Building Trust, Reducing Barriers: A Local Approach to Ethical AI in Education

At STAR21, we believe that innovation in education must be grounded in integrity, collaboration, and clarity. That’s why we’re working closely with local partners and reaching out to policymakers such as Dr Andrew Murrison MP, to ensure that AI tools like Starlight are adopted ethically, confidently, and in a way that genuinely supports teachers and school leaders.

Starlight is the UK’s first AI-powered coaching platform designed specifically for teachers. Built here in Wiltshire, it allows teachers to record their lessons and receive instant, personalised feedback—along with automatically generated recap materials, homework instructions, and retrieval questions. It’s already helping schools reduce planning time, support professional growth, and access anonymised insights for senior leaders.

But for AI to make a real difference, schools need more than just a good product—they need trust, clarity, and guidance. That’s why we’re seeking to build a local framework that supports adoption. We’re offering One West early access to our DPIA and data processing documentation, and opening the door to partnership so schools can move forward with confidence, not uncertainty.

This work is deeply aligned with the Department for Education’s own priorities. The DfE has made clear that AI can help reduce teacher workload and stem the growing retention crisis. Starlight directly addresses these aims by solving three major challenges:

1. Scaling coaching – personalised feedback without formal observations

2. Reducing planning workload – auto-generated classroom resources from transcripts

3. Empowering school leaders – real-time, anonymised insight through our Constellation dashboard

One of our early pilot schools, though enthusiastic, had to withdraw due to the internal complexity of completing a standalone risk assessment without clear external guidance. We want to fix that—not just for our platform, but for the wider community of educators ready to embrace innovation responsibly.

We also believe that innovation doesn’t have to come from Silicon Valley. It can start in classrooms in Wiltshire. We’re proud that Starlight was built here, tested here, and that our founding school was recently recognised in the 2025 EdTech50 for its pioneering use of AI to support staff and students.

If you represent a school, local authority, training provider, or policy body and want to be part of shaping how AI can ethically and effectively support education in the UK—we’d love to hear from you.

Together, we can reduce barriers, build trust, and give our teachers the tools they need to thrive.

The Insight Engine is written by Adam Sturdee, co-founder of Starlight—the UK’s first AI-powered coaching platform—and Assistant Headteacher at St Augustine’s Catholic College. This blog is part of a wider mission to support educators through meaningful reflection, not performance metrics. It documents the journey of building Starlight from the ground up, and explores how AI, when shaped with care, can reduce workload, surface insight, and help teachers think more deeply about their practice. Rooted in the belief that growth should be private, professional, and purposeful, The Insight Engine offers ideas and stories that put insight—not judgment—at the centre of development.