The Deep Dispatch · A weekly letter from DEEP

Ideas for educators who think deeply about learning.

A regular newsletter from the DEEP Education Network, sharing practical insights on AI, pedagogy, leadership, curriculum, professional learning and the future of education, written by educators, in plain language.

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FeaturedIssue № 006AI in Education

"On Thursday the OECD and the European Commission published the AILit Framework, the first serious attempt at a shared map for AI literacy in primary and secondary schools. I have been waiting for this for over a year, and I read the whole thing the night it landed."

21 June 2026 · 7 min read

★ Latest issue · just published

The map arrived. The journey did not.

The OECD's AILit framework is the first shared map for AI literacy, and the question of whether a map ever becomes a journey.

◆The OECD-EC AILit framework: four domains, nineteen competences, and what the coverage got wrong.
◆Clare Martin on why wellbeing initiatives fail the moment they are bolted on.
◆The audit rebuilt around the framework, DEEP Track now open, and Lead with AI.

Read Dispatch 006→Listen instead

AG

By Alex Gray

Founder, DEEP Education Network

Previous dispatches

Earlier letters from the desk.

Each Dispatch points back to the long-form essays, episodes and tools that anchor it.

A student studying quietly at a desk, choosing to think rather than reach for a tool.

№ 005

Dispatch issue 00514 June 2026

The students are ahead of us

Why 72% of students chose not to use AI, the OUP report school leaders need, naming the mechanical to keep the thinking, and an unplanned lesson about building on borrowed access.

Dispatch · 005Read Dispatch 005

An open book and a handwritten notebook on a wooden desk, with a blurred bookshelf in the background.

№ 004

Latest dispatch16 May 2026

Are we training teachers for the job AI left behind?

Lesson planning after AI, a piece on the rest ethic, Burkeman on the assumptions underneath rest, and the question worth taking into any staffroom.

Dispatch · 004Read Dispatch 004

A coffee mug beside an open notebook and pen on a wooden desk — a quiet workspace for deep work.

№ 003

Dispatch issue 00310 May 2026

We don't teach adults how to actually work.

The productivity gap, a new DEEP essay on focus, and a companion International Classroom episode about attention.

Dispatch · 003Read Dispatch 003

Teacher engaging with students in a classroom, one student raising their hand.

№ 002

Dispatch issue 00219 Apr 2026

Can you learn to be inspirational?

Students, trust, AI policy, emotional support, and the conditions that make performance possible when pressure is real.

Dispatch · 002Read Dispatch 002

A person writing in a notebook with a pencil, focused and thinking.

№ 001

Dispatch issue 0013 Apr 2026

Learning, building, thinking.

The first DEEP Dispatch connected new podcast episodes, educator builders, and the habit of learning in public.

Dispatch · 001Read Dispatch 001

Reading desk

Recent DEEP essays worth opening.

The newsletter draws from the same editorial bloodstream as the DEEP blog. 64 essays already in the archive — here are the most recent.

Why a normal PRD is not enough when AI builds the thing for you, and what that means for the AI policy sitting in your school's shared drive

Educational Technology/14 Jul 2026

Why a Normal Spec Isn't Enough When AI Builds the Thing

Kerrie sent me a reel about couples and money, and GPT-5.6 had just launched with its new Work feature. So I set out to have AI build us a real app. The specs I would have written for a human engineer were not enough, and the gap between a document that reads well and one an AI cannot misread is the exact same gap sitting inside most school AI policies.

12 min readRead

The five capacities that underpin productive work — sustained attention, designed environments, genuine engagement, deliberate practice and lasting motivation — and where young people are supposed to learn them

Teaching Strategies/18 Jun 2026

The Productivity Skills Your Students Will Need (And Where They'll Learn Them)

The only productivity advice I got in thirteen years of school was two words: work hard. Here are the five capacities that actually sit underneath productive work, the evidence behind each, and the uncomfortable question of where young people are meant to learn them.

9 min readRead

Mechanical teaching tasks like planning and marking fade as AI absorbs them, while the human core of teaching — judgement, relationship and synthesis — is illuminated and concentrated

AI in Education/12 Jun 2026

The Teacher's Job Did Not Shrink. It Moved.

73% of UK secondary students say AI cannot replace their teacher's empathy, and three-quarters want AI in their lessons. The new OUP report shows AI is not replacing teaching. It is redistributing it. Here is what moves, what does not, and what it asks of school leaders.

7 min readRead

Browse the full editorial archive→

Four more threads to keep nearby.

A quieter rail for readers who want to stay with the subject a little longer.

Good professional learning should leave you with a sharper question, not just a longer tab list.

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