From ‘What Happened?’ to ‘What’s Next’: Rethinking How We Share Cover Lesson Feedback

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 covered, who struggled, what went well — quietly disappear.

It’s a small gap in communication, but across hundreds of lessons, it adds up to lost learning time and unnecessary workload.

A Smarter Way to Close the Loop

Meet our newest innovation — the Starlight Cover Lesson Report Template.

Designed to tackle one of the biggest communication gaps in schools, it turns every cover lesson into a seamless handover. Built directly into the Starlight platform, it lets a cover supervisor or teacher capture the audio of a lesson, upload it, and receive a polished, ready-to-send summary report in just minutes.

That report gives the class teacher a clear picture of:

• What the intended activity was and how far students got.

• Which tasks were completed or need finishing.

• Notes on engagement, behaviour, and any follow-up needed.

• Practical details like resources used or equipment left out.

Because the process takes less than two minutes, it saves supervisors from writing lengthy emails — and ensures teachers can pick up seamlessly from where the class left off.

Why This Matters More Than Ever

Recent research by UNISON (2024) found that half of all teaching assistants regularly cover classes — and one in seven spend over 11 hours a week doing so. Yet more than half say they’re rarely given a lesson plan, and three-quarters receive no time for preparation or backfill support. Many cover supervisors are not qualified teachers, but are still expected to keep learning on track.

This means millions of cover lessons every year are being delivered by support staff without structured feedback, professional guidance, or consistent communication with classroom teachers. Starlight helps to change that.

Coaching for Everyone Who Covers

Because Starlight was originally built as a coaching and professional-learning engine, every upload also produces developmental feedback — not just a summary for the class teacher. This means cover supervisors receive coaching-style reflections on their communication, presence, and classroom management drawn directly from the lesson transcript.

For schools, that means cover isn’t just about supervision anymore — it becomes a live professional-learning opportunity. Over time, this helps build skill, confidence, and consistency across the wider team, especially for those supporting learning without formal teaching qualifications.

What’s Next

The Cover Lesson Report is the latest addition to Starlight’s growing library of system templates, joining others like the Teaching Insights Scale, Behaviour and Climate Review, and Meeting Minutes Generator. More are on the way — new ways to use lesson and meeting transcripts to enhance professional learning, reduce workload, and strengthen communication across schools.

As one cover coordinator put it: “This could be the perfect opportunity to bring consistency and clarity back to cover lessons.”

With Starlight, even the most routine parts of school life are becoming opportunities to spark insight — and engineer progress.

Starlight – Spark Insight.

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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.