An AI literacy assembly for secondary schools. Students explore what AI and technology actually cost: your data, your attention, and your autonomy. KS3/KS4/KS5.

Handle With Care: It’s Not Always Free is the third assembly in the Handle With Care trilogy, a three-part series designed to help students think critically about artificial intelligence without dismissing it. It works as a complete standalone. Assembly 1, It’s Not Always Right, is available free in my TES shop.

This assembly tackles the idea that free is never quite free. Students look at what they actually hand over when they use AI and technology: their data, their attention, and gradually, their ability to think and decide independently. The assembly moves from the personal to the planetary, taking in data profiling, engineered habits, and the environmental cost of always-on AI services, before landing on a question students can actually do something with.

The assembly uses a commitment-before-reveal mechanic throughout, keeping students actively engaged rather than passively watching. It runs in 15 to 20 minutes and requires no specialist knowledge to deliver.

What’s included:

• Editable assembly PowerPoint
• Scripted slide notes and comments
• Teacher guide including timing tables for 15 and 20 minute versions, tone guidance, and suggested responses to student pushback

Want the full trilogy plus three editable tutor time follow-up activities including The Autonomy Audit, a 20 minute form time activity that extends the learning from this assembly instead? The** Handle With Care bundle **is available here: /teaching-resource/resource-13454319

Curriculum links:
Mapped to the PSHE Association Programme of Study (2026) and DfE statutory online safety guidance. Suitable for KS3 and KS4, Years 7 to 11. Works equally well with sixth form students.