Trout in the Classroom

Trout in the Classroom has been the Wandle Trust’s award-winning core educational project since we developed it locally in 2001 in partnership with Thames 21. This year, we’re grateful once again for the generous sponsorship of Thames Water, as a key part of the 5-year Living Wandle river restoration project.

Every December we visit participating schools to install specially modified aquaria, which aim to reproduce the natural conditions of river life for the eggs and fish.

In early January, these aquaria are seeded with trout eggs from the Environment Agency’s Sparsholt College in Hampshire. 

From January to March, the kids watch the eggs hatch, and then look after the developing “swim-up fry” until they’re ready to be released into their local river, with success rates that can often be much higher than the natural 10% survival rate in the wild. 

The project always captures the kids’ imaginations, and they find the prospect of nurturing their own baby trout extremely exciting. Teachers agree that elements of Trout in the Classroom link seamlessly into almost all areas of the National Curriculum, and the kids themselves learn valuable skills as they clean the water in the tank, make sure it stays at a constant temperature, and draw up responsible rotas for feeding the little fry – shown here hatching, and then at 4 weeks old.

Finally, the kids are always proud to attend their “release days” on the River Wandle, usually at the end of March.  These often attract huge media coverage, and whole classes can sometimes find themselves on national television, on radio and in the newspapers.

It’s an experience not easily forgotten, and all the evidence shows that the kids are encouraged to look after their local rivers and environment for years to come.  Here’s what some of them have said about Trout in the Classroom.

 “It was fun watching the fish swimming around in their tank and also watching them grow.  It was quite exciting watching the fish being released and being put back with their family, plus they will get used to being by themselves” – Kristopher

“Thank you for letting us go to the river and I hope to come and see the trouts again when they are big, so they will go in the river and become real fish” – Amish

“We have taken good care of the trout, they are very cool.  They are the best fish we could get” - Alex, Amy, Amish and Eoin

In the past, we’ve run Trout in the Classroom projects in the Wandle Valley and as far afield as Sheffield, Shropshire, Wales, Winchester, and the West Country.  Last year, we also advised our friends at the Chilterns Chalk Streams Project on setting up a Trout in the Classroom programme of their own.

But perhaps best of all, we know that our fry are surviving in the Wandle each year, and growing to an impressive size.  Here’s a magnificent adult brown trout caught (and carefully returned to the river) by one of our anglers in the summer of 2008, almost certainly a graduate of our Trout in the Classroom programme:

Click here for details of our Trout in the Classroom programme for 2009 – 10.