Starlight keeps improving. Our walkthrough has to keep up.
There is a slightly unusual problem that comes with developing a platform quickly.
The video explaining how it works keeps going out of date.
Over the past year, we have refreshed the Starlight walkthrough repeatedly as the platform has evolved. New capabilities have arrived. Existing features have become more useful. The feedback experience has been redesigned. The intelligence underneath Starlight has improved. And, just as importantly, we have continued to learn from the teachers and leaders using it.
So we have updated the walkthrough again.
Our new video, From Upload to Insight, is now the best place to start if you want to understand what Starlight does, how it works, and how its different parts fit together.
Watch From Upload to Insight →
Now available in more languages
From Upload to Insight is also now available in Dutch, Cantonese, Welsh, French and Mandarin, making it easier for more teachers and school leaders to explore Starlight in their own language.
Watch in Dutch → https://youtu.be/AKwLqn2HAbU?si=tf-JFLDH4UVvcn3I
Watch in Cantonese → https://youtu.be/BYXwU2DA7wA?si=FxBTtGPL9DbALxMK
Watch in Welsh → https://youtu.be/Z-DV7uOgkk0?si=KXSDwTCIxUXloJTD
Watch in French → https://youtu.be/_lZysWaViOk?si=flDvSp0s2pHXsims
Watch in Mandarin → https://youtu.be/fN8J3oP2-NI
The go-to introduction to Starlight
We use the walkthrough with schools exploring Starlight for the first time, and it is the starting point for teachers and Starlight Leads joining the platform.
The aim is deliberately simple: within a few minutes, you should understand the journey from recording and uploading a lesson to receiving feedback, reflecting on it and turning that insight into action.
The new walkthrough covers the main Starlight experience, including:
- uploading lessons and other professional conversations
- transcripts, personalised feedback and Classroom Discourse Analysis
- reflection, Deep Dive and Ask Starlight
- the Lesson Toolkit, Teaching Journey and Development Actions
- human observations alongside AI feedback
- Organisation Focus, Constellation and leadership insight
- templates, guidance and support.
That is a lot of Starlight.
But it is not all of Starlight.
And that distinction matters.
More capability does not have to mean more complexity
One of the challenges of building Starlight is deciding what not to add.
A product does not become better simply because it acquires more buttons, dashboards and features. Every addition has to earn its place.
Does it make feedback more useful?
Does it save teachers time rather than create another task?
Does it help turn reflection into action?
Does it give leaders better insight without compromising professional trust?
Can somebody understand how to use it without needing extensive training?
Those questions shape the platform itself, but they also shaped this walkthrough.
We could have demonstrated every setting, every export option and every possible workflow. Instead, we have concentrated on the features that help a new user understand Starlight quickly and start using it confidently.
For everything else, there is a growing Walkthrough Library and Documentation Library inside the platform, allowing users to go deeper when they need to.
Starlight is not standing still
The pace of development has been significant.
We recently upgraded the AI underneath Starlight for the fourth time in twelve months, after testing whether newer models could produce meaningfully better analysis for teachers and schools.
We have launched an enhanced feedback report, designed in layers so a teacher can take a quick insight from a lesson or explore much more deeply when time allows.
We have introduced Teaching Classes so that feedback follows the class, not just the teacher, giving Starlight more of the context that makes feedback useful.
And we have continued to develop Teaching Journey, Development Actions, Observations, templates, the Lesson Toolkit and Constellation — connecting individual reflection with a much richer picture of teaching and learning over time.
The principle underneath all of this has remained remarkably consistent.
Starlight exists to make high-quality feedback specific, timely, actionable and regular.
Why regular reflection matters
Whilst the technology is new, the underlying idea is not.
The Education Endowment Foundation's guidance on effective professional development emphasises the importance of professional development being well designed and capable of changing classroom practice.
The Department for Education's Standard for Teachers' Professional Development similarly sets out expectations for effective professional development.
And the EEF describes high-quality teaching as the most important lever schools have for improving pupil outcomes.
The challenge for schools has rarely been recognising the importance of teacher development.
The challenge is making high-quality feedback and reflection sufficiently regular, specific and sustainable to become part of normal professional practice.
That is the problem Starlight is trying to solve.
Improving the platform without losing the principles
As Starlight becomes more capable, we think the principles around its use become more important, not less.
Individual feedback remains private to the teacher.
Teachers decide what they upload, what they keep and what they share.
Leadership insight through Constellation is anonymised and aggregated.
Human coaching and AI feedback can sit alongside one another rather than one replacing the other.
We explored why that matters in Trust Is the Real Test for AI Coaching.
A more powerful platform should give professionals more agency, not less.
Start here
If you are discovering Starlight for the first time, From Upload to Insight is the place to begin.
If you already use Starlight, it is worth watching too. There is a good chance something has changed since you first logged in — or that there is a feature you have not yet explored.
And, judging by the pace at which Starlight continues to develop, this probably will not be the last time we update the walkthrough.
That is rather the point.
We want Starlight to keep learning, improving and becoming more useful — while remaining intuitive enough that teachers can spend their time thinking about teaching, not learning software.
Watch the new Starlight walkthrough: From Upload to Insight →
Spark Insight with Starlight.
Coaching, not compliance.
Growth, not grading.
Insight, not surveillance.
The Insight Engine is written by Adam Sturdee, co-founder of Starlight, the UK’s teacher-first AI-powered coaching platform, and a senior leader with responsibility for teaching, learning and coaching. 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.
