National Geographic Explorer Dan Raven Ellison visited King’s Ely to talk to students about some of his adventures.

Dan, who focuses on combining creative exploration, geography and communication to tackle social and environmental challenges, visited the school on January 19. He talked about his work on a number of projects.

Dan’s work takes place in urban spaces and explores how we can improve them for the people living there.

Dan introduced Year 7 and 8 students to projects including Route 125, where he completed 125 adventures with his son, and his walk across all of the UK’s cities and National Parks wearing a headset which captured his emotions.

He also spoke about when he crossed the world’s largest cities and took a photograph every eight paces.

For Year 10 and 12 students at King’s Ely Senior, Dan focussed on a project he led four years ago – to make London the world’s first National Park City.

He has the support of the Mayor of London and is close to getting enough political support for it to happen in 2019.

Dan spoke about how his plan would improve the health of London’s population and help with sustainability.

Dan was welcomed to the school by Alan Parkinson, head of geography at King’s Ely Junior, with whom he created an award-winning series of children’s books with an exploration theme, and an iPhone app called Mission:Explore.