In 1983 the author spent a year working as an exchange teacher at Rubicon School Camp, Victoria, Australia. This paper, written towards the end of that year, compared many aspects of Rubicon School Camp and White Hall Centre, Derbyshire, UK. The paper was digitised and heavily edited or rewritten in 2014.

The Changing World of Outdoor Learning in Europe sets out to provide a comprehensive analysis of the economical and political changes that have occurred in European outdoor culture in the preceding two decades, from a diverse range of perspectives including institutional, theoretical, national and educational views. The book looks at how outdoor education has been transformed into an increasingly global field where established and influenced practices have been introduced into modernising and democratising nations. With contributions from the members of the board of the European Institute of Outdoor Adventure Eduation and Experiential Learning and representatives of the networks that stand behind it, this unique book provides thorough factual analyses and examinations of outdoor learning that have never been presented before. The book contains contributions from across Europe, with authors from the UK, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Slovenia, Poland, Norway and the Czech Republic. Chapters within the volume by non - European authors provide another perspective on the European story in a wider context. As a whole, the book will stimulate the ongoing debate about the nature, function and organisation of outdoor education around the globe. The Changing World of Outdoor Learning in Europe will be of great interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of outdoor education, leadership and recreation; and outdoor, sport, environmental and leisure studies. It should also be essential reading for those involved in outdoor organisations in Europe and worldwide.

Climbing Lessons describes the work of an instructor of outdoor pursuits from the late 1960s to the early 1990s. It is set mainly at an outdoor-education centre in Derbyshire, northern England. The book is accessible to casual, non-specialist readers as well as to outdoor professionals. It presents outdoor education in plain English. Climbing Lessons gives one person’s perspective. It covers one period. Its style differs sharply and deliberately from that of academic works on outdoor education. The author turned somersaults to avoid the jargon of education. One tertiary lecturer remarked: ‘I made use of one of the chapters in a new unit ... I was struck by how accurately it reflects the reality of working in an outdoor centre … ’ Page size: A5 Covers: Softback Number of pages: 384 About: Outdoor Education, Outdoor Leadership, Rockclimbing, Caving, Walking, Derbyshire.

Navigator is a KS2 reading scheme which covers fiction and non-fiction. It provides material to give pupils a 20-minute guided reading sesson per week during each school year.

This book focuses on Thomas Arthur Leonard, a Congregational minister in Colne, Lancashire in the 1890s, and the Co-operative Holidays Association, which he founded in 1893. The Co-operative Holidays Association, which was re-named the Countrywide Holidays Association in 1964, but was always affectionately known as the CHA, operated as an independent provider of outdoor holidays until 2002. Leonard left the CHA in 1913 to establish the Holiday Fellowship, an organisation with similar ideals to the CHA, which continues to trade as HF Holidays. Leonard was also instrumental in the establishment of the Youth Hostels Association in 1930 and the formation of the Ramblers’ Association in 1935, of which he was the first President. He strongly supported the National Trust, founded in 1895, and was a stalwart of the campaign for national parks during the 1930s. He was a founder member of the Friends of the Lake District in 1934, and was connected with a number of other outdoor holiday organisations. This book details the life and achievements of this extraordinary man, who rebelled against the conventionality of the 1880s and 1890s and was appalled by the dull and grim lives of artisans and textile workers in the industrial north of England. It also tells the story of the CHA, which pioneered walking holidays in the outdoors for working people, from its foundation in 1893 to its demise in 2004. The book describes how the CHA faced the challenges of changing social, economic and cultural conditions during the twentieth century, such as increasing affluence and consumer choice, changing cultural attitudes and expectations, the popularisation of outdoor recreation and the proliferation of outdoor holiday providers. It shows how the CHA drifted away from its original ideals in an attempt to remain viable in the face of increasing consumerism, but, nevertheless, continued to provide holidays for thousands of people based on healthy recreation and quiet enjoyment, and the principles of friendship and fellowship.