A teacher who builds the AI.
Moonlabs is the operator-led AI Academy in Derby. We run three live companies — Homemove, home.co.uk and homedata.co.uk — and we teach twelve students per cohort to ship a real AI product, sell it to a real customer, and raise on it. Three pillars: Coding, Commercials, Investment. Twelve weeks. £6,000.
Moonlabs is what we are. Two operators — James Freestone and Louis O’Connell-Bristow — who run Homemove, home.co.uk and homedata.co.uk. The whole Moonlabs Academy is what happens when career operators decide to teach. We take pedagogy seriously — you will recognise the discipline.
The Academy is what we do. A twelve-week, in-person, twelve-student cohort in Derby. You build a real AI product. You sign a paid pilot on it. You write a deck and a financial model. You leave with a deployed system, a paying customer reference and a live investor pipeline. Coding, Commercials, Investment — the three pillars taught in equal weight every week. The summer cohort (mid-June to early September) is built deliberately around the school holiday window.
Why this page exists. Teaching is in the middle of a reshape it did not ask for — generative AI changed homework, marking, lesson planning and assessment overnight, and the official CPD response has mostly been “here are some prompts to copy”. A senior teacher trying to do the job properly in 2026 needs something materially more. You leave the Academy as the teacher who can ship the AI — or as the ed-tech founder of a tool your school would have bought from a vendor.
Coding · the classroom-AI stack, built defensibly
Lesson-planning agents, differentiation pipelines, marking systems with auditable evals, retrieval over your scheme of work, agentic feedback on student writing. Evals and audit trails from week one because AI in education has to defend itself to a line manager and an Ofsted lead. A deployed classroom-AI tool by week twelve.
Commercials · the ed-tech founder economics
Schools and MATs are spending on AI tooling for the first time. Pricing per teacher seat or per pupil, a one-page pilot agreement, the school as the first paying customer. Senior teachers who ship are moving into MAT central roles or founder seats at salary bands the classroom does not reach. A paid pilot by week six.
Investment · raising on ed-tech AI
Eleven Labs (used in classrooms widely), Khanmigo backed at Khan Academy scale, MagicSchool $15m, Brisk Teaching funded, Synthesis School raising at unicorn rumour, Tutor.com, Quizlet AI — ed-tech AI for teachers is a live thesis on every UK ed-tech fund. Cap table, ten-slide deck, financial model, term sheets. A live investor pipeline by demo day.
Common questions.
I have no engineering background. Is this realistic for a teacher?
Yes. AI tooling has collapsed the on-ramp; we have taken senior non-coding professionals through to a deployed product in twelve weeks. More on that here.
When can a teacher realistically do this? Term-time is impossible.
The summer cohort (mid-June to early September) is built around exactly the school summer holiday window. Several past students have done it that way; we offer a cohort outside of term-time deliberately.
Can my school fund this?
Sometimes — through CPD budgets, AI strategy allocations, or the Apprenticeship Levy for MATs that have one. Full funding routes here. Many teachers fund it themselves, often deciding the career trajectory is worth the £6,000.
Is this aimed at primary, secondary or HE?
All. Most past teacher-students have been secondary HoDs or college / FE staff; we have also had primary and university-lecturer applicants. The general AI engineering carries across; the project work shapes to your context.
Will I leave able to lead AI policy at my school?
Yes, with operator-grade credibility. After twelve weeks of building you can read a vendor demo with deep scepticism, write an honest AI policy, and run the staff training your colleagues actually need.
More Academy entry points.
The Academy is one course with many doors. Each of these pages is a different entry point into the same twelve weeks.
Build it. Sell it. Raise on it. In twelve weeks.
Tell us what subject and stage you teach and what AI tool you would build for your classroom. James and Louis read every application personally and reply inside the week.
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