ABOUT STEP

Director (Full Time)

As well as directing Step, Chris coordinates our work in Nicholas Breakspear School and St Columba's College. He is also our Designated Safeguarding Lead

Schools Coordinator (Full Time)

Mary coordinates our work in Roundwood School, Sir John Lawes School and assists Geoff at Sandringham School. 

Schools Coordinator (Part Time)

Jez coordinates our work in Katherine Warington School and St George's School  while also working with Mary in the other Harpenden schools

Schools Coordinator (Part Time)

Amy coordinates our work in Loreto College. She also oversees our Leadership Foundations course and conferences

Schools Coordinator (Part Time)

Charlotte coordinates our work in Beaumont School and Samuel Ryder Academy as well as assisting Chris at Nicholas Breakspear. 

Training and Volunteers Coordinator (Part Time)

Terrie coordinates our training and looks after our volunteers,  ensuring all our bookings are filled with enough people

Office and Finance Administrator

Louise looks after our administration in the office and for our finances 

Step generally doesn't charge schools for any of the activities we deliver as we want our work to be a gift from the local churches. However, we sometimes ask schools to contribute to bigger expenditure such as covering the cost of hiring buildings offsite and providing refreshments for Step Days. Schools may choose to provide donations to Step so we can create/buy new resources, where we don't currently have the funds. Our Haven Schools course does incur a charge from 267 who provide the course for each student but Step will not charge for its delivery.

Our staff and volunteers are trained in safeguarding and will not promise confidentiality to pupils. In the case of a disclosure they will contact the school’s DSL where needed, record details of the disclosure and inform Step’s Safeguarding Lead of actions taken. Our Safeguarding Lead will then liaise with the school to ensure the situation is dealt with. If you would like to read our Safeguarding Policy, please contact us.

Step is not a church or affiliated with any one denomination. We have staff and volunteers from numerous denominations, including Anglican, Methodist, Baptist, United Reformed and many independent churches. Although we are an Evangelical charity, we have enjoyed close links with the Catholic community and we are heavily involved in the life of Nicholas Breakspear School, St Columba's College and Loreto College.

Complaints about Step, while rare, are dealt with quickly and professionally. If for any reason you are unhappy with the work of Step or the conduct of our staff and volunteers, please do contact us. We have a procedure designed to ensure that any complaint is clearly understood, dealt with at the right level and that appropriate action is taken. Please get in touch with the office if you would like to have a copy of our procedure.

The short and honest answer is ‘yes’, but we also believe that schools are educational institutions and proselytising would be inappropriate. Step seeks, through our lessons and activities, to give young people enough information and experiences for them to make an informed and individual choice about the Christian message. If there are young people who do show an interest, we can provide opportunities for them to link with local churches and youth groups but we are careful to do this in an appropriate and transparent way. The fact that Step has worked in local schools since the 1990s, and that we are continuously being asked to do more and more, is evidence we have built up a trusting relationship with school staff and students. We do have a complaints procedure (see question below) should you feel that any of our staff or volunteers are not acting to the high and appropriate standard we expect.

Step is famous for teaching RE lessons but we offer so much more. For more details, go to the 'What We Offer' section.

Step's volunteers come from the local churches. Some will be paid church leaders or youth workers who work with Step as part of their role, while others will be members of the congregation who want to give their time to serve their local schools through us. Each volunteer will be interviewed, DBS-checked and given training to ensure they are fully prepared. We also offer a Step Experience program at Step so people at change points in their lives may spend a year with us.