Prepared for Shine Bright by Phoenix Support for Educators · November 2026
Supporting behavioural and emotional skills, and fostering wellbeing
A two-year rollout for Shine Bright, 2027 and 2028
One rollout, built as a cascade. The BESST content is developed and presented by Dr Louise Porter and Sandi Phoenix, with facilitation and coaching support from the team at Phoenix Support for Educators. Your leaders are coached by Sandi Phoenix, wellbeing and behaviour leads carry the practice in every kindergarten, and every educator learns the same language, the Phoenix Cups® framework, so educators can co-regulate with children, the step before children's own self-regulation.
Anything marked opens when you click it. Move between sections with the arrows or the → and ← keys.
Where this starts
Your goals, in your words
You told us you want organisation-wide wellbeing training that builds relational-responsive practice, self-regulation, co-regulation, and trauma-informed approaches, and one shared, relational approach across every kindergarten. Your 2026 to 2028 Strategic Plan puts it this way. Open each goal to see how the rollout meets it.
Face to faceCoaching and mentoring
Online learningResources
Coaching and mentoring
Coaching and mentoringMeasuring impact
Our objective for the two years: a shared, relational approach to children's wellbeing and behaviour across Shine Bright, where educators feel confident and supported in their work with children and with each other, and every moment matters.
Why a cascade
What we've learnt works at scale
This design comes from a cascading model we have run with another large organisation, a kindergarten where the data changed as relationships did, and the School Readiness Funding Menu.
A cascading model, tested with Big Fat Smile
Two opt-in champions in each service did most of the learning and carried it to their teams, with online learning, coaching and mentoring at service level, and the organisation's pedagogical leader supporting it from the top. A 34-question pre and post survey of 70 participants across 40 services was presented at the Early Childhood Australia national conference.
Before and after, as presented:
What changed at Kinglake Ranges, 2015 to 2021
24.1% to 7.8%
At Kinglake Ranges Children's Centre, the sole kindergarten in its AEDC zone, children developmentally vulnerable in one or more domains fell from 24.1% (2015) to 7.8% (2021) as the team embedded the Phoenix Cups framework with us.
Read the case studyOn the School Readiness Funding Menu
Behavioural and Emotional Skills for School Transition (BESST) and Fostering Wellbeing: security, self-worth, autonomy, self-competence, and joy in early childhood are both listed on the Victorian School Readiness Funding Menu, in the Wellbeing priority area. Both target the AEDC domains of emotional maturity and social competence.
Coaching is on the Menu too, and covers our coaching, mentoring, and communities of practice.
Read more about SRF with usIn the large rollouts we have run, a tiered, cascading leadership model has taken hold, and the packages with the most coaching and mentoring have held best. Sandi Phoenix coaches the leaders; her team coaches the educators.
The model
One language, cascading through Shine Bright
BESST content sits over the whole rollout and feeds every part of it. Below it, four tiers, each led by someone who carries the practice to the next, so your Coaching Coordinator's reach extends across 55 kindergartens, with support behind the role every month. Open any tier to see what happens there, who leads it, and the strategic plan goal it meets.
BESST builds an understanding of the guidance approach, a model of human needs, and strategies for supporting children whose behaviour challenges us. Educators plan for children's self-regulation and respectful relationships, skills children carry on their learning journey into school.
Its themes run through every other part of the rollout, so a leader in the community of practice, a team in a coaching day, and the whole organisation at the conference are all working from the same ideas.
What happens here
Open a tier above.
Who leads it
Open a tier above.
Strategic plan goal it meets
The learning pathway
Three steps that build, then everyday practice
Every educator starts in the same place. BESST participants go two steps further, and Fostering Wellbeing brings BESST's themes to every team. Turn each card over.
Coaching and mentoring
Support where the work happens, alongside your Coaching Coordinator
The School Readiness Funding Menu describes effective coaching as observation, feedback, goal-setting, and reflection, individualised, in the right dose, and delivered in the educator's own setting. Every strand below is built that way, and planned with your Coaching Coordinator, who knows your kindergartens and keeps the practice going day to day; we bring specialist expertise and an outside view.
Briana Thorne and Linda Price coach educators in their own kindergartens, with the children they teach. A full coaching day (8 hours) in every kindergarten each year, 2027 and 2028: 880 hours in total. Each visit is shaped around what that team's educators need: what is working, what is getting in the way, and what to try next.
After each visit
- An email with QIP resources chosen for what you worked on together
- Each visit planned with your Coaching Coordinator, so the practice keeps going between visits
Brings educators from all five regions together, open to your wellbeing and behaviour leads and any educator who wants to join, led by Briana Thorne. One hour online, monthly from February to November in 2027 and 2028, so educators supporting children's complex emotional and behavioural needs have support every term. A closed online forum stays open all year.
Times
- Daytime and evening times trialled, so educators on different rosters can join
- The closed online forum carries questions between sessions
For your Coaching Coordinator, Senior Leadership Team, Early Years Advisors, and emerging leaders, led by Sandi Phoenix. One hour online, monthly from February to November, with curiosity about the needs behind children's behaviour, and about how leaders fill, or empty, the Cups of the people they lead.
Why leaders first
- Leaders set the conditions educators work in, so the cascade starts here
- The same frameworks and language your Coaching Coordinator uses day to day
A monthly one-hour online drop-in with Sandi Phoenix from February to November, open to your Coaching Coordinator, Senior Leadership Team, Early Years Advisors, and emerging leaders. No set agenda: bring the situation you are working on this week and leave with a plan.
Who drops in
- Any leader, any month, as the need arises; no need to attend every session
- Leaders and the Coaching Coordinator hear the same frameworks and language, so advice to educators stays consistent
Two ways to size the coaching
Switch between them and the figures in the rows above change with you. Everything else stays the same.
- Coaching in every kindergarten: a full day (8 hours) in every kindergarten each year, 880 hours over the two years
- Regional community of practice: monthly from February to November, 20 sessions over the two years
Two years
Term by term, 2027 and 2028
Eight terms. Each one shows what starts, what continues, and who is in the room.
Choose a term above.
Measuring impact, and resources
Evidence you can share, and resources that stay
Measuring impact together
The survey is built into Phoenix Cups 101 for all 700 educators, so the surveys sit inside a course educators are already doing, and the findings give you evidence to share with your board, your families, and the sector.
A book pack for every kindergarten
One pack for each of your 55 kindergartens, for educators, children, and families, with complimentary shipping.
For families, and between visits
Families can listen free to our Cupify This! podcast and the Understanding and Supporting Children's Behaviour podcast, and our families page explains the Phoenix Cups framework in plain words, helping build strong relationships with families.
After each coaching visit, your team receives QIP resources: short, practical guides for the Quality Improvement Plan and team discussion.
The families pageYour team
Who you'll work with
Briana Thorne, Linda Price, and Sarah Dobson
Your Victorian team
Briana Thorne, Senior Education Facilitator and Mentor, Victoria, delivers Fostering Wellbeing, coaches in your kindergartens, and leads the regional community of practice. Linda Price, Education Facilitator and Mentor, Victoria, coaches alongside her and co-facilitates the larger sessions. Sarah Dobson, Education Facilitator and Mentor, Victoria, completes the team.
Sandi Phoenix
Managing Director and Principal Facilitator
Sandi Phoenix's career, since 1998, blends psychological science and education. She developed the Phoenix Cups framework and wrote the Educator Toolkit for Behaviour. She presents the BESST masterclass with Dr Louise Porter, leads your leadership community of practice and coaching drop-in, and presents both conference keynotes.
Dr Louise Porter
Co-presenter, the BESST masterclass
Dr Louise Porter has taught at university, ran a private practice for 30 years, and has written widely on the guidance approach. She co-presents the BESST masterclass with Sandi Phoenix and wrote Teacher-Parent Collaboration, the family-partnership book in each kindergarten's pack.
Next steps
What happens next
Your answers on two things shape the final quote: how GST should show on the quote, and how travel is best covered.
Quote S25900 comes with this page and the November proposal. It sets out every item and its price, and you can accept and sign online. Tell us anything you would like to change.
We meet to plan dates, cohorts, and your wellbeing and behaviour leads, ready for Term 1 2027.
[email protected]
[email protected]
07 3305 0282 · 1300 361 243 · www.phoenix-support.com.au
Prepared for Shine Bright by Phoenix Support for Educators · November 2026
Supporting behavioural and emotional skills, and fostering wellbeing
A two-year rollout for Shine Bright, 2027 and 2028
One rollout, built as a cascade. The BESST content is developed and presented by Dr Louise Porter and Sandi Phoenix, with facilitation and coaching support from the team at Phoenix Support for Educators. Your leaders are coached by Sandi Phoenix, wellbeing and behaviour leads carry the practice in every kindergarten, and every educator learns the same language, the Phoenix Cups® framework, so educators can co-regulate with children, the step before children's own self-regulation.
Anything marked opens when you click it. Move between sections with the arrows or the → and ← keys.
Where this starts
Your goals, in your words
You told us you want organisation-wide wellbeing training that builds relational-responsive practice, self-regulation, co-regulation, and trauma-informed approaches, and one shared, relational approach across every kindergarten. Your 2026 to 2028 Strategic Plan puts it this way. Open each goal to see how the rollout meets it.
Face to faceCoaching and mentoring
Online learningResources
Coaching and mentoring
Coaching and mentoringMeasuring impact
Our objective for the two years: a shared, relational approach to children's wellbeing and behaviour across Shine Bright, where educators feel confident and supported in their work with children and with each other, and every moment matters.
Why a cascade
What we've learnt works at scale
This design comes from a cascading model we have run with another large organisation, a kindergarten where the data changed as relationships did, and the School Readiness Funding Menu.
A cascading model, tested with Big Fat Smile
Two opt-in champions in each service did most of the learning and carried it to their teams, with online learning, coaching and mentoring at service level, and the organisation's pedagogical leader supporting it from the top. A 34-question pre and post survey of 70 participants across 40 services was presented at the Early Childhood Australia national conference.
Before and after, as presented:
What changed at Kinglake Ranges, 2015 to 2021
24.1% to 7.8%
At Kinglake Ranges Children's Centre, the sole kindergarten in its AEDC zone, children developmentally vulnerable in one or more domains fell from 24.1% (2015) to 7.8% (2021) as the team embedded the Phoenix Cups framework with us.
Read the case studyOn the School Readiness Funding Menu
Behavioural and Emotional Skills for School Transition (BESST) and Fostering Wellbeing: security, self-worth, autonomy, self-competence, and joy in early childhood are both listed on the Victorian School Readiness Funding Menu, in the Wellbeing priority area. Both target the AEDC domains of emotional maturity and social competence.
Coaching is on the Menu too, and covers our coaching, mentoring, and communities of practice.
Read more about SRF with usIn the large rollouts we have run, a tiered, cascading leadership model has taken hold, and the packages with the most coaching and mentoring have held best. Sandi Phoenix coaches the leaders; her team coaches the educators.
The model
One language, cascading through Shine Bright
BESST content sits over the whole rollout and feeds every part of it. Below it, four tiers, each led by someone who carries the practice to the next, so your Coaching Coordinator's reach extends across 55 kindergartens, with support behind the role every month. Open any tier to see what happens there, who leads it, and the strategic plan goal it meets.
BESST builds an understanding of the guidance approach, a model of human needs, and strategies for supporting children whose behaviour challenges us. Educators plan for children's self-regulation and respectful relationships, skills children carry on their learning journey into school.
Its themes run through every other part of the rollout, so a leader in the community of practice, a team in a coaching day, and the whole organisation at the conference are all working from the same ideas.
What happens here
Open a tier above.
Who leads it
Open a tier above.
Strategic plan goal it meets
The learning pathway
Three steps that build, then everyday practice
Every educator starts in the same place. BESST participants go two steps further, and Fostering Wellbeing brings BESST's themes to every team. Turn each card over.
Coaching and mentoring
Support where the work happens, alongside your Coaching Coordinator
The School Readiness Funding Menu describes effective coaching as observation, feedback, goal-setting, and reflection, individualised, in the right dose, and delivered in the educator's own setting. Every strand below is built that way, and planned with your Coaching Coordinator, who knows your kindergartens and keeps the practice going day to day; we bring specialist expertise and an outside view.
Briana Thorne and Linda Price coach educators in their own kindergartens, with the children they teach. A full coaching day (8 hours) in every kindergarten each year, 2027 and 2028: 880 hours in total. Each visit is shaped around what that team's educators need: what is working, what is getting in the way, and what to try next.
After each visit
- An email with QIP resources chosen for what you worked on together
- Each visit planned with your Coaching Coordinator, so the practice keeps going between visits
Brings educators from all five regions together, open to your wellbeing and behaviour leads and any educator who wants to join, led by Briana Thorne. One hour online, monthly from February to November in 2027 and 2028, so educators supporting children's complex emotional and behavioural needs have support every term. A closed online forum stays open all year.
Times
- Daytime and evening times trialled, so educators on different rosters can join
- The closed online forum carries questions between sessions
For your Coaching Coordinator, Senior Leadership Team, Early Years Advisors, and emerging leaders, led by Sandi Phoenix. One hour online, monthly from February to November, with curiosity about the needs behind children's behaviour, and about how leaders fill, or empty, the Cups of the people they lead.
Why leaders first
- Leaders set the conditions educators work in, so the cascade starts here
- The same frameworks and language your Coaching Coordinator uses day to day
A monthly one-hour online drop-in with Sandi Phoenix from February to November, open to your Coaching Coordinator, Senior Leadership Team, Early Years Advisors, and emerging leaders. No set agenda: bring the situation you are working on this week and leave with a plan.
Who drops in
- Any leader, any month, as the need arises; no need to attend every session
- Leaders and the Coaching Coordinator hear the same frameworks and language, so advice to educators stays consistent
Two ways to size the coaching
Switch between them and the figures in the rows above change with you. Everything else stays the same.
- Coaching in every kindergarten: a full day (8 hours) in every kindergarten each year, 880 hours over the two years
- Regional community of practice: monthly from February to November, 20 sessions over the two years
Two years
Term by term, 2027 and 2028
Eight terms. Each one shows what starts, what continues, and who is in the room.
Choose a term above.
Measuring impact, and resources
Evidence you can share, and resources that stay
Measuring impact together
The survey is built into Phoenix Cups 101 for all 700 educators, so the surveys sit inside a course educators are already doing, and the findings give you evidence to share with your board, your families, and the sector.
A book pack for every kindergarten
One pack for each of your 55 kindergartens, for educators, children, and families, with complimentary shipping.
For families, and between visits
Families can listen free to our Cupify This! podcast and the Understanding and Supporting Children's Behaviour podcast, and our families page explains the Phoenix Cups framework in plain words, helping build strong relationships with families.
After each coaching visit, your team receives QIP resources: short, practical guides for the Quality Improvement Plan and team discussion.
The families pageYour team
Who you'll work with
Briana Thorne, Linda Price, and Sarah Dobson
Your Victorian team
Briana Thorne, Senior Education Facilitator and Mentor, Victoria, delivers Fostering Wellbeing, coaches in your kindergartens, and leads the regional community of practice. Linda Price, Education Facilitator and Mentor, Victoria, coaches alongside her and co-facilitates the larger sessions. Sarah Dobson, Education Facilitator and Mentor, Victoria, completes the team.
Sandi Phoenix
Managing Director and Principal Facilitator
Sandi Phoenix's career, since 1998, blends psychological science and education. She developed the Phoenix Cups framework and wrote the Educator Toolkit for Behaviour. She presents the BESST masterclass with Dr Louise Porter, leads your leadership community of practice and coaching drop-in, and presents both conference keynotes.
Dr Louise Porter
Co-presenter, the BESST masterclass
Dr Louise Porter has taught at university, ran a private practice for 30 years, and has written widely on the guidance approach. She co-presents the BESST masterclass with Sandi Phoenix and wrote Teacher-Parent Collaboration, the family-partnership book in each kindergarten's pack.
Next steps
What happens next
Your answers on two things shape the final quote: how GST should show on the quote, and how travel is best covered.
Quote S25900 comes with this page and the November proposal. It sets out every item and its price, and you can accept and sign online. Tell us anything you would like to change.
We meet to plan dates, cohorts, and your wellbeing and behaviour leads, ready for Term 1 2027.
[email protected]
[email protected]
07 3305 0282 · 1300 361 243 · www.phoenix-support.com.au