Delivering Fish in the Classroom During Covid

2020 has been a unique year for many reasons some of which have been regularly reported on. The lesser known impact that I have experienced in the Forth Rivers Trust is the effect Covid-19 has had on the Fish in the Classroom throughout 2020. Here is what we have been up to!

At the start of 2020, the Trust was fully engulfed in delivering our Fish in the Classroom Project to 18 schools around the District. This has always run from January to March and has been a staple project for the Trust since 2009. Things were running smoothly from the start of the project and all our classes were enjoying looking after and rearing their fish into March. However, as we approached March it seemed to become apparent that the schools who were looking after their fish may not be able to do a field trip to release them! Fish releases were organised as soon as possible, and many classes were able to get their fish in the river. However by mid-March, some schools could not allow pupils to leave the schools grounds and so we collected their fish and released them to the river on video. Some fish were even collected and stored at our River Centre for the future opportunity to release the fish after the initial lockdown ended. However, it soon became apparent that pupils would not go back until August and so we again improvised and made another video to send to these schools with the release of their fish.

Now, as we approach the end of 2020, we are gearing up to another year of the Fish in the Classroom project in 2021. This time, because we have had time to come to terms with the new way of working with Covid restrictions, there has been a concentrated effort to get all of the project activities on film so that the project can be delivered to classes without our staff having to go into the school and interact with the pupils. Benefits to this approach mean that the project is sustainable for the future and these new resources can be made available to the schools involved for years to come! We are much looking forward to getting Fish in the Classroom up and running again after a miserable year.