Member Article

Teachers swaps classroom for adventure

A primary school head teacher has left his post after starting his own business running outdoor excursions for children and adults.

Kevin Foster, from Houghton le Spring Tunstall, Sunderland, left his career of 21 years to set up and operate his own bespoke residential outdoor learning business, Explore4All, after visiting The North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC).

Explore4All offers expeditions around the UK and abroad offering bespoke packages to schools and businesses alike. Kevin said: “My passion for learning in the outdoors began as a child and every school holiday was spent climbing mountains and canoeing on tarns, it was a wonderful time with few distractions of everyday life.

“There is nothing quite like an outdoor learning experience for awakening real education and this is the reason I started my own business, to share my passion and expertise to offer the best possible outdoor learning opportunities.

“When I began looking into my business I thought it would mainly involve taking children to the Lake District but already it has developed into planning trips and experiences for voluntary groups, older children, foreign trips, city breaks and team building with adults.”

Kevin visited the BIC where he was appointed business adviser Chris Craig, and together they worked on his business idea. Kevin adds: “Chris has been great. I met with him for about seven months and we are still in contact now. When I have any questions, its great knowing I can just call him.

“The flexibility was brilliant too as Chris came to meet at my school before school hours. He has really helped me sharpen my business practice of writing business plans. Every meeting was so useful.

“I would recommend the BIC to anyone wishing to go it alone; I call it the leap of faith because it really is just that. I also couldn’t have done this without the support of Sacred Heart Primary School who gave me a ten month period to drum up business and see if I could make it a success.

“I am taking a party of 35 children and adults for a sightseeing trip to Rome in February and two separate theatre visits to London in March as well as an adult teambuilding trip to the Lake district in March. Some people might not want to canoe in the Lake District in the middle of winter so I wanted to look at other options to keep business going throughout the year. I will miss my school and the children there so much but being able to work for myself in something I am so passionate about is amazing.”

Chris added: “When Kevin came to see me he knew exactly what he wanted to achieve, he was very focused.

“It’s great to see Kevin able to embark on self employment and follow his dream in sharing his passion for outdoors with others. I wish him all the success.”

The Ready for Business programme aims to create 6,000 businesses with 10,000 jobs and is supported by the Regional Growth Fund and Barclays.

It is delivered in the North East by Sunderland-based TEDCO which teamed with The North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC) in June this year to create a powerhouse for enterprise support in the North East.

For more information visit www.Explore4all.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section