Hale School: AI in Education
A School with a Long Tradition and a Timely Vision
Founded in 1858, Hale School is one of Australia’s leading independent Anglican boys’ schools and is consistently ranked among Western Australia’s top academic institutions. Its 118-acre bushland campus provides expansive space for learning, sport, wellbeing, and connection with nature—reflecting the school’s long-standing belief that excellent education balances academic rigour with personal development.
While deeply rooted in tradition, Hale has always embraced innovation with purpose. As artificial intelligence began reshaping the global education landscape, the school recognised both its extraordinary potential and its emerging risks. Rather than rushing toward trend-driven adoption, Hale took a measured, thoughtful approach—seeking solutions that were academically sound, ethically aligned, and capable of strengthening, not replacing, the human relationships at the heart of learning.
This deliberate mindset led Hale to partner with Boon Solutions and Microsoft Azure to explore what responsible, purposeful AI in Education could look like. Together, they set out to design a secure, practical, and personalised approach that aligned with Hale’s educational philosophy—an approach where technology supports teachers, empowers students, and enhances daily learning without compromising the values that have defined the school for more than a century.
The Challenge: Making Rich School Data Instantly Accessible
Hale already had a well-established and sophisticated data environment that provided staff with deep academic insights. The challenge wasn’t the quality of the data — it was how quickly and easily students and teachers could access it.
Day-to-day learning required information that was fast, personalised, and available in the moment. Students often needed instant feedback, revision guidance, or a clearer picture of their progress, while teachers needed a simpler way to support learning conversations without navigating multiple systems.
Hale wanted to remove friction, reduce the steps involved, and give every user a single, conversational doorway into the information that mattered most.
This ambition set a new technical benchmark:
“One of the biggest challenges in developing the AI tool was our ambitious goal: delivering deeply personalised academic data to each student the moment they opened the app.”
— Rob Barugh, Director of Learning Technology
Embedding that level of real-time personalisation required a secure, intelligent layer over existing systems — ensuring the right data appeared instantly, in a format students and teachers could naturally engage with.
An AI Powered Academic Assistant Built on Microsoft Azure
Hale’s solution was to create a secure, intelligent academic assistant built on Microsoft Azure, designed to make rich school data instantly accessible through natural language.
The initiative was a collaborative effort between Hale’s IT department, education leaders, and design teams, ensuring the assistant aligned with teaching needs and student experience.Instead of navigating dashboards or multiple systems, students can simply ask a question — “How am I tracking in Maths?”, “What should I revise next?”, “Where did I improve this term?” — and receive personalised, real-time insights drawn directly from their own learning data.
The AI assistant provides:
- Instant visibility of current grades and subject performance
- Meaningful feedback on strengths, weaknesses, and learning progress
- Immediate answers to common questions, reducing repetitive queries
- Personalised study suggestions and revision guidance
Built on Azure’s secure architecture, the assistant ensures that information is delivered with the right permissions, governance, and safeguards. The result is a seamless experience where students can reflect on their learning, identify areas for growth, and take action — all without friction.
For teachers, the tool reduces the need to manually pull data for check-ins or conversations. Instead, it becomes a companion that supports evidence-based teaching and stronger learning relationships.
A Human-Centred Approach to AI
“Artificial Intelligence is absolutely going to be a game changer. But the heart of teaching is relationships—empathy, care, humour. We want machines to do what machines are best at, so teachers can focus on what they are best at.”
– Dr. Peter Coutis, Deputy Principal
Throughout the project, Hale School emphasised that AI should support teachers—not replace them. The school’s philosophy is grounded in relationships, care, empathy, and the craft of teaching. AI’s role is to handle the heavy lifting of data retrieval and summarisation, freeing teachers to focus on human connection.
This approach is what makes the Hale School solution stand out. It is not AI for the sake of technology—it is AI used intentionally to strengthen the bond between teaching, learning, and student wellbeing.
The Impact: More Insight, More Confidence, More Agency
The introduction of the AI assistant has significantly reshaped how students and teachers interact with academic information. Students now receive real-time clarity on their progress, helping them take greater responsibility for their learning. Many boys report feeling more prepared for assessments and more aware of where they need to focus their study time.
Teachers are also seeing meaningful change. With fewer repetitive questions and clearer visibility of class-wide trends, they can spend more time building relationships, providing targeted guidance, and shaping the classroom experience. The AI assistant has become a trusted extension of their toolkit—one that amplifies the impact of great teaching.
“Partnering on this AI journey has been transformative. Students receive instant tailored insights into their learning, and teachers gain new visibility.”
– Rob Barugh, Director of Learning Technology
At a whole-school level, the initiative has strengthened Hale’s data culture. Integrating Microsoft Azure with governed Qlik models ensures that insights are precise, secure, and scalable. This architecture now forms the foundation for future AI innovation at Hale, including potential features around assessment planning, wellbeing indicators, and deeper subject-level insights.
What began as a technical project has become a strategic enabler—supporting students academically, enhancing teaching efficiency, and setting a benchmark for AI in Education across Australia.
Hale School shows how its AI assistant gives students instant, human-like academic feedback—helping them understand results, improve writing, and revise with personalised practice tasks.
Leaders explain how centralised, trusted data empowers teachers and staff—reducing admin time, improving decision-making, and strengthening wellbeing and learning outcomes.
Explore how Hale School built a secure, ISO-aligned data foundation with Boon Solutions—preparing the school for responsible AI, real-time insights, and future innovation.
Ready to optimise your data strategy?
Connect with us to explore how we can help.
Further Reading
Explore more on the technologies and frameworks mentioned in this article:
🔗 Watch Hale School: AI in Education Series
🔗 AI in Australian Schools: Secure, Compliant, and Scalable Solutions
🔗 Hale School: Unlocking the Potential of Data Analytics to Improve Student Outcomes
🔗 Boon Solutions: Industries We Help
