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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

This September we’re unveiling Constellation, Starlight’s new leadership dashboard — and today we’re sharing a first look video walkthrough. Constellation has been built to solve a persistent problem: school leaders are often left in the dark. Relying on drop-ins or snapshots gives only fragments of what’s happening in classrooms. Constellation changes that. By drawing on thousands of anonymised lesson transcripts, Constellation connects the dots into a clear, navigable pictu

Launching Starlight into schools is about more than just technology. It’s about creating a safe, professional space for teachers to reflect on their practice without fear of judgement. One of the most common questions we hear is around data, ownership, and transparency. Teachers rightly want to know: Who owns the recordings? How is the data used? Can it ever be misused for surveillance or performance management? To support school leaders and staff in answering these questions

The first weeks of a new school year always feel like standing at the helm of a ship about to set sail. The direction you set now will shape the voyage for months ahead. For middle and senior leaders, the temptation is often to tighten the ropes, issue directives, and try to steer every turn of the wheel. But sustainable progress rarely comes from top-down control. It comes from cultivating the conditions in which staff can grow, contribute, and drive improvement from the gro

When schools talk about building high-performance cultures, coaching is usually near the top of the agenda. Few would dispute that great coaching—grounded in trust, dialogue, and relational warmth—can transform teaching practice. Yet despite decades of evidence, coaching remains patchy, inconsistent, or fragile in too many schools. Why? The barriers are not simply logistical but cultural and strategic. The Cultural Challenge Teachers value their autonomy. Professional pride m

The new report cards will assess schools across up to 11 distinct areas, depending on the institution's offerings. From November 2025, Ofsted inspections will look very different. Gone are the single-word overall judgements. In their place come multi-category report cards, richer narratives, and a sharper focus on how schools support the ongoing development of teaching. For school leaders, this marks both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge: evidence will need to be

When we think about coaching, our minds often turn to elite athletes or high-performing executives. Top footballers, Olympic runners, Premier League managers, CEOs of global firms — none of them would dream of working without a coach. Coaching isn’t seen as remedial for them. It’s an essential part of sustaining and elevating performance. And yet, in schools, the very professionals entrusted with shaping the next generation are too often denied the same expectation of high-qu

We’re excited to launch our brand-new Launchpad Programme — and our latest video shows exactly how it works and how it can spark change in your school. In just one term, the Launchpad Programme equips a small, trusted group of staff — your Starlight Navigators — to explore the platform, master its full potential, and prepare to lead whole-school adoption. These early adopters are the foundation of long-term success, modelling best practice and inspiring colleagues to follow.

In March 2016, millions watched as AlphaGo, an AI developed by DeepMind, faced off against Lee Sedol, one of the greatest Go players of all time. It was game two. Midway through the match, AlphaGo played a move so unexpected that commentators thought it was a mistake. Move 37. A stone placed not where convention, training, or human instinct suggested — but where a deep, unseen strategy was unfolding. Lee Sedol left the room. Spectators murmured. In the hours that followed, it

Choice matters — just like colours on a palette, Starlight now lets schools pick the AI model that best fits their needs. At Starlight, we’ve always believed that trust, transparency, and flexibility should be built into every decision we make. Today, we’re excited to announce a new layer of choice for the schools and organisations we work with. As you know, AI is moving fast. New capabilities emerge every month, and we’re committed to making sure Starlight users can benefit

Today marks an important moment for us at STAR21. We’ve just released our first video to introduce our new YouTube channel — and it’s more than just an introduction. It’s an open invitation to join us on a journey. Our mission is simple but ambitious: to use AI to provide feedback that is specific, timely, actionable, and regular — feedback built for the 21st century. This is what we call our STAR approach, and it’s at the heart of everything we do. In the video, we introduce