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When we built Starlight, our goal was simple — to create a coaching and performance engine for schools that could turn insight into progress. Since launch, Starlight has helped teachers reflect, grow, and refine their practice through AI-powered lesson feedback. Today, it also helps them reach every learner in the room. We’re proud to announce the release of 20 new Starlight Language Packs, covering the top EAL languages spoken by the 1.6 million EAL students in UK schools —

At STAR21, we believe that insight should be accessible to everyone — not hidden behind long observation cycles or time-consuming paperwork. That’s why we created templates: the engine that gives structure, focus, and purpose to every piece of feedback generated in Starlight. This week, we’re excited to share our latest walkthrough video — a short guided tour that shows just how powerful, flexible, and creative templates can be. What Templates Do Templates in Starlight act as

This week’s Schools Week article about the National Institute of Teaching’s pilot on AI lesson analysis marks an important moment for the profession. For the first time, national attention is turning toward what many of us in schools have already discovered: that audio and transcript-based feedback can help teachers reflect more deeply, more often, and without the pressure of formal observation. At its best, this isn’t about replacing people with algorithms. It’s about using

When Dan first heard about Starlight, he wasn’t convinced. “I’m a teacher, not a machine,” he told his colleagues. “I already have enough screens in my life.” Like many of us, he valued human connection above all — the spark of interaction that can’t be automated. But today, Dan records every single lesson he teaches. His journey from skeptic to superuser tells us something important about what happens when AI becomes a mirror rather than a manager. At first, Dan admits, he t

Every teacher knows the problem. You cover a colleague’s class, guide students through the plan left behind, manage behaviour, answer questions — and then the day moves on. Hours later, you might bump into the class teacher in the corridor and quickly summarise what happened: “They were great, finished task two, just need to go over the last question.” More often, though, that conversation never happens. Emails get lost in inboxes, memories fade, and vital details — what was

We’re thrilled to announce that STAR21 will be exhibiting Starlight, the UK's first AI coaching platform for teachers, at BETT 2026 — the world’s biggest celebration of education and technology — taking place at London’s ExCeL Centre from 21–23 January 2026. Bett brings together over 35,000 educators, innovators, and industry leaders from around the globe — including school leaders, policymakers, charities, and more than 3,000 students — all united by a shared passion for sha

One of the most interesting things about building Starlight is seeing how teachers are beginning to change how they teach — not because anyone told them to, but because of how the feedback makes them think. Recently, a P4C facilitator (find our more about our pilot with Thoughtful here: https://www.sapere.org.uk/2025/10/partnership-with-starlight/ ) testing Starlight reflected that “there’s also the issue of [teachers] trying to gain scores from the system. In one enquiry I w

Thoughtful (formerly SAPERE) and STAR21 are pleased to announce a new partnership to pilot Starlight, an AI-powered coaching platform, within Philosophy for Children and Communities (P4C) practice. This collaboration will explore how AI coaching can support facilitators in reflecting on their enquiries. By capturing lesson audio and generating private, practitioner-facing coaching reports, Starlight offers a new way to strengthen professional development. The goal is not to r

In schools everywhere, coaching is one of the most powerful drivers of professional growth. But until now, the way observations and reflections are recorded has often been fragmented. Teachers and leaders juggle online forms, Word templates, email trails, and handwritten notes. Each piece captures something useful, but they don’t live in one place. The result? Extra admin, lost records, and coaching that feels harder than it should. At STAR21, our mission has always been clea

At St Augustine’s, we’ve been rethinking how we approach target setting and performance management. Too often in schools these processes have felt like an annual compliance exercise: a form to be completed, a set of objectives to be filed away, and little that changes practice through the year. We wanted something more purposeful—something that actually drives growth, not paperwork. Drawing Distinctions: Coaching, QA, and Performance Management Central to our approach has bee

One of the most exciting things about building Starlight is watching teachers not just use the platform, but shape it. Rebecca, has been at the forefront of this. Through her reflections, experiments, and honest feedback, she’s helping us uncover new ways Starlight can add value. After several runs with the platform, Rebecca told us: “Using Starlight has already deepened my reflections. It’s becoming more intelligent about me, even referencing past reflections, which is great

When it comes to professional development, nothing is more powerful than real classroom insight. But nothing is more sensitive either. As we’ve been working with schools to embed Starlight, one of the recurring questions has been about audio recordings: how are they stored, who has access, and what happens if a recording captures something serious? These are not small questions. Teachers rightly want to know that they are safe. Senior leaders need to be confident that adoptin

From the very beginning, Starlight has been built on one non-negotiable: it will never be used as a surveillance or performance management tool. Coaching, reflection, and professional growth are at its heart. Teachers and school leaders told us clearly what they wanted — support, not scrutiny. Starlight was designed to reduce workload, spark insight, and provide anonymised, aggregated data that helps leaders see patterns without ever singling out individuals. We know that if

One of the most exciting things about Starlight is seeing how schools are finding creative, adaptable ways to use it. More and more schools are discovering that Starlight isn’t just about lesson feedback — it’s also a powerful tool for capturing and developing everyday professional practice. A great example is the growing use of our Meeting Minutes & Actions Generator. This system template has become one of the most popular across schools, thanks to its massive time-saving po

When we launched our pilot earlier this year, our goal was simple: to see if Starlight could make a tangible difference to teachers’ professional growth and wellbeing. The results are now in—and we’re proud to share that every single one of our pilot schools has decided to purchase the platform for their setting. This is more than just a milestone for us—it’s a statement about the value Starlight delivers. Schools are operating under unprecedented pressures on workload, budge

Henry Ford is often credited with saying: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” The point is simple but profound: when something truly new comes along, people can’t always imagine it until they experience it. Steve Jobs echoed the same idea: “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” When Apple unveiled the iPhone, nobody was demanding a tiny touchscreen computer in their pocket. They thought they wanted better phones

Sometimes the most powerful innovations begin with a simple idea tried out in a real classroom. That’s exactly what happened at Carterton Community College, where Assistant Headteacher Ed Brodhurst recently explored a new use for Starlight. Following a training session from Oxfordshire County Council’s Hearing Support Team, Ed asked the presenter to wear a Starlight USB recorder. The goal was straightforward: capture the training session, generate a transcript, and share it w

For decades, salary was seen as the primary lever in recruitment. Offer more money, attract better people. But the past few years have shown this formula is breaking down. The world’s biggest firms have proved it. Meta famously poured over $100 million into poaching AI engineers from rivals. Many took the money, but a significant number drifted back to their former employers—or elsewhere—within a year. Why? Because while pay packets buy time, they rarely buy belonging. People

One of the most striking features of Starlight is its intelligence. Recently, I uploaded audio from a whole-staff training session. This wasn’t a classroom lesson — it was professional development time. Yet Starlight immediately understood the difference. Instead of defaulting to classroom-based feedback, it generated a report tailored to the leadership and coaching context. It identified how the session built trust, set norms, and addressed boundaries between coaching and QA

The first weeks of term are always a mixture of excitement and exhaustion. After a summer of rest—or at least a change of pace—teachers often step back into school life with renewed energy. Yet it doesn’t take long before the demands of planning, marking, pastoral care, and extracurricular commitments begin to pile up again. It’s no surprise that teacher burnout remains one of the most pressing issues in education today. The balance between doing the job well and maintaining