Above: Andy Burton (right)
Right: Graeme Lawrie.
Graeme Lawrie
Graeme Lawrie started at Sevenoaks School as Head
of Design and Technology in 2006. Within a few years
he took on the role of Head of the Science Faculty,
before moving on to be the Director of Innovation
and Excellence in 2014, becoming the Director of
Innovation and Outreach in 2016.
and technology, enhanced by inspirational speakers,
activities and shows. Since then, thousands of local
children have visited the event each year. There were
awe-inspiring sensational events, including the live
link with the International Space Station (2011),
air displays above Sevenoaks (2012), the Bloodhound
supersonic car (2013), and a Russian cosmonaut’s
inspirational talk on plans for the manned mission
to Mars.
Over the last 13 years, Graeme has been a tutor
for many of the boarding houses, a Middle School
day tutor, climbing instructor, and timetabler, but is
probably best known for his work with innovative
technologies and the community. He ran a successful
Science Week for almost ten years and built a hugely
successful partnership collaboration with local schools
in and around Sevenoaks, as well as an international
consultancy for innovation in education. The success of these events did not go unnoticed and
Graeme became a popular speaker at conferences
across the globe, sharing his vision for collaborative
education work. He became NASA’s Teaching in Space
Liaison in 2012, secured a secondment at Buckingham
Palace as Special Adviser to HRH the Duke of York
and assisted in designing and launching a digital skills
platform (www.idea.org.uk), which now has over
800,000 users. Graeme was awarded Pearson Teacher
of the year in 2012 and was nominated as one of the
top five science teachers in the UK by the TES in 2015.
In 2010 Graeme opened our facilities to 1500
local children in the form of a STEM Week, to join
Sevenoaks students in the exploration of science Graeme has left Sevenoaks School to take on a role as
Director of Partnerships for ACS International Schools
from January 2019. I know he will be greatly missed.
Becky Brown
SEVENOAKS SCHOOL 2018-2019
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