Dr Grant presents assembly and enlightens Sixth Form students at 'Learning Lunch'

Dr Susie Grant came into school to do an assembly after helping Year 13 student Annabel T. with some research into plastic pollution for her EPQ: Threats to the Great Barrier Reef and its possible management strategies.

Dr Grant works for the British Antarctic Survey and the Scott Polar research institute in Cambridge, and talked to the Sixth Form girls about her two expeditions to the Antarctic as a gap year expedition before her undergraduate and masters degrees. She said it was this experience that really made her decide to go into working within the Antarctic Survey after she finished her Phd. She has been working for them for the last 12 years as a scientific adviser for the UK government and attends panel meetings representing the UK government regarding climate change and the protection of the Antarctic. She has particularly worked on the international protection of the Ross Sea to prevent fishing in this area as a way of protecting the coral and fish in this fairly untouched part of the world.

Dr Grant ended her assembly stating that young people are part of the most environmentally-aware generation. She talked about how, due to an increase in knowledge and media coverage of this topic in recent years, attitudes have been slowly changing for the better.

She also came to 'Learning Lunch', a lunchtime event where our students meet and chat informally with successful women who work at the forefront of their chosen field. At the lunch she spoke about the Antarctic Treaty. This was set up between 12 nations in 1961 and states that Antarctica shall be used for peaceful purposes only. The treaty involves regulations that mean that the Antarctic is conserved in its natural beauty. Dr Grant also mentioned the Paris 2015 agreement which is a more recent governmental initiative to bring about a global response to climate change, emphasising that in order to protect the Antarctic, we need to slow the rate at which global warming is occurring.