Claremont pupils quiz MP Dominic Raab on climate change

Esher and Walton MP and Deputy Prime Minister, Dominic Raab, visited Claremont Fan Court Preparatory School on the morning of Friday 3 December to speak with pupils and participate in an environment focused Q&A session prepared by the children.

Welcomed by our Prep School choir, singing their G7 climate summit song, Mr Raab heard all about our school’s very own climate change summit held last summer and the views our children had on the subject before settling in for the Q&A.

Prep and Senior School pupils, many of whom are members of their school councils or environmental clubs, along with our lower sixth politics students, were in attendance and excited to hear from the MP. Together they took turns to quiz Mr Raab on the policies the government have in place or will be implementing to help protect the environment and slow the effects of climate change.

Questions revolved around high speed train line plans, electric cars, the protection of wildlife and natural habitats, pollution levels, sustainable waste disposal strategies and cycle path schemes in the local area, to list just a few.  Mr Raab was impressed by the questions and was delighted to see the pupils so engaged in the subject matter.

To demonstrate our commitment to the cause, and in a bid to hold Mr Raab to his word on government climate promises, the pupils’ questions were placed into a time capsule following the Q&A and presented to Mr Raab for placing into the ground outside the Prep School. The capsule will be dug up in 30 years’ time, by which point the government’s target to have reached net 0 carbon emissions by 2050 should have been realised!

Our thanks to Mr Raab for visiting Claremont Fan Court School and for giving our pupils a fantastic insight into the world of politics and how the country is governed.