Built from practice, not theory.
The model was built and tested inside real school wellbeing programs, by someone who has sat in nearly every seat of the system — student on placement, practitioner, wellbeing leader, regional adviser, and university field educator on the other side of the same placement.
Lachlan Marchant
Founder. A wellbeing-in-education leader who has spent years in school leadership teams as a dedicated wellbeing leader rather than a classroom teacher. Bachelor of Social Work with Honours, and postgraduate qualifications in Leadership and Strategy.
Why STEP knows where these models break.
Most placement models are designed from one side of the relationship. STEP was built from both.
Social work student on placement
In a school wellbeing team. Where it started.
Wellbeing practitioner
Working directly with students in a school.
School leadership team member
Leading whole-school wellbeing and engagement.
Regional wellbeing leadership
Working with 40 schools to strengthen their wellbeing systems, in a Department of Education role.
University field educator
Supervising placements from the university side, with Acknowledge Education. STEP speaks field education’s language from the inside.
Host supervisor, 90 placement students
Across school hosting and university field education, in allied health and wellbeing disciplines.
What the programs produced.
Two school placement programs designed and built from scratch, with others supported through reform. In those programs:
- Student wellbeing waitlists fell to near zero
- Tier 1 and Tier 2 programs ran daily instead of weekly
- More students were seen by the wellbeing team overall
- Student “advocate at school” survey measures improved
- Every school that ran a supervised placement program under this approach has continued it beyond its first year
Where STEP is up to
The business is new. The practice is not.
What is established: the model, the artefacts and the supervision architecture were built, run and refined inside real schools over several years, and map to established research and to the frameworks Australian schools already report against.
What is not yet: published case studies from schools that have bought STEP as a service. That is exactly what the Foundation Partner round exists to produce, and it is why the first-year exchange runs both ways.
Three places · commencing Term 2 2027
The Foundation Round
We are looking for three schools to build this with.
Three Foundation Partners work through the first year alongside us, shaping the resources as they use them. A genuine partnership rather than a trial, and the obligations run both ways.
Your school receives
- A substantially reduced first-year investment, on your Wellbeing Capacity Review and on a Build partnership if you go on to one
- The founder as named lead for the full term
- Genuine co-design input on the artefacts, not a feedback form
- Lifetime STEP Network membership
- Year 2 ongoing investment locked at Year 1 rates, so annual adjustment does not apply until Year 3
What we ask in return
- Termly evaluation input
- Outcome data from your placement and wellbeing capacity
- One written case study, with named attribution
- Two reference calls with prospective schools
- Resource co-design input
All contractual. Nothing requires you to identify students, and nothing is published without your written agreement.
A good fit
- An existing wellbeing team, and a senior leader who owns wellbeing rather than just supporting it
- Genuinely ready to change how wellbeing work is structured, not just add a program
- Comfortable being named publicly and sharing de-identified outcome data
Not a good fit
- A school without a wellbeing team. STEP builds on one, it is not a substitute for having one
- A school that needs the most intensive level of support. A Foundation place caps below that for delivery reasons
- A school that would rather not be named or share data. Completely reasonable, and a standard place suits you better
Places are confirmed on fit after a Fit Call, not first-in.
What STEP is built on.
Nothing in STEP is invented terminology. The diagnostic, the tiered scope logic and the supervision model all sit on frameworks and research your school already recognises, which is why findings feed straight into your AIP and school review without rework.
FISO 2.0
Learning and wellbeing at the centre of improvement. Findings feed AIP and school review preparation.
Schools Mental Health Fund and Menu
Evidence-based supports across three tiers. The Review diagnoses tier balance and Tier 3 saturation for Menu planning.
DE Wellbeing Team Guidance
Clear referral pathways, early action and staff capability. The Review tests the operating reality behind the guidance.
AERO multi-tiered system of supports
Strong Tier 1, targeted Tier 2, intensive Tier 3, driven by data. Extended here to wellbeing and engagement.
Australian Student Wellbeing Framework
Five endorsed elements. The Review is a facilitated, evidence-tested deepening of the self-assessment.
Be You, and the National Strategy
Both name workforce shortage, turnover and educator load as key barriers, which is exactly STEP’s focus.
The diagnostic
Ten domains drawn from the frameworks above, triangulated across three stakeholder groups and scored on a rubric with a RAG summary, so every finding links to evidence rather than opinion.
The supervision model
Supervising Well maps element by element to established research on supervision and work-integrated learning — Kolb, Hattie and Timperley, Kadushin and Harkness, Lave and Wenger — alongside current work-integrated learning literature and the AASW field education standards.
Ask for the full Evidence Brief on a Fit Call.
Capacity your school can actually hold.
Wider reach, less unmanaged risk, and less pressure on the experienced staff already carrying it.
Or email lachlan@stepwellbeing.com.au