Unlocking Inclusion: How Starlight Is Opening New Doors for Deaf Students

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 with staff.

But Ed immediately saw a bigger opportunity. What if Starlight transcripts could also be used to support deaf students directly? By converting spoken lessons into accessible written resources, teachers could provide clarity, reinforce learning, and give students with hearing loss a permanent, reviewable record of what was said.

We loved this idea—and it’s a perfect example of how Starlight templates can be created and adapted by schools to meet their unique needs. In this case, we worked on a template that takes a transcript and transforms it into a tailored resource for deaf students, including:

• A plain English lesson summary

• Key vocabulary with definitions

• Step-by-step instructions from teacher explanations

• Visual or written equivalents of spoken examples

• Short retrieval questions

• A reflection box for the student to consolidate learning

The result? A personalised, accessible lesson resource that extends the impact of teaching beyond the spoken word.

Templates as Creative Engines

What Ed’s experiment demonstrates is that Starlight is not a one-size-fits-all platform. Instead, templates allow settings and teachers to use the technology creatively and adaptively, shaping outputs to their own contexts—whether it’s staff CPD, lesson coaching, or supporting learners with SEND.

And we’re only just scratching the surface. Every week, new possibilities are emerging: feedback logs for individual pupils, staff training summaries, cross-departmental coaching insights, and now inclusion resources for deaf learners.

Building a Template Community

We believe the next step is to harness this creative energy across our network of Starlight schools. That’s why we’re planning a public template library—a connected community space where users can:

• Share their own Starlight templates

• Receive credit for their contributions

• Discover, adapt, and re-use the ideas of others

Our vision is to create not just a platform, but a living ecosystem of innovation—where every contribution makes Starlight more useful, more inclusive, and more empowering.

Ed’s idea is a reminder of what’s possible when teachers are trusted to experiment and when technology is designed to serve people, not the other way around. Inclusion, creativity, and collaboration—that’s what Starlight stands for.

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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.