Director
Barry Howard
B.Ed [Hons.] C.Geog [Econ] FRGS ML Churchill Fellow
Director
HUNTER
Outdoor Training
Barry Howard is a professional, full-time outdoor educator, and trained with the late Peter Bradley in wilderness and survival skills as long ago as 1968. By 1974 he was was cutting his teeth in polar exploration as a member of one of the last dog sledge expeditions in polar history to cross the Greenland ice-cap, at one point as a sledge commander.

He has been formally instructing outdoor pursuits since 1972.
In the early ‘70s, employed by, then freelancing with the Ministry of Defence as a survival instructor, he taught in all the three armed forces, before winning a Scholarship and graduating from the University of Nottingham's School of Education at Eaton Hall to study at the Universities of Bucharešti and Cluj in Romania. Between 1976 and 1981, in part with the MoD, he led or was a member of seven remote area expeditions per year in Arctic Norway, Iceland, and Greenland. In 1979 he spent four months solo backpacking / mountaineering and wilderness exploring in Finnmark.
Barry is Mountain Leader qualified (Plas y Brenin), Winter Mountain Leader trained (Glenmore Lodge) and a former teacher with 30 award-winning years of experience, 10 years of which was spent as a Head of Geography; he is an expedition trainer and former Regional External Verifier for 'Sports Leaders UK' - over ten years - for their NVQ Level 2 Award in Basic Expedition Leadership, continuing now to instruct over 2000 youth and adults per year in wilderness skills, leading annual expeditions to Iceland and Norway, winter mountaineering in the Lifjell district of Norway.
He was proposed by the British Sports Trust to Ofsted as a 'National Example of Good Practice in Outdoor Education', and has been praised and commended in four successive inspections by Ofsted for management of innovative and comprehensive programmes in Outdoor Education and 'Excellence' in educational visits management. In addition he was the UK's first 'Outdoor Education Champion' as awarded by the then National Association for Outdoor Education....for 'productive delivery in the field of outdoor education'.
Further awards include being made a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1974, and followed up in 2006 as a 'Chartered Geographer' for contributions to geographical fieldwork and outdoor education. In 2002 Barry won a Winston Churchill Memorial Fund Fellowship for research into educational visits, expedition, and outdoor education safety in Norway, Sweden and Finland - in that year undertaking a 10,000 kms solo, overland, expedition to the North Cape whilst en route around Scandinavia, subsequently being awarded the Trust's Silver Medallion.
He is a Trustee of 'Adventure Unlimited' - a charity which supports outdoor pursuits projects in Essex and the east end of London, and acting as, currently, Chair of The Asheldham Centre [see 'Menu']. This 'jewel-in-the-crown' 26-bed Centre is located in remote east Essex in a 1000 year-old Grade II Listed medieval church - a unique and quite outstanding residential provision.
A major current work is as Project Manager of the new 'Centre of Excellence for Outdoor Education' in a school in Essex UK, developing a competition standard orienteering course and coaching, an outdoor 'living laboratory' for environmental education, and on-timetable wilderness and survival skills. This is, arguably, the first and only school in Britain where every subject on the timetable has a compulsory outdoor education component. See 'Links'.
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Status, Qualifications, Awards, Experience, & Professional Memberships
Status
Full time professional Wilderness Guide
Director, Hunter Outdoor Training
Chairman of The Management Committee, The Asheldham Centre ‘01-‘08
Senior Manager The Asheldham Centre
Regional External Verifier NVQ level 2 Basic Expedition Leader Award
SSCo for 30 schools in south Essex
Project Manager: The Merrylands School Centre of Excellence for Outdoor Education
Qualifications
Certificate in Education (Cert.Ed.) Eaton Hall College of Education
Bachelor of Education Hons. (B.Ed. [Hons.]) Univ. Nottingham
Chartered Geographer C.Geog [Econ]
Mountain Leader. (MLTE) Plas y Brenin
First Aid. HSE. 1986-2008
First Aid AED Operator & Oxygen 2007
Mountain First Aid Qual. Plas y Brenin 1986 & Refresher
Awards
Fellow of The Royal Geographical Society. 1974
‘Outdoor Education Champion’ for determined and productive delivery in promoting excellence. Institute for Outdoor Learning
The ‘National Example of Good Practice in Outdoor Education’ proposed to Ofsted by The British Sports Trust.
Winston Churchill Fellowship Silver Medal awarded February 2002 for ‘Safety Research in Adventure Training, & School Educational Visits’
University of Nottingham Scholarship to Universities of Bucharesti & Cluj
Highly praised in four successive Ofsted Inspections inc ‘Excellent’ standard.
Experience
41 years as an outdoorsman.
Wilderness Guide throughout Scandinavia
Polar experience: trans-Greenland by dog sledge
Arctic experience: southern Greenland, northern Norway
Sub-Arctic experience: throughout Iceland and mainland Scandinavia: All seasons
170+ residential explorations and expeditions as leader
3,000 day-courses teaching outdoor education as leader
Field-study specialist in glaciation inc. palaeo - and pro-glacial
25 years expedition work in Norway and Iceland mostly leading
Eight years working freelance for MOD as Survival Instructor
Teaching 1700+ youth per year outdoor pursuits.
Former Head of Geography Dept King John School '81 -'91
Former Head of Outdoor Education, King John School '91-'06.
Trustee ‘Adventure Unlimited’ charity
Written in national media on outdoor education safety; inc. radio
Adviser to government on educational visits safety
Married, & father of three children, currently aged 24, 21, and 17.
Professional Memberships
British Mountaineering Council
Mountain Leader Training Association
Institute for Outdoor Learning
The Royal Geographical Society
The British Paramedic Association
BASICS
The Association of Teachers & Lecturers
