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Education

Education Projects

The Esks Rivers & Fisheries Trust is keen to promote awareness of freshwater ecosystems, and the issues affecting those ecosystems, to local schoolchildren. The Rivers in the Classroom project is mainly targeted at primary school pupils, with the aim of raising an appreciation of the life contained in local rivers through learning-based experiences, which will engender a sense of care and responsibility for the environment.

The project encourages pupils to think about the environment and conservation through developing a knowledge of freshwater species and their life cycles; appreciating human influences on the natural environment; and an introduction to river and woodland habitat management.

Our project complements the Scottish Government’s education programme Curriculum for Excellence. This project will contribute to six of the eight curriculum areas: Expressive Arts; Health and Wellbeing; Languages (English); Mathematics; Sciences; and Technologies.

Get Involved

In addition to the classroom and field learning, we will introduce pupils to angling. In recent years, the average age of anglers has been increasing, and participation in this once popular activity is decreasing. Angling is a fantastic way to get involved with the environment, and has been shown to provide additional benefits, such as health, improving self-confidence in young people, and community inclusion.

The project entails a classroom visit to provide background information to the children, followed by a visit to a local river. We have the use of a section of river and a fishing hut, kindly provided by the owner of the Finavon Castle Beat on the River South Esk. There the children will do sampling for local invertebrates, learn about life cycles and how important rivers are. There will be ample opportunity to have some fun and splash around in the river! Finally, children (and teachers) will be given the chance to visit a local fishery to try fishing for trout.

If your school is interested in participating, please contact Craig MacIntyre on 01356 623492 or e-mail cmeskrivers@gmail.com.

Did you know?

Atlantic salmon return to their native river, and even the same stretch of the river from which they were born, with amazing accuracy. This means that many ‘populations’ of Atlantic salmon may exist within the same river.

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