Ashly Fusiarski

"Ashly is a very clear, engaging and inspiring communicator. Ashly gave a presentation to a group of young people from a diverse range of backgrounds who were working towards securing employment. He was able to relate to them and use his past experiences and stories to encourage and challenge the young people to chase their dreams and to believe in themselves. 'Activity breeds activity' was one of the phrases that left a lasting impression on certain individuals and is still remembered as I highlight today. Ashly was encouraging and motivating and really understood the audience he was speaking to. The young people loved his stories and valued his openness to talk about his struggles along with his achievements."

"Ashly Fusiarski came to St Mary's RC Primary School to give presentation to our KS1 pupils on his polar experiences to embellish their current topic on Polar Lands. Ashly came very well prepared with a fantastic slideshow and video of his experiences which totally gripped the children. He had many tales to tell and pitched them perfectly for the audience (which ranged from 4 years old to 7 years) and this inspired so many questions on many different aspects of polar life (including many questions from the staff!) He brought in a range of equipment for the children to try on and look at. As staff, we were staggered by the impact the talk had had on the pupils and this was reflected in their work and enthusiasm back in the classroom. Real life experience is so important to children's learning and we felt privileged that Ashly gave us his time to share this with us. As a speaker, Ashly showed great skill in communicating with the children and adults, he brought the experience alive. Our regret is that we did not have the whole school involved as Ashly was an inspirational speaker and it would have been beneficial for some of the older pupils to realise that you're dreams don't just have to be dreams, if you try hard enough, they can become reality. Hopefully Ashly will come back and inspire us again!"