Dr Carrie Herbert

Carrie Herbert trained as a Drama/English teacher at the College, Ripon, Yorkshire before emigrating to Australia, where she worked for thirteen years in the South Australian Department of Education. She has had experience teaching students of all ages in Junior, Primary, Secondary and Tertiary education.

In the eighties she undertook further study, completing her Master's Degree in research in education at the University of East Anglia, and then obtaining a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge.

For eighteen months following her doctorate, Carrie held the post of Child Protection Adviser in Adelaide, working closely with the South Australian Police Department and Social Welfare Agencies. On her return to England in 1990, she set up the consultancy in Cambridge. It is a small, innovative professional business, specialising in issues of personal and social education. She offers courses for school staff, parents and students on countering bullying, child protection and other social concerns. She has recently introduced some new courses in her INSET programme, exploring such topics as the management of student behaviour, understanding eating disorders, self-esteem and drugs education.

Carrie is an accomplished author and has published widely in the area of bullying and harassment, as well as writing scripts for plays and television programmes on these subjects. Her latest publication for schools is directed at parents and is entitled:

Stop the Bullying: a Guide for Parents.

In 1996 Carrie established the Red Balloon Learner Centre in Cambridge, where children who have been bullied or victimised in mainstream schools can study safely. Many of Carrie's ideas about handling victims and dealing with bullying incidents have been tried and tested in that environment.

Steve Roberts

Steve Roberts is an experienced trainer, manager and educator. He served for 20 years in the Royal Australian Navy where he spent the majority of his time in management training. For two years he worked as the Training Instructor on Australia's National Sail Training Ship 'Young Endeavor'. In 1992 he was the recipient of 'The Peter Mitchell Prize' for Training Manager of the Year.

Since leaving the Navy Steve has been employed as a Project Manager, Area Manager and a General Manager in private companies in both Australia and the UK. In this time he learned from experience the importance of team facilitation, fair and effective management practices, the importance of stress and time management, how to solve problems, resolve conflict and be able to move on and how to manage the inevitable changes that occur in workplaces today.

Recently he has worked as training consultant with companies such as Nokia, FAI Insurance, Thomas Cook and Cisco Computers.

Steve has a Masters Degree in Outdoor Management Training from the University of Technology, Sydney and specialises in individual and group development.