Ryan Lawson

Ryan is currently the course leader for A-level Geology at Havant and Southdowns College based near Portsmouth on the South Coast.

Having travelled widely in his youth, spending time marvelling at the Oman ophiolite, gazing upon the Ochill fault in Scotland and trekking across the Burren in Ireland he moved to Portsmouth in 1999 to complete his Earthscience degree.

Whilst initially gaining teacher status with a Geography PGCE and starting his early career in a local secondary school, he quickly realised his passion remained entwinned with Earthscience and in 2014 started teaching Geology at what was then Southdowns college.

He has always had a passion for the subject as well as a desire to learn more about how to teach Geology more effectively. His relationship with ESTA started when he attended the geoscience summer school in 2016 meeting the late Chris King and Pete Loader for the first time he was encouraged to be involved in an early initiative called building earthscience resilience.

Having been exposed to the reality of falling Geology numbers and other local centres in the Portsmouth area discontinuing geology he felt he neded to do more. Initially offering varied outreach activities to local feeder schools and promoting Geology to all who would listen. Geology is now a unique selling point at HSDC and attracts healthy numbers each year.

Ryan, having been an ESTA member since 2016 stepped up to the secondary coordinator post in 2023 was delighted to host the bring and share session at Portsmouth University in his home city. He continues to be instumental in the running of teacher CPD at future conferences and is currently supporting another Hampshire college to set up A-level fieldwork and share ideas/resources. He has also helped promote and start GCSE Geology in a local Havant secondary school with the aim of using this as a case study for other schools nationally.