The Starlight Blog

Evidence-based thinking on pedagogy, reflective practice and professional growth for UK and International educators.

What Two Landmark Studies Tell Us About AI Coaching (and Why It Matters for Starlight)
5 min read 12

What Two Landmark Studies Tell Us About AI Coaching (and Why It Matters for Starlight)

Over the past year, two rigorous, peer-reviewed studies have quietly changed what we can say with confidence about AI coaching in schools. N...

Blending Human Judgement and AI Insight: A Smarter Coaching Model
7 min read 10

Blending Human Judgement and AI Insight: A Smarter Coaching Model

There is a temptation, when a new coaching tool arrives in a school, to treat it like a shortcut. Upload a lesson. Receive a report. Tick a...

What a Stanford AI Coaching Trial Tells Us About the Future of Teacher Development
4 min read 8

What a Stanford AI Coaching Trial Tells Us About the Future of Teacher Development

One of the most common questions we’re asked about Starlight is a fair one: “Is there any serious research showing that AI feedback can actu...

5 min read 11

Trust Comes First: Our Commitment for 2026

The start of a new year invites reflection. Not resolutions for their own sake, but a chance to be clear about what really matters — and wha...

Why Better Still Matters — and What It Teaches Us About Coaching, Trust, and Improvement
5 min read 10

Why Better Still Matters — and What It Teaches Us About Coaching, Trust, and Improvement

In 2007, the surgeon and writer Atul Gawande published a book called Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance. It is not a book about techno...

This Christmas, We Look to the Star
4 min read 11

This Christmas, We Look to the Star

On the 21st of December, we reach the shortest day of the year and the longest night. For centuries, people have marked this moment with hop...

Mapping Strengths, Not Judgement: Why We Built the Starlight StarMap
4 min read 7

Mapping Strengths, Not Judgement: Why We Built the Starlight StarMap

One of the hardest problems in professional development is not insight — it’s trust. Teachers are rightly cautious about anything that looks...

Why Digital Tools Matter: What Ofsted Now Expects—and How Starlight Supports It
4 min read 11

Why Digital Tools Matter: What Ofsted Now Expects—and How Starlight Supports It

Across the sector, one message keeps resurfacing in Ofsted reports and leadership briefings: schools are expected to use digital technologie...

Introducing My Teaching Journey: Your Personal Growth Story, Brought to Life
5 min read 10

Introducing My Teaching Journey: Your Personal Growth Story, Brought to Life

Today, we’re launching what we believe is the most important upgrade to Starlight to date. It’s called My Teaching Journey — a living, evolv...

New in Starlight: Smarter Audio Categories for Smarter Feedback
3 min read 9

New in Starlight: Smarter Audio Categories for Smarter Feedback

Starlight has just added a small but powerful upgrade: six new audio subcategories you can select when uploading any recording. The default...

Observations Just Got Smarter: Turning Professional Dialogue into Actionable Insight
4 min read 7

Observations Just Got Smarter: Turning Professional Dialogue into Actionable Insight

When we first launched Observations earlier this year, our goal was simple: to bring every strand of professional dialogue — from personalis...

💬 From Conversation to Constellation: How Starlight Is Growing Through Word of Mouth
3 min read 8

💬 From Conversation to Constellation: How Starlight Is Growing Through Word of Mouth

There’s something special about growth that doesn’t come from a marketing budget — but from teachers talking. From one conversation in a sta...

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