Leader of the Year Awards
Our annual Leader Awards recognise and celebrate inspiring Leaders – from stand-out beginners to the highly experienced. Recipients are nominated and shortlisted by fellow Leaders and members of the British Exploring Society team, with the final Awards being made by a judging panel who look to honour spirit and skills.
THE AWARDS
The Jean Sinclair Award celebrates Leaders who are particularly adept at making everything they do support young people to reach their potential – whether during an hour, a week, or a month in the wild. These Leaders may have worked with us for some time, or be new to us, and their contribution may be face-to-face, enabling, or all about their planning skills – but their focus on young people is unshakeable. This award is in memory of Jean Sinclair who led for British Exploring Society on several occasions.
The Les Morgan Leader of the Year Award is to identify and celebrate consistent excellence in any area of Leadership, or to recognise an individual who has supported and helped develop their fellow Leaders, providing guidance and direction for them as well as for Explorers in preparation for and throughout their expedition experiences. This award is in memory of Les Morgan, a former Chief Leader and long serving Member of our community.
In 2025 we will not be awarding the Les Morgan Leader of the Year Award, in light of not running a full expedition programme during the roll out of A New Kind of Adventure. The award will be reinstated for the 2026 expedition season.
THE JEAN SINCLAIR AWARD
The inspiring Leaders nominated by our community for our 2025 season are…
The Longlist
Alex Keefe – Ali Weaver – Andy Browning – Charlotte Pink – Claire Moss – Ellie Moore – Gareth Morgan – Katherine Durkin – Kevin Spriggs – Lauren Shotter – Lucy Longbottom – Russell Gard – Samad Shahab – Vron Rollinson – Will Duke-Oddy
Their nominations were made by fellow Leaders who volunteered alongside them in 2025.
The Shortlist
The winner will be announced on the 11th of November.
Andy Browning
“Andy worked exceptionally to help me lead a group of our ESOL* students this year. I was in awe of his ability to resonate and connect with them and am thankful that I got the opportunity to work alongside him.”
*In education, ESOL programs help non-native speakers develop their English skills for work, further education, and integration into an English-speaking society.
Claire Moss
“She has an inexhaustible supply of group activities and games to boost morale or whilst waiting for the fire to assemble. She is extremely adept at helping young people through adversity, detects and swiftly deals with tensions or disagreements and is always positive throughout. It was a pleasure to lead with her! ”
Katherine Durkin
‘Katherine always gets consistently excellent feedback. She is a very strong Social Leader, capable of flipping groups identified as ‘high need’ to raising fewest issues of any of the Fires on any given programme.”
Kevin Spriggs
“Such an amazing range of skills and strategies for working with young people! I feel like Kevin provided such a comprehensive and structured approach without making it feel like it; he is a very relaxed but highly effective leader!”
Poppy Russell
“Poppy was nominally a knowledge leader, but quickly filled the gap of social leader in our fire. She was always the first to notice when a young person was struggling. She obviously had a really deeply grounded sense of care and belief in the young people, and this permeated the whole experience for everyone.”
Samad Shahab
“Young people feel comfortable speaking with Samad, and his advice and guidance were instrumental… Without Samad’s support, encouragement, and great sense of humour, some young people would have had a much harder time on expedition, and he was directly responsible for some of the most positive outcomes of the summer.”
Vron Rollinson
“The positivity that radiates from Vron is immeasurable. Not only is she absolutely amazing at inspiring curiosity and a sense of adventure in young people, she also provides the MOST amazing environment for other leaders within her Fire.”
Will Duke-Oddy
“Will is consistently one of the most impressive leaders I have ever worked with. His skills as a senior social leader are unparalleled, and I always find myself in awe of his ability to connect and inspire young people… his commitment to ensure as many young people as possible are able to access the transformative experiences provided by expeditions, shows no limits.”
OUR JUDGE FOR 2025
Dame Rachel de Souza
Dame Rachel is a nationally recognised educator and advocate for improving the life chances of disadvantaged children. Before her appointment as Children’s Commissioner, she led two schools from failing to outstanding, before founding and leading the Inspiration Trust, a family of fourteen schools in East Anglia. The Trust was twice ranked as the nation’s top group of comprehensive schools based on pupil progress at GCSE. She was made a Dame in 2014 for services to education.
“As Children’s Commissioner I take on a crucial role, sitting at the heart of Government, delivering for children, and championing their voices and needs. As a former teacher, headteacher and school trust leader for over 30 years, I have seen first-hand how passionate and compassionate children are. This is an ambitious generation that wants to succeed in life, but that also wants to play its part in improving the world around them. They need us, as adults, to listen to them and ensure they get the right help to fulfil their true potential.”
