Brisbane Catholic Education (BCE), comprising more than 140 schools in the Archdiocese of Brisbane, has announced the largest rollout of Microsoft 365 Copilot in K-12 education globally, bringing the Generative AI technology to 12,500 educators and support staff.

Following a successful trial at St Francis College, Crestmead over a term, participating educators reported saving an average of 9.3 hours per week. These gains were in areas such as administrative tasks, searching for information internally and on the web, and accelerating lesson and curriculum planning.

St Francis College Principal John Marinucci believes AI integration in schools will transform education by automating administrative tasks for educators, to enable more time for enhancing student learning experiences and wellbeing.

Reducing the workload and gaining time back for educators is particularly significant given high attrition and risk of burnout in the profession. According to a 2023 report by the Black Dog Institute, almost half (46.8 per cent) of Australian educators surveyed were considering leaving the profession within the next 12 months due to mental health issues and burnout.

“Microsoft 365 Copilot is changing the education sector by freeing educators from administrative burdens and reigniting their passion for teaching,” said Adam Pollington, Director of Education at Microsoft Australia and New Zealand.

“The success at Brisbane Catholic Education, where the trial saw educators save over a day per week, shows that this isn’t just about productivity; it’s about giving educators the time to inspire and nurture the next generation.”

The phased rollout will start in January 2025 and run through to 2026.

BCE is the first K–12 education organisation in the world to partner with Microsoft and the Vatican as ambassadors for their co-developed Rome Call for AI Ethics.

“Before embarking on a technology body of work like GenAI, we needed a set of ethical principles to focus and shape the design and structure of our solutions and platforms,” said Leigh Williams, BCE Information and Technology Executive.

BCE has also used Microsoft Copilot Studio to build a solution for their educators and support staff to gain a greater understanding of integrating Catholic traditions and values into the classroom. The GenAI tool is grounded in knowledge from the Catholic identity site, BCE’s theological database and state and national religious education curriculum documentation.

It ensures everyone within BCE, including those without an extensive catholic background, can quickly find information and advice on how to apply the Catholic lens in areas such as lesson plan development or in life skills discussions with students.

“We’re looking to make it much easier and inclusive for all our educators and support staff to grow their understanding of the Catholic tradition at BCE, instead of relying on documents that while very purposeful, can also be complex and extensive,” said Williams.

BCE has prioritized efforts around data security and data governance to enable them to embrace GenAI with greater confidence and trust.

According to Williams, “We identified early on that GenAI would not disappear, and we knew that we wanted to lead in this space. But to get to where we are now, we had to lay the foundational work first, focused on data security and governance, and put a lot of energy behind our cybersecurity strategy.

“We know nothing is foolproof, however the investment and focus over the last few years in our security profile has enabled us to move forward with Copilot and similar technologies safely and securely. It’s about managing the risk we can, while driving innovation in a safe way.”