How BRILLIANT helped our school to rethink AI, safeguarding and the importance of student voice

Director of Technology for Learning at Denbigh High School, Emma Darcy

For educators navigating the fast-moving world of AI, conferences can sometimes feel overwhelming, overly theoretical, or heavily focused on products rather than practice. For Director of Technology for Learning at Denbigh High School, Emma Darcy, BRILLIANT felt different.

Emma attended BRILLIANT for the first time last year after hearing about it from colleagues and feeling a growing sense of curiosity, and, as she puts it, “a desire to find out for myself what all the buzz was about!”

Below, Emma shares her thoughts on what she learned at BRILLIANT…

What appealed to me straight away was that it felt like an event with a northern perspective. Education conversations can sometimes feel very centred around London and the South East, so I was interested in hearing different voices and different experiences from schools across the country.

A Conference That Felt Different

One of the first things I noticed was how varied the sessions were at BRILLIANT.

At a lot of conferences, you can end up hearing the same themes repeated throughout the day. BRILLIANT didn’t feel like that at all. Every session I attended brought something different, and everything felt grounded in actual practice, rather than theory.

You hear a lot in education about innovation and future possibilities, but not always enough about how to make it happen in your school. . There often feels like there should be much more focus on what people are really trying in schools, what works, what doesn’t and what the challenges are.

That practical lens stood out throughout the day.

Positive Role Models and Practical Conversations

The first session I attended featured Chief AI Officer, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Tiffany St James, alongside Steve Rotheram and Sir Paul Grant.

My school has placed a huge focus over the last year on educating our young people on the misogyny and gender bias that exists in AI and promoting positive female role models, so hearing Tiffany speak really resonated with me. After the event, I started following the work she does via LinkedIn.

What I appreciated most was how honest and practical the conversation was. The presenters weren’t speaking in vague theoretical terms, they were talking about real challenges, real implementation and what they were actually doing on the ground.

For me, BRILLIANT was full of genuine examples of positive role models.

Why the Size and Layout Mattered

Another thing I really valued was the scale of the event.

It wasn’t tiny, there were still far more sessions than I could attend, but it never felt overwhelming. At some conferences, venues are so huge that you spend most of the day rushing between sessions, trying to find somewhere to sit or grab a drink, and by the end of it you’re exhausted.

At BRILLIANT, everything felt manageable.

I could get to sessions easily, and most importantly for me, find somewhere to pause and actually reflect on what I’d heard. That made a massive difference, because if you’re going to take ideas back into school and implement them properly, you need time to process and discuss them with other attendees.

To add to this, I thought it was fantastic that there was space to network naturally. Between sessions, people were talking, reflecting and sharing ideas rather than just rushing to the next room.

Conversations Beyond the Stage

One of the biggest strengths of BRILLIANT for me was how accessible the speakers were.

At larger conferences, you often don’t get the opportunity to speak to presenters afterwards. They disappear immediately, or the spaces are so crowded that meaningful conversations become impossible.

At BRILLIANT, even the speakers partaking in the biggest sessions still felt approachable.

I had a great conversation with Sir Anthony Seldon just before going into one of his talks, and afterwards I was able to reflect on the session with other attendees as well.

What surprised me was that although Sir Anthony’s session referenced AI, it was actually much more about humanity, joy and learning.

Sir Anthony showed photographs of classrooms throughout history, where the common theme was that students looked disengaged and unhappy, and it completely reframed the conversation for me. I thought I was attending a talk about AI, but what I actually took away was a reminder that classrooms should fundamentally be places where curiosity and a love of learning can develop. .

We can become so focused on technology and innovation, that we forget to ask whether young people feel happy, connected and inspired in school.

That really stayed with me.

The Session That Changed Conversations in School

The session that probably had the biggest practical impact on me was Matthew Wemyss speaking about AI and safeguarding.

Honestly, it was music to my ears.

I spent the whole session scribbling notes frantically and could easily have listened for another two hours. What resonated with me was that he focused on the relationship young people have with AI, not just how teachers can use AI tools.

A lot of schools initially focused on AI through the lens of teacher workload and efficiency. But increasingly, the conversation has to include safeguarding, student behaviour, student understanding and student voice.

We don’t talk enough about how young people are using AI or what impact it’s having on them.

Matthew’s session gave me so many practical things to take back into school immediately. The following week, I was sharing key points, facts and safeguarding concerns in SLT meetings, and people were saying, “We haven’t thought about that.”

It genuinely changed conversations in school straight away.

As a result, we’ve developed more focus this year around student leadership, student voice and allowing young people to contribute to discussions about how AI is used for and by them.

For me, safeguarding and cybersecurity awareness can no longer sit with one person in school. Everybody needs a baseline understanding of it, and that mindset shift happened through BRILLIANT.

Practical Rather Than Sales-Focused

Another thing I appreciated throughout the conference was that sessions didn’t feel sales-driven.

Schools are dealing with limited budgets, and sometimes conferences can leave you feeling like every solution requires buying another expensive platform or product.

That wasn’t my experience at BRILLIANT.

The best sessions were practical conversations led by educators and practitioners saying: “This is what I tried, this is what worked and this is what I learned.”

Matthew Wemyss’ session was a perfect example of that. It wasn’t about expensive tools. It was about awareness, conversations, safeguarding and practical actions schools could take immediately.

That authenticity made a huge difference.

Tailoring the Day Around School Priorities

One thing I really liked was how easy it was to tailor the conference experience around your own school priorities.

Different schools are focusing on very different things right now, and BRILLIANT allowed people to build their own programme based on what mattered most to them.

For me, my day focused heavily on safeguarding, AI, student voice and understanding what might be coming next.

Someone else could have attended the exact same conference and had a completely different experience, depending on the challenges or priorities in their own setting.

That flexibility made the day feel genuinely valuable rather than one-size-fits-all.

Keeping Students at the Centre

Looking back, what stood out most to me was that the conference consistently kept students at the centre of the conversation.

A lot of education events focus heavily on teacher workload, leadership structures or purchasing decisions. What I found refreshing about BRILLIANT was the emphasis on the learner experience and how technology impacts young people, how they feel in classrooms and what kind of learning environments we’re creating for them.

That focus on student voice, humanity and practical reality was what made the experience feel genuinely meaningful for me.

If you’re thinking about attending an event where you can get genuine value and apply what you’ve learned to your classroom I would strongly recommend visiting BRILLIANT.