Nicky Morgan DisCERNing the Future of Physics

Students from Our Lady’s Convent School’s Year 11 and Lower Sixth yesterday welcomed the Rt Hon Nicky Morgan, Conservative candidate for the Loughborough constituency, in to School as they discussed their recent visit to Geneva, the home of the discovery of the Higgs Boson.

Ms Morgan joined the students as they reviewed their educational visit to CERN, the home of the world’s largest particle accelerator.  The trip, organised by Head of Science, Mr Graham Sutch, enlightened the group as to how the accelerator is used to create new particles, explore dark matter and famously reproduce and explore conditions immediately after the ‘big bang’.

Chatting with the students over lunch, Ms Morgan was keen to find out what from the trip had inspired them.  Alisha Marriott-Best was quick to share her thoughts about the volume of data that is made freely available to the global community. Whilst India Jarvis commented on how surprised she was to be so interested in the mechanics of building the particle accelerator, which was first planned in 1957.

Nicky was particularly interested to hear about the girls’ future career plans and was delighted that so many of them are exploring university courses and careers which will dovetail with, and be supported by, the sciences. Career choices ranged from Architecture and Animal Physiotherapy through to Computer Science, Economics, Law, Mathematics and Physics.

With parliament dissolved and a political candidate in their midst the students were also keen to ask Ms Morgan challenging questions of their own relating to her thoughts on the NHS, Brexit and Brussels.

Speaking after the event Nicky Morgan said, “I was delighted to hear that students from Our Lady’s Convent School had visited CERN and it was fascinating to hear from them how the visit and the discussions there had helped them to put their physics lessons into context.  We had an excellent Q&A session and it is always very welcome to hear the views of younger residents about the issues of the day.”