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The start of a new year invites reflection. Not resolutions for their own sake, but a chance to be clear about what really matters — and what we are choosing to double down on. For us at Starlight, that word is trust. Trust is not a feature. It is not a setting. It is the foundation everything else stands on. And as we move into 2026, we want to say clearly and publicly: trust will remain the first principle on which Starlight is built. Why trust matters — especially in schoo

In 2007, the surgeon and writer Atul Gawande published a book called Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance. It is not a book about technology. It is not even really a book about medicine. It is a book about what it means to improve in complex, high-stakes professions where the work matters deeply and the margin for error is slim. Nearly two decades on, Better remains quietly radical — and surprisingly relevant to education. Gawande’s central claim is deceptively simple: ex

On the 21st of December, we reach the shortest day of the year and the longest night. For centuries, people have marked this moment with hope — because from here, the light returns. It is no accident that Christmas sits here, at the darkest point. And it is no accident that the central symbol of the season is a star. A star above a stable. A star at the top of a tree. A small light that helps people find their way. This feels like the right moment to pause and to take stock.

One of the hardest problems in professional development is not insight — it’s trust. Teachers are rightly cautious about anything that looks like observation, evaluation, or performance management dressed up as support. And yet, schools also know that some of their greatest untapped potential lies in something far simpler: Understanding and sharing the strengths that already exist within their teams. This tension is what led us to build the Starlight Teaching Strengths StarMa

Across the sector, one message keeps resurfacing in Ofsted reports and leadership briefings: schools are expected to use digital technologies intelligently to strengthen teaching, improve professional development, and secure better outcomes for pupils. Ofsted’s inspection toolkit — which explains how the EIF is applied in schools — highlights the importance of using resources, including digital technologies, to support pupils’ progress and outcomes. “Ensure that the curriculu

Today, we’re launching what we believe is the most important upgrade to Starlight to date. It’s called My Teaching Journey — a living, evolving map of your professional growth that turns everyday reflection into a clear, coherent story of how your practice is changing over time. For the first time, teachers can see their development: the patterns, the strengths, the shifts in focus, and the tiny adjustments that add up to real impact. Not as a score. Not as a judgement. But a

Starlight has just added a small but powerful upgrade: six new audio subcategories you can select when uploading any recording. The default remains Lesson, so nothing changes for everyday use. But if you click the category drop-down, you can now choose a more specific type of session — allowing Starlight to generate the right feedback automatically, without needing to run another template. This makes the system more intelligent, more context-aware, and better aligned with the

When we first launched Observations earlier this year, our goal was simple: to bring every strand of professional dialogue — from personalised and private AI coaching feedback and formal observations to informal reflections — into one secure, teacher-first space. Now, after months of collaboration and feedback from schools across the UK, that feature has taken a major leap forward. The latest upgrade makes Observations not only easier to use, but far more powerful as a whole-

There’s something special about growth that doesn’t come from a marketing budget — but from teachers talking. From one conversation in a staffroom. From a colleague’s recommendation over coffee. From a mentor saying, “You should try this.” That’s how Starlight is growing. What started as a small idea in one school in the West of England has quietly begun to spread. Without campaigns or adverts, more schools are finding their way to us — through word-of-mouth, through trust, a

As Ofsted shifts towards deeper, evidence-informed evaluation, schools are now expected to demonstrate impact through real examples — not just policies or meeting minutes. The updated inspection framework calls for tangible, triangulated evidence showing how safeguarding, inclusion, curriculum quality, and professional development are lived out in daily practice. Starlight is designed to help schools do exactly that. 🔍 Turning Lesson Dialogue into Defensible Evidence Every S

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