What if every PE lesson got feedback? Introducing Starlight to the PE teaching community

Dear PE colleagues, can I ask you something uncomfortable? Think about your classroom PE teaching career so far. Every lesson you have ever delivered to a GCSE PE group, an A-level PE group, a BTEC Sport group. Every explanation of lever systems, every attempt to teach the cardiovascular system, every moment you tried to move a student from describing to evaluating.

Now ask yourself:

How many of those lessons were observed by a trained adult who gave you meaningful, subject-specific feedback afterwards?

Here's the thing: when I ask myself that question honestly, I arrive at a figure that I find genuinely troubling. I estimate that well over 95% (and probably nearer 99%) of my classroom PE teaching went completely unseen and “unfed-back-upon” by any trained adult. Not 50%. Not 70%. Over 95%.

Let that sit for a moment.

We work in what we could proudly call the "learning industry." We design entire frameworks around student feedback, marking policies and assessment for learning. And yet, almost by design, whether intentionally or through assumption, we have constructed a professional world in which a PE teacher can spend an entire career teaching examination groups and receive almost no meaningful feedback on what they are doing.

The annual observation round is not a solution to this problem. It is the symptom of it. We do annual observations precisely because teachers almost never get observed. And when those rare observations do happen? In my experience, they tend toward one of two outcomes: judgement or appeasement, but seldom a robust, honest, PE-specific conversation about teaching and learning.

I have written about this before, including in what I consider the most difficult post I have ever published. If you haven't read it, you can find it here: The worst PE lesson of my career.

Today, I want to tell you about something that I believe can change this. Genuinely change it.

I am delighted to introduce you to Starlight. In January 2026, I was wandering around the startup zone at the BETT exhibition (which, for the record, is one of my favourite things to do at BETT). I have always believed that the problems we face in education are not caused by a lack of ideas. Ideas are abundant. What is rare is the hunger to manufacture a solution. Startups have that hunger.

I walked past a stand, saw the name Starlight, and did what I always do: asked myself "Who are they?" A quick "Hiya, mate. Tell me about what you do" conversation began with Tim, one of Starlight's founders. Within a few seconds, we were deep into a back-and-forth about insufficient and variable quality feedback for PE teachers. I told Tim about the vibrancy of the examination PE teaching community. He told me about what Starlight proposes to do about it.

I left after about 15 minutes. But the conversation stayed with me.

A few days later, Tim emailed and asked if I'd like to receive some Starlight drives and have a go. I said yes. I have been using the system ever since for my own lessons, webinar broadcasts and recordings, and it has been genuinely effective.

Here is what Starlight is, in plain terms: an AI-assisted lesson observation and professional feedback platform that records your teaching, transcribes it, analyses it against a chosen feedback template, and generates a detailed developmental report. All without requiring another adult to be present in your room.

No scheduling. No awkward dynamic. No judgement or appeasement. Just honest, structured, subject-specific feedback, whenever you want it.

The process could not be simpler:

• Place the Starlight USB drive on your lanyard.
• Turn it on.
• Teach your lesson.
• Plug the drive into your computer afterwards.
• Log in to your Starlightmentor.com account.
• Upload the audio.
• The system transcribes the lesson, and AI tools analyse the transcription.
• A report is generated against your chosen feedback template.
• You reflect, write your own thoughts, and add to your ongoing teaching journey.

That last point matters. Starlight is not just a one-off feedback tool. It builds a collation of your professional development over time: a genuine teaching journey, documented and growing with every lesson you record.

You can find out more and start your journey at starlightmentor.com/theeverlearner.

Here is where The EverLearner comes in and where I want to be direct with you about what we have built together.

When I first used Starlight, I recognised immediately that PE teaching is not biology. It is not French. It is not maths. PE classroom teaching is unique in ways that matter enormously to the quality of the feedback a PE teacher needs.

We teach ideas that can always be applied and, in our world, everything that is learned can be felt. Our classrooms become gyms and sports halls within the same lesson. We work with specific subsets of students who often bring their own challenges and strengths to the classroom. We use the E-I-O model - Example, Impact, Outcome for building AO2 skills in students, and we teach in ways that no generic teaching framework captures. And perhaps most importantly of all: we were not trained as classroom teachers. We were trained on the pitch, in the pool, in the hall. Classroom PE practice is something most of us have had to figure out largely alone, guided by generic CPD designed for colleagues in entirely different subjects.

A generic feedback template was never going to be sufficient. So I built one.

Working directly within the Starlight platform, I have authored a Five-Domain PE Teaching Feedback Template structured around the five professional development areas of The EverLearner's PE Teacher Academy:

This template is PE-specific. It speaks the language of examination PE. And it is available to every PE teacher who accesses Starlight through our referral link.

I want to show you. Below is a sample report generated against the Five-Domain template - based on a Year 10 GCSE PE lesson on levers. The teacher is competent and committed. This is the kind of feedback they receive.

📋 Starlight Feedback Report Template: Classroom-based PE/Sport Lesson Feedback (TEL Five-Domain Template) 
Lesson: Year 10 GCSE PE - Levers (Biomechanics) 
Board: AQA

Here is what genuinely excites me about the combination of Starlight and the PE Teacher Academy.

A PE teacher using the Five-Domain template fortnightly, studying the PE Teacher Academy courses that the feedback highlights as development areas, building their reflection log over time, looks different after six months. Their subject knowledge expression sharpens. Their questioning technique develops. Their students begin to produce answers that move from description to evaluation with greater fluency.

Who does that PE teacher become after 12 months? After 24? What happens to their students' exam results? What happens when they apply for a Head of PE role, internally or externally, and they arrive with a documented professional development journey that is PE-specific, evidence-based and ongoing? Who do they become as a mentor for newer colleagues in their department?

This is a biggy. And it is precisely why we describe our mission at The EverLearner as wanting to transform the PE teaching sector into the best-trained and highest-performing classroom teaching network in the world. Not improve it slightly. Transform it.

Starlight, in partnership with the PE Teacher Academy, is one of the most practical steps toward that mission that I have encountered.

• For individual teachers: £15/month or £150/year

• For PE departments: £84–£120 per licence per year (volume dependent)

• The Starlight USB drive is available separately at £15

The Five-Domain PE Teaching Feedback Template, built specifically for classroom-based PE and sport, is available to every teacher who accesses Starlight through The EverLearner's referral link.

👉  Visit starlightmentor.com/theeverlearner to get started today.

I want to be transparent with you. The EverLearner has a referral partnership with Starlight, and we receive commission on subscriptions made through our link. I am telling you that plainly because I think you deserve to know.

What I also want you to know is this: I would not put my name, my network or my mission behind a product I did not believe in. I met Tim at BETT because I was looking for solutions, not partnerships. The partnership came because the solution was real.

I believe Starlight can change what professional development looks like for PE teachers. Not as the only answer, but as a genuinely powerful part of the answer.

When I write a post like this one, introducing something new, asking colleagues to trust my judgement, I feel a particular weight of responsibility. I hope this post has given you enough to make your own decision.

Thank you for reading. I'd be grateful to hear your thoughts, whether you try it or not.

Have a wonderful week.

James