Leadership, AI, and the view from inside a school

I am a serving Assistant Headteacher for Teaching and Learning, a History teacher and a co-founder of Starlight. I started teaching in 2004, worked as an Advanced Skills Teacher and Lead Practitioner, and have led teaching, learning and coaching as an assistant headteacher since 2019. My advice is shaped by the decisions and constraints of a working school.

 

Across twenty-two years in education, I have led whole-school improvement, built coaching programmes, written policy and run the staff development that turns a document into a habit. As a former SSAT National Trainer, I have also worked with educators beyond my own school. I know what workload pressure feels like in March, what safeguarding responsibility involves, and why good ideas need to fit the time and capacity staff actually have.

 

I help school and trust leaders make clear, informed decisions about AI: where it can help, where professional judgement is essential, who is accountable, and how to judge whether an approach is working. That means connecting strategy, governance and staff development with the everyday work of teaching.

 

I co-founded Starlight to make regular coaching more accessible. It turns lesson recordings into private, structured feedback in minutes, giving teachers a starting point for reflection and their next coaching conversation. Teachers control their recordings and feedback; leaders see anonymised trends to guide professional learning. Individual feedback stays out of performance management. Building the platform gives me direct experience of the trust, design and implementation questions that schools need to ask of AI.

 

I write on AI and school leadership and speak to school, trust and conference audiences across the UK. My work follows one principle: technology should strengthen professional judgement and help teachers do their best work.

 

If you would like to see that approach in practice, explore Starlight.