About us

At the heart of STEER is an experienced, creative and diverse team of educators, engineers and psychologists dedicated to serving young people.

97%

Of schools say STEER cohort action plans give teachers practical strategies to support their students

STEER was set up 20 years ago by two founders, to teach children to steer the road of adolescence…

Our background

STEER was founded by Dr Simon and Dr Jo Walker to build a new generation of social-emotional applications to prepare young people with the human skills to thrive in life. Combining education and psychology backgrounds they set out to solve three big challenges.

First, how to identify young people with mental health risks early, and before they need specialist support. Second, how to reliably measure the impact of schools on students social-emotional development. Third, how to empower young people with skills to steer the road of adolescence for themselves.

Making an impact

Over the years STEER has had a growing positive impact across young people in mainstream and specialist schools, elite sports academies and schools in deprived settings. We support children from the age of 8 right up to 18.

During the pandemic, we helped hundreds of schools in more than 15 countries track and support their students during lockdown. More than 10,000 teachers have completed our online training programme. We currently safeguard the mental health of more than 70,000 students.

The STEER approach

Webinar – Bede’s School

Bede’s started tracking their pupils 3 years ago and over that time they’ve tracked and supported thousands of students and trained over 100 tutors and teachers.

Peter Goodyer, CEO of the Bede’s School Trust, Alex Murphy, Assistant Head and Annabel Hodge, Director of Safeguarding, share how AS Tracking helped them detect pupils’ hidden safeguarding risks earlier.

Making an impact

BETT Awards Winner - Leadership & Management Solution

“An innovative whole school approach which gives a more holistic perspective on pupil development. A much needed leadership tool.”

Meet the team

We are a dedicated, passionate and experienced group head quartered in the UK with global engineering capability

Dr Simon Walker

Co-Founder and Director

Co-Founder and Director

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Dr Jo Walker

Co-Founder and Director

Co-Founder and Director

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Andrew Pearson

CEO

CEO

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Michelle Greenhill

Director Data & Compliance

Director Data & Compliance

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Avi Samanta

CTO

CTO

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Lesley Chandler

Head of School Operations

Head of School Operations

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Nicky John

Head of Technical Operations

Head of Technical Operations

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Simon Antwis

Head of Global Sales

Head of Global Sales

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Trevor Greenhill

Head of Sales

Head of Sales

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Fiona Dinnis

Sales Support Manager

Sales Support Manager

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Jonah Walker

UX and Product Designer

UX and Product Designer

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Bhavesh Bhingradya

Developer Team Lead

Developer Team Lead

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Clare Sergeant

School Consultant & USTEER Product Manager

School Consultant & USTEER Product Manager

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Robert Lloyd Williams

Senior School Consultant

Senior School Consultant

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Nick Digby

School Consultant

School Consultant

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Olivia Walker

Social Media Producer

Social Media Producer

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Charm O’Kelly

Invoice Administrator

Invoice Administrator

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STEER Advisors

Professor Dame Sue Bailey

STEER Adolescent Mental Health Advisor

STEER Adolescent Mental Health Advisor

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Professor John Bargh

STEER Psychology Advisor

STEER Psychology Advisor

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Professor Stephen Roberts

STEER Data Science Advisor

STEER Data Science Advisor

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The history of STEER

2001

Present

2001

Education, science and psychology roots

Simon Walker was teaching a pioneering leadership course at Oxford University, based on his psychological research into cognitive biases. Jo Walker was a behavioural advisor working for a UK regional education authority. They founded STEER to collaborate on preparing young people with the human skills to thrive in life.

2010

Solving the big three challenges for mental health in schools

Simon and Jo identified 3 big challenges. First, how to identify young people with mental health risks early, and before they need specialist support. Second, how to reliably measure the impact of schools on student social-emotional development. Third, how to empower young people with skills to steer the road of adolescence for themselves.

2013

Developing a new generation of applications for school mental health

After four years of research and development, including trials with five pioneering schools, STEER launched AS Tracking - a next generation whole-school application to proactively track and support young people’s mental health. AS Tracking was quickly adopted and is now the heart of the STEER suite of products used by more than 200 leading independent and government schools.

2015

A national tracking database to aid recovery from the pandemic

From 2015, STEER tracked the social-emotional development of more than 70,000 young people as they grew up from the age of 8-18. When the pandemic hit and schools were closed across the globe, schools urgently relied on STEER to support their students remotely. With five years historic data STEER was uniquely able to advise the UK government on the pandemic impacts on its young people’s mental health.

2021

Supporting young people's mental health around the globe

STEER were rewarded by winning the BETT award for best Leadership and Management solution. The appointment of a new experience tech CEO, Andrew Pearson, signalled a new phase to deliver STEER’s mission of preparing young people with the human skills to thrive in life, to the widest possible audience.

See our product range

Are you ready to get started?

If you would like to get started with STEER then contact our team to book a call today.

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