Pearson Leadership Team Sharing Knowledge and Trends at Aiglon College

It is 08:05 as Meditation begins, just like most days at Aiglon since the school’s founding. On stage today, however, instead of a teacher, is Mr. Omar Abbosh, CEO of Pearson and an Aiglon parent. Mr. Abbosh and a team from Pearson have come to Aiglon to lead a day of workshops and knowledge exchange about the evolving role of AI and education.

Mr Abbosh is the parent of a current Year 13 student and is a Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 CEO, currently leading Pearson and a former Microsoft executive. He brings a global perspective on how technology, particularly AI, is reshaping learning, skills development and the future of education.

“Why would anyone want to listen to me?” Mr Abbosh asked the room. “Let me give you a reason; I am good at predicting things." He went on to explain that part of his career has been all about being good at making predictions in technological advancements: from robotics and autonomous transport to conversational AI and neural interfaces – all these once distant concepts from science fiction films were now real technologies that leading figures in business and technology have quickly brought to reality.

Mr Abbosh told students that there is a common thread in the skillsets required to make the next predictions. He highlighted that traits such as Agency, Learning Velocity, and Emotional Intelligence (ALE) will be critical to helping today’s students develop the AI fluency essential for developing the "unbelievable things" of the next generation. "The people who have the ability to hustle and have agency, the people who have learned to learn skills, and the people who have high emotional intelligence are the people who will be successful in the future even with a ton of AI rewriting how the economy works."

The contrast of Mr Abbosh beginning the day with a traditional Aiglon Meditation contrasted with the day’s deep dive into a full programme of pedagogical inquiry, brainstorming and discussions on how AI can continue to support learning at Aiglon.

Pearson

Pearson is a trusted voice in education due to their deep integration of learning science with scaled AI product capabilities, ensuring that technological tools are grounded in proven pedagogical research. Over the years, the company has evolved from a traditional educational publisher into an innovative technology leader.

In addition to Mr Abbosh, the high-level delegation included Chief Technology Officer, Dave Treat; Managing Director of Pearson Qualifications, Freya Thomas Monk; Responsible AI and Innovation, Claire Carroll; Higher Ed, Consumer and Early Career Product, Moshe Bercovich; and Learning Efficacy and Thought Leadership, Sandy Smith.

AI Tutors in Classroom Practice

The Pearson team met with members of Aiglon’s Academic Leadership Group (ALG) for a morning of collaborative sessions led by Pearson’s Freya Thomas Monk to dive deeper into discussions of pedagogy and the way AI has already significantly influenced how we think about learning. These sessions created a creative space for teachers to reflect on the shifting landscape of pedagogy and practice, reflecting on where technology and assessment are going. Central to these discussions was a move toward "guided learning," prioritising the learning process over simple output and exploring how students can meaningfully integrate AI into broader, big-picture inquiries.

The group also navigated the intersection of technological and ethical issues, exploring shifts in data ownership that moves away from traditional "adult gatekeeping" to empower students with their own learning data. Furthermore, the potential of credentialing systems was discussed as a way to bridge academic and vocational pathways, helping students recognise how their work in subjects like maths and history directly builds essential real-world skills like teamwork and collaboration.

AI as a System of Learning

In a later session, School Director Nicola Sparrow addressed Aiglon's “Innovation 2.5 Working Group” and the IT team to explain how Aiglon’s new strategic framework guides ongoing technological development. Like the context of Mr. Abbosh’s Meditation, Ms Sparrow highlighted the balance between fast-paced development and protecting the school's core values. "How do we increasingly become the school other people looked to for innovation, for trial and things... for being in the school that is at least 10% braver," she noted.

Dave Treat, Claire Carroll, and Moshe Bercovich then led a session on the integration of AI tutors. As a result the group was able to experiment with the tools that Pearson was developing to support AI learning and tutoring, building off their extensive research and expertise. This hands-on demoing allowed Aiglon’s technology leadership teams to understand in more detail how tools like this could be integrated into Aiglon’s offerings while maintaining and supporting the school’s overall strategic and ethical approach to AI.

The value a company like Pearson brings to the conversation is clear. Mr Treat warned against "raw AI" unguided by learning science, citing research where students felt more confident but performed dramatically worse if they were just left to themselves with a chat bot. Specific education tools are critical to support a healthy and safe AI integration with the learning environment.

Teachers resonated with the conversation, recognising ways in which Aiglon has already been reflecting on this technology and its discussion of data and how it is related to the individual. Highlighting this human-centric interpretation, Jack George, Assistant Head (Years 9-11), shared a metaphor: "Every data point is a star in the sky and it's our job as teachers to create notice constellations. But AI, there is the telescope... it empowers you to create and to notice those constellations."

Innovation Working Group: AI Tutors and Future Learning

The day concluded with an interactive afternoon session led by Claire Carroll, where Year 11 Pre-IB and selected Year 9 students worked alongside the Pearson team. Students were given the chance to brainstorm developing their own AI, and to reflect on what features would be important to include to support their own learning. 

This allowed the visiting team to hear directly from students about the AI models they are already experimenting with, ensuring that the future of learning at Aiglon remains a collaborative effort between leadership, global experts, and the students themselves.

AI Disclosure: Human-drafted original. Edits supported by AI. All quotes original.