ANAX Schools helps a school or academy trust govern the AI tools its staff and pupils use, all year round, and keep the evidence: register, assess, decide, act, monitor, review and reassess — not a questionnaire that is forgotten until next year. It is written from the product as it is built, so that nothing on this page describes a feature that does not exist.
What it is for
A school needs to be able to answer, at any time and for any AI tool: which tools are we using, what for, has each one been assessed, what did we decide, what still needs doing, and when must we look at it again. ANAX Schools keeps that record in one place:
- Know which AI tools are in use — a register of every tool and each intended use, kept by the school.
- Understand the intended use — who uses the tool (staff, pupils or both), whether pupils interact with it directly, whether it handles personal data, and which role is responsible.
- Assess — an assessment of the tool against a published assessment pack, evaluated by fixed, deterministic rules, held for a person to review before the result is released, and recorded as a Decision Passport that anyone holding its reference can verify.
- Record the human decision — the school's own decision on the result: approved, approved with conditions, review required, or not approved; recorded by role, never by the software.
- Track actions — what needs doing, who (by role) owns it, when it is due, and how it was closed; overdue work is shown as overdue.
- Know when review is due — a next review date set with each decision, no later than 12 months after the result is released, and a review that runs the assessment again when it falls due.
- Keep it current when things change — when a tool's use, its users, whether pupils use it directly, its personal data, its connections to other systems, the supplier's product or terms, or a condition of the decision changes, staff report the change, and fixed rules decide whether a new assessment is needed now, a review within 30 days, or nothing more. The twelve months are the longest a tool goes without review, not a promise that nothing will change before then. ANAX Schools does not watch suppliers automatically.
- Be reminded — the administrators who govern each school receive emails when a result is ready for their decision, 60, 30 and 7 days before a review and when it is overdue, 7 days before an action is due and when it is overdue, and when a reported change needs a review or a new assessment. Each reminder is sent once; the emails name the tool and the date and link to the record, and carry no assessment answers.
- Retain history — every assessment, decision, Passport, action and review is kept; nothing is overwritten. The one exception: personal data typed into a free-text field by mistake can be redacted on request (see below).
- See attention across a trust — for an academy trust, one view of which schools and which uses need attention, with a plain list of what and why, a governance summary (tools, assessments needed, awaiting decision, approved, actions outstanding, reviews due and overdue, reassessments required, overdue actions), and a short weekly email to the trust's administrators when there is something to report.
How a school uses it
- A member of staff adds an AI tool to the school's register: the tool, what it will be used for, who will use it, two yes/no/not-sure questions about pupils and personal data, and the responsible role. Six questions; no pupil data. There is no limit on the number of tools a school registers.
- "Assess tool" opens the assessment for that tool straight away; nobody needs to ask ANAX for a code. The link can be sent to a colleague to answer, and it works for that tool only. The result is held for a person at ANAX to review before it is released.
- A school or trust administrator records the school's decision on the result and the date the tool should next be reviewed: 12 months after the release unless they choose an earlier date.
- Actions are added, owned by a role, given a due date, and marked complete with a short note of where the evidence is kept. Completing an action never changes the assessment result.
- During the year, anyone at the school can report a change to a tool; the rules say whether it needs a review or a new assessment.
- When the review falls due, or a change requires it, "Start review" runs the assessment again; the earlier decision and Passport stay in the history.
For an academy trust
A trust sees every school it owns, with the number of AI uses, how many need attention and why: overdue actions, overdue reviews, decisions still needed, uses not approved or marked review required, and reassessments in progress. Each item links to the school's own record. A trust administrator can add a school, invite a school administrator, and download a governance summary covering the trust's schools only. One trust never sees another trust's schools, and a school never sees a sibling school. Each school keeps its own register and records its own decisions; the trust applies one method across all of them.
How the evaluation works
The assessment is a structured questionnaire about one AI tool and the school's governance of it; "not known" is a valid answer. The answers are evaluated against the 34 checks of the published pack edu_ai_uk, drawn from DfE guidance, the ICO Children's Code, Keeping Children Safe in Education 2026 and UK GDPR, by fixed rules: the same answers always produce the same control results, outcome and required actions. No artificial-intelligence or large-language-model service evaluates the controls, produces the outcome or verifies a Passport. Every result is held for a person at ANAX to review before it is released, and a Passport becomes publicly verifiable only through that release. The decision about the tool is the school's own, recorded by an authorised role.
Who can do what
Three roles, and only three. A trust administrator sees the trust view and acts in every school of that trust. A school administrator governs one school: decisions, actions, reviews, who may join. A school member adds tools, starts assessments and reads the school's record, but does not record decisions or manage people. "Digital Lead", "Designated Safeguarding Lead" and "Data Protection Officer" are responsibilities recorded on the governance record; they are not accounts or permissions.
What it is not
ANAX Schools supports structured, evidenced governance. It does not make the decision. In particular it does not replace the Designated Safeguarding Lead, the Data Protection Officer, the governing body or legal advice; it does not make safeguarding decisions; it is not approved by the Department for Education or the Information Commission; it does not make a school compliant with any law or guidance; and it does not make any AI tool safe. Schools and trusts keep their statutory responsibilities, and the people who record a decision keep responsibility for it. Where the assessment refers to Keeping Children Safe in Education, it refers to the 2026 edition.
The words we use
| Word | What it means here | What it does not mean |
|---|---|---|
| Approved | An authorised school or trust administrator recorded that decision on the school's record. | That ANAX, the DfE, the ICO or anyone else approved the tool. |
| Verified | A specified technical record or status has been checked by the ANAX system — for example, a Passport reference resolves on the verification page. | An independent safety, legal or regulatory endorsement. |
| Defensible | A decision process that is documented and traceable: the answers, the pack edition, the result, the decision, the actions and the dates are all on the record. | Not a guarantee of legal defence, and not a statement that the school meets any law or guidance. |
| Compliant | We do not use this word about a product or a school unless a precise scope is evidenced; a Passport outcome is not a statement of compliance. | — |
| Safe | We do not use this word as a guarantee about any tool or any use. | — |
Pupils and personal data
The ordinary register and assessment workflow does not need any pupil personal data, and the pages say so where text is typed. Do not enter pupil names, pupil records, safeguarding case details, health or SEND information, or any other special category personal data. If something like that is entered by mistake, tell us at contact@viccaone.com with the subject PUPIL DATA: we restrict who can see it, escalate it internally, ask the school what it wants done, delete or correct the record as instructed, and record what was done. Text in a free-text field is removed by our operator by replacing it with a fixed marker; the rest of the record and its history stay as they were, and we keep a note that a redaction happened, never the removed text. See the privacy notice and the data retention page.
Withdrawing a Passport
A school may ask for a Passport to be withdrawn, and ANAX may retract one where the attestation was false or the pack edition contained a material error. Withdrawal is carried out by the operator within 5 working days and confirmed in writing: the result stops being shown as the school's current Passport, a Passport that had been released is shown as withdrawn on the public verification page, and ANAX checks and records what that page shows. There is no automatic withdrawal. See the terms and contact pages.
Getting started
ANAX Schools is provided to schools, academy trusts and colleges under our standard terms of service and an Order Form for your organisation, which states what you have ordered, the fees and the term. We set up your organisation on the service and email its first administrator an invitation; signing in with that address opens their account. Your administrators then invite colleagues by email in the roles above, add schools and register every AI tool in use, and start each assessment themselves. To discuss your school or trust, or to see a demonstration, talk to us.
Where to find the rest
The legal and trust information page lists every document with its version and status, including the privacy notice, the terms, the data processing agreement, the security page and the sub-processor register.
Version history: 1.0 (26 October 2026); 1.1 (1 November 2026) — the redaction of personal data entered by mistake. 1.2 (3 November 2026) — how the evaluation works (deterministic; no model service); getting started under the standard terms and an Order Form; what the verification page shows for a withdrawn Passport.