Leading pioneer in renewable energy – and fellow of Women’s Engineering Society – is guest of honour on return visit to QE Girls’ School  

An award-winning engineer in the development of offshore wind technologies, visiting professor Emily Spearman – who grew up in High Barnet – returned to Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School to present prizes at the annual celebration of excellence.

Securing an A in GCSE mathematics at QE Girls in 1996 had been the springboard for Emily’s career – a career that included her nomination last year as one of “100 women brilliant in renewable energy.”  

She was delighted to congratulate Ejona Hasani – above, left – on winning the school’s 2025 trustees’ prize for outstanding achievements in maths.

Ejona – also an Abbott prize winner – is taking up a place at Warwick University to study economics.

Recalling her five years studying at QE Girls, where she remembered rushing through the corridors from one class to the next, Emily said was a chance to reflect on what school life had taught her – lessons she was keen to pass on to the pupils of today.

She had a strong sense of purpose; she knew what she liked and didn’t; she found English and history hard work; but was always curious and she gained an A in maths GCSE which secured her a place at Woodhouse sixth form college and then Nottingham University.

“One of the teachers in the maths department at QE (Mrs Sheena Duncan) recognised my potential.  She believed in me and recognised in me what others hadn’t. Through her support I have been able to achieve what I have.”

Pupils always had to fight for themselves, find sponsors and advocates, as everything achieved was a springboard to the next achievement.

“QE Girls was my springboard to college and university.”

Emily, who became an environmental officer for her university, found herself at the age of 21 as the only woman on an oil rig off Aberdeen, assisting in research and the collection of deep-sea data.

Other assignments included making environmental assessments on major construction projects across the world and, after eight years, she returned to academic life gaining an MBA in global energy at Warwick University.

Currently she is a senior leader of a BP offshore wind company, where she is working on offshore technologies such as drones and robots, and a visiting professor in energy and power at Loughborough University.

Emily’s return for the prize giving was a chance to meet up with Nigel Royden (above, left), her history teacher at QE Girls in the early 1990s, who taught at the school for 36 years, and who was presented with a long service award on his retirement.

Members of the Spearman family are no strangers to QE Girls: her father Jeffrey was chair of the school governors when the school hall was rebuilt after being destroyed in an arson attack in 1991 and her sister Jessica was also subsequently a chair of the school trustees.

Head teacher Violet Walker (far right) welcomed the Mayor of Barnet, Councillor Danny Rich.

As guests mingled after the presentation, Emily – at the suggestion of the Barnet Society – agreed that given her role in the development of renewable energy –and as a judge in climate change awards – perhaps she would like schools to do more to encourage a greater interest in the subject.

One idea would be for an annual prize for the pupil devising the most imaginative strategy for tackling climate change – a suggestion Mrs Walker agreed was a possible innovation.