Dr Steve gave an excellent presentation with personal anecdotes from his profession and a valuable ‘toolkit’ to work with our young people. I would love for our whole school to do professional learning with Dr Stephen Spencer.
Andrea Aitken – Educator
Outstanding presentation delivered in a professional, passionate and practical manner. Amazing.
Kevin Ruddy
Head Teacher Wellbeing – Glen Innes High School
Thank you for coming out to Berkeley Vale Public School. It was a fantastic day, the executive took a lot from their session and have already identified how they can start using these strategies into their practice to support young people. The teachers also enjoyed their session and left with a better understanding of mental health and how we can support students to build coping measures. The most important take away was the importance of relationship building!
Thank you again.
Kind regards,
Hannah Carew
Deputy Principal, Berkeley Vale Public School
We cannot thank Steve and Equi Energy Youth enough! Steve conducted a brilliant professional development seminar for our Wellbeing Team which was attended by all Year Advisors, School Counsellors, our Student Support Officer, School Chaplain and myself – the Head Teacher of Wellbeing. The workshop was refreshingly relevant and applicable to the diverse needs of a large, comprehensive high school and the complex needs of our students. Many providers do not understand the complexities that this setting provides, however Steve has a huge amount of experience as well as passion for working with students with mental health concerns and a realistic understanding of the challenges educators face.
Our Wellbeing Team gained a deeper understanding of working with students who have experienced trauma and the science and research behind physiological and neurological responses. We have added strategies and ideas to our tool kit regarding working with students who have experienced trauma, strategies in which I and other team members have personally and successfully used in the classroom on many occasions.
As a result of Steve’s workshop, we have also been able to review and improve our Student Support Plans which support our students with complex mental health needs. Our plans now enable staff, parents, medical professionals and most importantly students to work in partnership to contribute to the plan in order to provide the best possible plan of care for students.
We are looking forward to Steve completing whole school professional development for staff regarding understanding students who have experienced trauma.
Lauren Anderson
Head Teacher Wellbeing
Toronto High School
The training with Steve was fantastic. Our service has benefited from both sessions with Steve this year and we will look at him attending our OOSH conference on 2020 for further training. Steve is very engaging and presented well to our large group. Information is informative and we enjoyed the practical group work.
Kind Regards Sue-anne
New Lambton OOSH
Firstly I would like to extend our gratitude for the effort you put into our staff training presentation last night, the information presented was really relevant and suitable to our audience.
This has been a great Segue for future training and reflective practice, we can now extend upon what you have shared with us to unpack how it looks in an early childhood setting specifically. You have engaged the staff in a way that many don’t get to, often presenters are met with Stony silence, it was great to hear educators sharing ideas and building on their knowledge.
I have had numerous conversations today with educators whom have all felt really inspired following the training, as the nominated supervisor this excites me that my team is thinking and challenging their current approach.
Emma Huff
Education Director at Blinkies Early Education Centre
Great training session with lots of practical strategies and examples – a must for all teachers.
Julie Wright
Teacher