17th April 2026
HEADLINES
By James Saunders
THANK YOU AI Earlier this year I had the privilege of meeting Sir Clive Woodward. He was the coach of the Rugby World Cup winning side of 2003. That was the team with Martin Johnson, Lawrence Dallaglio and Jonny Wilkinson. Sir Clive later became the Director of Elite Performance for the British Olympic Association and then went on to be a crucial part of the successful 2012 Olympics. But I don’t want to talk about sports today. I want to talk about my teaching passion - computers. You see Sir Clive talked to me about the time that he gained some notoriety by giving all the players laptops. You can just picture the front page now as the paparazzi lined up to snap pictures of hulks such as Johnson walking into training with a little laptop under their arm. This strategy was an essential part of the world winning squad. Sir Clive said that during his business career he learned the phrase “whoever wins at IT tends to win”. As someone with a winning mentality this resonated with him. Every game was recorded and analysed - every player was trained how to use the software - every debrief involved the players presenting on their laptop using the analysis software. And it worked. I have always been a fan of computers because they help you to solve problems; they help you to be more efficient - more productive. They help you to win. The world as we know it is computerised and whether we like it or not we are living through a transformational digital age. There used to be a time where people would “not do computers or IT”. It has been the same in teaching - even now in a school that has technology at its heart there will be those of us that “don’t do computers”. However, with the rapid development of AI I feel that time is behind us. I read an article the other day that
spoke about AI knowledge and understanding being the key to getting any job. Why would you not favour an employee who can do the work of 10. We are often scared into thinking AI will replace our jobs. It won’t - it will simply mean we can be more efficient and more productive. When I first arrived at Honywood 8 years ago to the day (yesterday) my vision was very much drawn from my time at Google. 10x Thinking, I called it. Or Moonshot thinking. Essentially it’s about thinking big and aiming high. It is very much an anything is possible mindset - basically the mindset of children who have not yet been jaded by societal conformity. However, a mindset is one thing but in a landscape of ever decreasing funding (in the last eight years I have had to make cuts yearly) how does one find the resources to match such ambitions. Well for the first time I feel that as individuals and collectives we are able to 10x our lives. For the first time I am able to believe that anything that is possible is achievable and all you need is a computer and an internet connection. AI has the potential to be the great leveller of society. The OpenAI CEO recently claimed that the next generation of tech billionaires will be one-person companies that are powered by AI. However, those that get left behind by the new digital divide will be at a greater disadvantage than ever compared to those 10x’ing everything. AI is no longer something you can chat to intelligently or that can do all those cool things that you may have been doing with documents and research using the likes of Chat GPT or Gemini. AI can now be your personal assistant - it can help you to do your job and create your own productivity tools. AI can turn us all into Computer Scientists and render a Computer Science degree irrelevant. I can work for you while you sleep.