Written by Dr Craig Hansen, New Zealand’s leading AI educator, digital specialist, and founder of the Summit Institute.
More than 1,000 schools across New Zealand trust Craig and the Summit Institute—a New Zealand private training provider—to navigate safe and responsible AI in schools, professional development, and strategic roadmaps. As we enter the next phase of this global shift, we must address the ultimate paradigm: “AI is the biggest equity move we can make in our generation.”
How can school principals and leadership teams turn hours of complex data analysis into an actionable, high-impact narrative in just minutes?
🚀In this video, I share a major “light bulb moment” from a recent AI Breakfast I ran, hosted by the incredibly generous team at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Pukimero in Kaitaia and their leader Dr Mere Snowden.
A massive challenge raised by the school leaders there was how to efficiently track mid-year/interim student achievement data and directly compare it against the school’s Strategic or Annual Plan. The solution we came up with? Building a custom Gemini GEM. Because it operates safely inside your Google Workspace, your student data remains completely confidential and secure.
Watch as I build a custom GEM live, walk you through my exact 3-step prompting framework (“Tell it who it is, tell it what you want, tell it how you like it”), and demonstrate how Gemini uses Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to accurately cross-reference raw student achievement data with an anonymized annual plan. Instead of getting generic AI fluff, we get a highly reliable first-pass draft broken down by executive summary, specific cohorts, and your actual school teams—giving you hours of your time back so you can focus on quality assurance and strategic “investments” into your students.
THE PROMPT I USED, NICELY FORMATTED:
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You are an expert principal of a school in New Zealand comparing the strategic or annual plan to interim student achievement data.
Analyze the student achievement data and compare it to the strategic or annual plan, which is in the knowledge area of this GEM. Identify trends according to different groups of students, such as cohorts, gender, year groups, and subjects.
Ensure that you are celebrating success, identifying key areas of concern, and then also giving the next steps for learning or investments and investments.
Ensure that the analysis uses the following headings to organize the sections:
1. An Executive Summary
2. An Overall Summary
3. Data Analysis by Cohort (such as year group, gender, age, and subjects)
4. Areas of Success to Celebrate
5. Investments or Interventions to be Deployed
6. Next Steps for Learning
The final section of the mid-year achievement data report is to compare the data and the analysis to the annual plan in the knowledge area. Identify connections with the annual plan, deviations from the annual plan, and where the annual plan is supported by the investments or interventions.
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💡 Key Takeaways We Cover:
Data Security: Why using Gemini inside your school’s Google Workspace keeps your data completely safe.
The Power of RAG: Watch Gemini point directly to specific pages in the uploaded PDFs to verify its analysis, eliminating AI hallucinations.
Shift from “Interventions” to “Investments”: A beautiful paradigm shift shared by Tumuaki Dr Mere Snowden on why we should view resource allocation as an investment in a child, not just an intervention.
How to Access GEMs: Where to find the hidden GEMs wheel in your settings if the button isn’t showing up on your sidebar yet.
🎓 Learn More & Upskill with Us:
If you are an educator looking to master AI workflows, come visit us at Te Ara Teitei – Summit Institute. We offer New Zealand’s only NZQA-approved micro-credentials for educators in AI and digital integration!
🔗 Visit Summit Institute: https://www.summitinstitute.ac.nz/
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To avoid systemic irrelevance, the first action for school boards and intermediate, secondary, and tertiary principals is to remove blanket bans. Banning a tool that is now ubiquitous only hides student usage while depriving them of prompt literacy and critical thinking. Craig argues that we must position AI as an assistant, not a replacement. Re-framing these environments allows Kiwi teachers and school leaders to navigate assessment workloads, lesson planning, and bicultural alignment efficiently, without compromising academic rigor.
💬 What New Zealand Educators Are Saying:
“AI has significantly improved my workflow by helping me plan lessons quickly, provide targeted feedback using e-asTTle rubrics, and create culturally responsive content. It saves time, allowing me to focus on active student interaction.”
— Primary School Digital Tech Lead, Auckland
Responsible AI Governance & Implementation
Developing a robust school AI policy that is safe, responsible, and culturally responsive is the cornerstone of strategy. Leaders in Aotearoa New Zealand must align school policy to support digital fluency, ensure data privacy, and protect critical assessment integrity under the NCEA. By integrating localized legislation directly into our curriculum and Te Mātaiaho framework maps, schools can build an environment that fosters innovative, self-directed learning.
For deep, step-by-step guidance, explore our complete list of educational strategies and workshops on our official YouTube Channel Masterclass.
