Now we’ve had time to sit back and reflect on another year of our Eel in the Classroom project, we would like to share with you our progress in 2018.
We are really pleased to say that our project has been hugely successful to date and as a result it is growing every year. This year, we were able to run the project with a huge 12 schools – no easy feat for a small charity, with tank sourcing and set ups, eel deliveries, weekly check-ups, visits for technical issues, tank cleaning, extra lessons and release events!
We were also really pleased to deliver the project with both secondary schools and a special needs school for the first time, which shows how valuable this project is to any age range. We’ve now had wonderful feedback from 4-16 years old!
This year’s schools were in the following places:
- Portishead, Somerset
- Congresbury, Somerset
- Keynsham, Somerset
- Bath, Somerset
- Hartcliffe, Bristol
- Easton, Bristol
- Eastville, Bristol
- Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
- Calne, Wiltshire
- Lacock, Wiltshire
- Pucklechurch, South Gloucestershire
We are so grateful to our funders, the Greggs Foundation, who funded 9 schools, and Avon Frome Partnership who funded a further 3 and finally to Bristol Water who provided our eels and some tank equipment.
The eels were donated by UK Glass Eels after being caught by elver fisherman on the River Severn, after which approximately 50 eels were given to each primary school. After 5 weeks of feeding the eels every day, learning about their life history, and in some cases even naming the eels, it was time to release them back into rivers to begin the next stage of their lives. The eels can spend up to around 60 years in the headwaters of rivers, in small tributaries, ditches and streams before they make the epic 5000km migration back to where they were born in the Sargasso Sea to spawn.
BART also ran a series of extra lessons throughout the project including river dipping (getting the children in their river, often for the first time), water pollution and food webs.
All of the schools released their eels into their local river and received certificates and trophies to thank them for looking after their elvers so well. We’ve been promised that they will go back and look for their eels whenever they can!
We are already looking for funding to deliver this project in 2019. Please get in touch if you are a business or individual who would like to sponsor a tank in a school near you!
Similarly, if your school is interested in getting involved in this project next year then please get in touch with george@bristolavonriverstrust.org to be added to the waiting list.
