I've been teaching across NSW and Victoria for seven years. One of the things I've always found genuinely difficult isn't assessing writing — it's finding the time and the words to give each student feedback that actually means something to them specifically. Not a generic comment. Not a rubber stamp. Something that sees their piece of writing and tells them exactly where they are and where to go next.
The conversation that sparked Discerna happened with a group of colleagues who were feeling the same pressure. We were talking about how to make feedback more individual without it taking over our lives. We knew AI could help — but we wanted something built around the way Australian teachers actually think and work, against the curricula we actually teach.
So I built it. Discerna is not here to replace your professional judgement. You know your students. You know the context behind a piece of writing — whether it was written under pressure, whether English is an additional language, whether a child had a difficult morning. Discerna doesn't know any of that unless you tell it.
What it can do is give you a second set of expert eyes — a detailed, curriculum-aligned starting point that you can agree with, push back on, or use as a springboard. It's designed to make you feel more confident in your assessment, not to do your job for you.