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The Thames Salmon School project is an innovative, international educational initiative delivered as a collaborative effort across the Thames basin.
Based on The Salmon School, a project started by American artist Joseph Rossano, that combines art and science to inspire young people to protect and appreciate our rivers, RTCT is thrilled to bring this unique programme to our catchment. We’ve partnered with Thames Rivers Trust, the lead partner of the broader Thames Salmon School collaboration, and five other Rivers Trusts – Action for the River Kennet, South East Rivers Trust, Thames 21, Cotswolds Rivers Trust, and The Rivers Trust – to deliver a pilot of the programme with five primary schools across the Thames basin between September 2024 and February 2025.
RTCT partnered with Stocklake Park School, a Special Educational Needs (SEN) school in Aylesbury, to deliver the first Thames Salmon School sessions. Over three interactive workshops, students learned about salmon anatomy, life cycles, and the environmental challenges affecting their survival. These sessions blended classroom learning with hands-on outdoor activities, offering a rich educational experience.
Atlantic salmon are a keystone species, essential to the health of both rivers and oceans. Their extraordinary life cycle—hatching in freshwater rivers, migrating to the sea, and returning to their birthplace to spawn—makes them critical indicators of ecosystem health. By transporting nutrients between rivers and oceans, they support the interconnected web of life in aquatic environments.
Wild salmon populations have been absent from the Thames catchment for decades and the story of their decline provides a powerful framework to explore environmental issues.
The salmon’s close relative, the brown trout, which shares similar habitat needs and life cycle characteristics, can be found in a chalk stream tributaries of River Thame and helps make the lessons relatable to our local rivers.
The students visited their local river, the Bear Brook, a tributary of the River Thame, to learn how to become citizen scientists.
Equipped with waders and nets, they kick-sampled the brook to discover aquatic invertebrates like freshwater shrimp, damselfly larvae, and caddisfly larvae. Using identification keys, they learned how the quantity and diversity of these creatures indicate river health.
In addition to invertebrate sampling, students collected environmental DNA (eDNA) from the river.
They explored how scientists use genetic material shed by animals in the environment to detect and monitor biodiversity, unveiling a hidden world of aquatic life that would otherwise go unnoticed.
Art played a central role in the program, encouraging students to creatively express what they learned about rivers and wildlife. They created drawings and depictions of the Bear Brook ecosystem and mixed in natural materials such as leaves and feathers that they found outside.
Teachers noted the program’s positive impact, particularly on students who usually struggle with creative tasks. Additionally, the teachers independently ran art activities at school, guiding students to create works inspired by the river wildlife they had seen or learned about through The Salmon School project.
During the final classroom session, where students learned the results of their eDNA samples.
They connected with American artist Joseph Rossano via a live video call to explore their findings and learn more about the global importance of the Salmon School initiative.
This session emphasised the interconnectedness of conservation efforts and provided students with a chance to engage directly with the artist behind the project.
Additionally, the students received a special gift: a handmade glass sculpture of an Atlantic salmon, crafted in the United States with the help of another student group. This sculpture, along with digital artwork visualising the students’ eDNA findings, symbolises the global collaboration needed to protect aquatic environments.
The Thames Salmon School project aims to secure additional funding to expand its reach, engaging more schools across the Thames catchment.
By teaching young people about the ecological and cultural significance of salmon, the importance of cold, clean water, and the interconnection between humans and nature, the program hopes to cultivate the next generation of river stewards.
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