We turned 10 and we nearly missed it! Phoenix Support for Educators officially opened for business in June 2012 with our first workshops rolling out at community spaces across South East QLD a whole decade ago.
I founded the business with an incredibly skilled teacher, Stacey McWilliam, who shared my vision to provide specialist support by way of coaching, mentoring, and workshops, to educators, with an end goal to support quality outcomes for children.
When Stacey left after a year to pursue a full-time teaching career, I missed our fun together and someone to share the joy and the challenges. I quickly realised that operating solo was not how I wanted to roll… I was going to need a team to see this mission through.
Little did I know that within a decade, I’d have a well established company with a team of 15 incredible employees (and growing!), and a handful * of expert contractors, who live and breathe the same values and shared vision. Every person that works in the company makes it a better place and contributes monumentally to our mission. Our headquarters in QLD is now a busy hub of fun-loving legends who support our national team with state-based facilitators across Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales, and the Northern Territory, who travel widely to work in every corner of this beautiful country.
Phoenix Support for Educators branched into a separate company in 2019, The Phoenix Cups, which is an entity and brand of its own that supports parents as well as small business and corporate companies. The Phoenix Cups framework is one of the many very cool innovations that has arisen from the team at Phoenix Support for Educators. Another, is the Reflections of an Educator brand which is a business our team runs with Gaby Flavin from Sticks and Stones Education, publishing diaries and journals. I wonder what is next?
We quickly grew to a national operation and before we knew it our first in-person international conference keynotes were booked for New Zealand and Singapore in 2020. Little did we know, we’d instead have to pull the business through a pandemic. The silver lining was that we ended up presenting at many international conferences across the US and UK as they moved to online formats, which saw us become well known overseas and gain our first international ‘approved trainer’ in the UK.
Phoenix Support for Educators visits hundreds of education & care services a year, train thousands of educators online, share regularly at conferences, and publish & distribute an impressive suite of resources to educators all over the world. I’m bursting with pride at the beautiful work that our team are doing to support educators and contribute toward better outcomes for children.
Last year we came together as a team to define a new mission statement and as I looked around the room I was in awe at the dedication and love each and every person has for this sector that we support. So I’ll leave you with the statement that we collectively wrote and invite you to join us. “Advocating for the delight of childhood, and supporting educational communities where everyone can thrive”.
Over the past couple of years I have been so proud of this team.. We rose to the occasion and supported educators in as many ways as we could - from advocacy through writing to ministers and MPs, providing free online training and support, visiting in person as soon as and often as we could, and sometimes just being a listening ear and friendly face on zoom. Our team of facilitators show up to every education and care service ready to give their undivided attention to that team for the day. I think you’d agree that their empathy and compassion, combined with their exceptional strength-based coaching skills, make them the most incredible mentors. I hope you enjoy working with them as much as I do.
Before I go – Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for trusting us, sharing your knowledge, supporting us, and choosing Phoenix Support for Educators as your preferred supplier of Professional Development. We’re so proud and humbled.
For our birthday - tell us how we’ve supported you !
xo Sandi
* Our external team that we work with daily comprises of three different businesses founded by incredible women; Fletch and Co look after our design and marketing, Fox and Fibre take care of our book keeping, and Mirrored Horizons are our HR team.
Celebrating double digits!
