Step Teachers Conference and October Charity Partner Update

October 30 - November 1, 2024

Our annual Step Teachers conference was an incredible success this year! Hosted at the elegant Down Hall in Essex, the event offered a stunning backdrop with its timeless architecture and lovely decor, along with delicious breakfast, lunch, and dinner spreads that made each day even more enjoyable.

Day One: Skills Development and Training

We kicked off the conference with an intensive day focused on sharpening our core skills. Training sessions covered essential topics, including marketing strategies, effective interviewing, safeguarding, and collaborative discussions. Each workshop featured scenario-based exercises that encouraged us to step into different roles within Step Teachers, reinforcing the value of every position on our team. These hands-on activities really underscored the importance of each team member’s contribution.

Day Two: Team Building and the Crystal Maze

Day Two brought an exciting morning of team building, where we tested our teamwork and problem-solving skills in the famous Crystal Maze challenge! Divided into small teams, we navigated mental challenges, physical tasks like sword throwing, balancing, and stacking exercises. The team with the most crystals earned the chance to collect gold pieces in the final showdown, with Step-2 emerging victorious! The winners proudly sported their medals for the rest of the day!

Supporting Young Minds: A Special Message from Aidan

At our first dinner, Aidan, our Head of Marketing, delivered an inspiring speech introducing our charity partner for 2024-2025, Young Minds. He outlined upcoming opportunities for us to contribute throughout the year, encouraging everyone to participate in our fundraising efforts. So far, we’ve raised £887—17% of our £5,000 goal! If you’d like to support us in reaching our target and make a difference, please consider donating through the link below.

Donate Here

Young Minds Website

During our dinner, we hosted a raffle featuring some fantastic prizes that added a lot of excitement to the evening! Among the highlights, Susan took home a Google FitBit, generously sponsored by Clear Insurance Management. Ben won the luxurious Thornton and France Hamper, courtesy of Cheeky Fox, and Kiran won tickets to see Back to the Future: The Musical, sponsored by Pine Consulting Group. After the raffle, we switched things up with a lively game of bingo, where everyone enjoyed marking off numbers and dancing to upbeat tunes. Helen snagged a new toaster, Josée won a coffee machine, and Alex scored a Thai cooking class for two along with a box of Coco Pops! This sparked some friendly bidding, with Gianni ultimately winning the cooking class and Chantelle happily claiming the Coco Pops!

On the second night, we held our highly anticipated awards ceremony, where we recognised team members for their exceptional contributions across various categories. A huge congratulations to all of this year’s Step Teachers Awards winners:

Stav Demetriou
Mohammed Ali
Elisa Nicola
Nick Howson
Kiran Bansal
Joe Stiles
Miguel Roman
London Secondary
Angela Georgiou
Susan Hart
Tarminder Aujla
Alex Crawford

Congratulations again to all of our winners for embodying the spirit and dedication that drive Step Teachers forward!

Heartfelt Thanks to Down Hall and Our Team

We owe a huge thank-you to Down Hall for providing such a beautiful venue and to everyone who made this conference possible. From workshop hosts and speakers to the coordinators working behind the scenes, each of you played a vital role in making this event memorable. Your hard work and dedication were deeply appreciated.