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askel

AI and the rules.

AI tools, like ChatGPT, can write or change text for you. This page sets out the exam rules on AI that Askel is built around, and what Askel does and doesn’t do. Each part links to its step on How it works.

The documents

The documents we build around.

JCQ Instructions for conducting coursework 2026-27The rules for the EPQ. Askel’s production log, sign-offs and statements follow them.
JCQ Instructions for conducting non-examination assessments 2026-27The rules for NEA subjects: coursework marked in school, then checked by the exam board. Each subject page follows them.
JCQ AI Use in Assessments, September 2026What schools must do about AI tools. The five steps on How it works are built around it.
JCQ Information for Candidates: AIWhat students must be told. Students read it in Askel and tick to say they have, with the date.
Each exam board’s AI guidanceBoard notes show on each subject page, with a link to the board’s own words.

JCQ is the group that writes the shared rules for the main exam boards. Checked against JCQ documents effective 1 September 2026.

No AI

Askel uses no AI.

  • No AI chat
  • No AI coach
  • No AI marking
  • No AI detection

Students’ work is never sent to an AI service.

Show

The AI-use record.

If a student uses an AI tool, they say so in Askel. JCQ asks for four things, and the record has all four:

  1. 01The toolIts name and a link to it
  2. 02The dateWhen it was used
  3. 03What was asked, and what it gaveA screenshot, so it can’t be edited
  4. 04How it was usedIn the student’s own words
  • For NEA subjects, the screenshot stays with the student. Askel keeps a link and a fingerprint: a unique code worked out from the file. If the file changes, the code changes.
  • The supervisor signs the record too.
ShowShow on How it works
Notice

Facts, not scores.

Askel never guesses whether AI wrote something. Teachers see facts, like when the work was written and how it grew, with questions they could ask. Never a score. Students don’t see these pages.

“can produce both false positives and false negatives”
JCQ, AI Use in Assessments, section 8, on AI detection tools · Read the source

What this means: software that guesses whether AI wrote something can get it wrong both ways.

NoticeNotice on How it works
Safeguarding

No chat in Askel.

There’s no chat in Askel, with AI or between students. Students talk to their teachers in comments on their own work, which staff can see.

Later

Exploring AI to help teachers.

We’re exploring how AI could help teachers with coursework, to reduce workload and cognitive overwhelm: the feeling of having too much to keep track of at once.

We’re talking with the DfE and JCQ about this now. These talks aren’t an approval or an endorsement.

  • Askel has no AI today.
  • Any AI would be for teachers, to help with admin. It would never mark work or guess whether AI wrote something.
  • We’ll tell schools first, keep it off by default, and follow DfE’s AI product safety standards.

DfE is the Department for Education. JCQ is the group that writes the shared rules for the main exam boards.

From first idea to hand-in, on the record.

Apply to pilot Book a call