forms, or your school works entirely in Microsoft 365 and has Copilot, first look at what you already have. We’ll tell you that in the introductory call too. We only build something when it really makes a difference.
Rules and privacy
What your school needs to know about AI and privacy
This is not legal advice: we help you ask the right questions, your DPO decides.
- Your team needs to know how AI works.If your school uses AI, your team needs to know enough about it. AI that decides on admission, marks or study-track advice falls under stricter rules, and we don’t build such systems. Read the AI Act in plain language
- Pupil data needs extra care.It is usually data about minors. We work with as little data as possible, with EU hosting as standard, and record in an AI fact sheet what the AI sees.
- You’re not on your own.The Digisprong Knowledge Centre of the Flemish Department of Education and Training published the vision paper “Verantwoorde AI in het Vlaamse onderwijs” (Responsible AI in Flemish education), with seven basic conditions. A good starting point for your school policy. Read the vision paper on vlaanderen.be (in Dutch)
Example
AI fact sheet for a staff knowledge assistant
Version 1.0
-
What it does
Answers staff questions about the school rules and internal procedures, with sources. Tells people it is an AI assistant.
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Which data
Only the documents in the Policy folder on SharePoint. No pupil data, no Smartschool messages.
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Model and location
A language model that runs in the EU.
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Who checks
The policy officer approves new documents. If the assistant can’t find a source, it refers people to the school office.
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What we log
Questions and answers, kept for 90 days, without names.
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Owner and switching off
The head teacher or the ICT coordinator. It can be switched off at any time, and everything is in the school’s name.
Ground rules
AI that takes work off your team, without replacing your teachers
Human oversight
AI may handle reversible internal tasks, such as sorting emails from parents. A colleague first reviews anything sent outside the school and any decisions about people.
Only the data needed
We only use what a task really needs. We choose services whose terms rule out using your data to train their models.
A named owner
The AI fact sheet records what AI may do itself, when approval is needed and when the workflow stops. A named owner at school can adjust or stop it.
Who builds it
A new brand, built on fifteen years of craftsmanship
Ethic is the AI studio of Zenjoy, the digital product studio from Leuven. Since 2011, Zenjoy has designed, built and maintained software, platforms and integrations for more than 400 organisations. You can see it in how we build AI: with tests, documentation and maintenance, so it still works three years from now.
We have used AI in our own work for years. With Ethic, we now put that experience to work where it matters, including in education.
15 years
building and maintaining software
400+
organisations
4 years
using AI daily in our own work
You talk to the people who build
No middleman: the people who design and build your workflow sit at the table themselves.
Code, documentation and access in your name
Code, prompts, documentation and access are in the school’s name, not ours.
We stay on after launch
If a system or a model changes, the same team adapts the workflow.
Questions
What schools ask us
Question not listed? Just ask us.
You can get a data processing agreement and a security overview on request.
How long before we see something?
After a 1-hour Pitstop you already have a direction. An AI Scan takes 2 to 3 weeks and ends with a risk overview and priorities. A pilot around one workflow runs for 4 to 6 weeks in your own environment. After that, figures show how much time a task takes and how often your team has to make corrections. We plan around the school calendar.
Where is our pupils’ data stored?
Ideally, right where it is now. Smartschool stores its data in Belgium, and many workflows need no pupil data: a staff knowledge assistant works with your rules, not with pupil files. If something is needed after all, we use as few fields as possible and the model runs in the EU as standard. The AI fact sheet states which model it is, with which provider and in which country.
What if the AI gets it wrong? Who checks?
AI sometimes gets things wrong. That’s why an AI workflow only prepares suggestions and a colleague decides. If a knowledge assistant can’t find a source, it says so and refers the question on. During the pilot we track how often your team has to correct something. So the figures show whether it’s worth it.
What does the AI Act ask of our school?
If your school uses AI in its work, it is a deployer under the AI Act. Among other things, you then take measures to support your staff’s AI literacy, an obligation that has applied since 2 February 2025. If we build an application for you, we agree in advance who has which role and record that in the AI fact sheet. This is not legal advice. For a final opinion, go to your DPO or legal department.
What if Smartschool or Microsoft changes something?
It happens. Zenjoy has maintained platforms and integrations for years after launch, and adapts them when a supplier changes something. After the pilot we monitor the integration, adapt it when a supplier changes something and can switch models without rebuilding everything. Code, instructions and documentation are in the name of your school or school group. Maintenance runs through a fixed monthly arrangement: updates, monitoring and small changes. New workflows are planned separately. Read what happens after the pilot
Can pupils use it?
We almost always start with staff: teachers, school office and management. If you also want to use AI in the classroom, that belongs in your AI policy first. Check the minimum age in each tool’s terms, and expect different agreements on data when pupils use a tool themselves. We look at that together, per tool and per age group.
Where does your school want to start with AI?
Tell us in an introductory call what’s going on today: a team already working with AI, a mailbox that’s overflowing or a policy that doesn’t exist yet. One specific question? Request a 1-hour Pitstop.
No obligation · 30 minutes · online, with someone who puts AI to work every day