TiS

1. The “Troot in the Shed” project
“Troot in the Shed” aims at making pupils aware of the Brown Trout and Sea-Trout life cycles
through presentations and hands-on activities – the highlight of the initiative being hatching
trout ova (provided by the local fishing association) on the school ground and monitoring the
experiment on a daily basis to record the various stages from egg to alevin and fingerling. The two
projects are currently run in the two Orkney Islands schools of Stronsay and North Walls on Hoy.
The “Troot in the Shed” project owes its name to the building where the trout are hatched… There is
an already existing initiative across the country called “Trout in the Classroom” but it requires an
extensive set-up including a cooled tank costing in excess of £1,000 which wasn’t an option. We have
managed here to hatch these trout using very basic materials either already in the schools or donated
by teachers thus reducing the cost to a minimum.
This has been copied and pasted from the Home Page of the blog we have been running between
January and April 2011. For more details, you can access our Glow blog by clicking on:
https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/or/TrootintheShed/home-page/
The projects at North Walls and on Stronsay ran between mid-January and late March. This is
because brown trout spawn in early to mid-November when the Orkney Trout Fishing Association
collect the eggs. They are fertilised and stored in trays at the Kirbister Loch hatchery in Orphir;
they're quite fragile at that stage and are best left alone. It's only by January when they are nearly
"eyed" that they can be safely transported. Then, it takes about 3 weeks for them to hatch and
another 5-6 weeks to reabsorb their yolk-sacs and that's when they need to be released in the wild
(it usually fits in with the end of the spring term). These dates can’t be shifted as we depend entirely
on Nature’s own calendar!
As far as pupils’ age is concerned, on both islands, the pupils the most involved were at S1 and S2
stages (it was easier for me as I’m a secondary teacher) but I can see the project very suitable for
P6-7 pupils and even P5. However, all stages had the chance to see the eggs and the newly hatched
trout, from nursery to teachers (we even had alevins in a small tank in the Stronsay staffroom one
day!). Pupils tend to very quickly develop strong ownership of the project and, in my experience
have shown a very responsible attitude. As I was on each island only a couple of days a week, pupils
used email and ICT (our “Troot in the Shed” blog) to keep in touch and ask for advice.
Needless to say that it fits in very well with a CfE, and lends itself to a multi-disciplinary project.
I’ll also add an MP3 file of the Radio Orkney programme which was on air on Monday 28th
April
where George McKinlay (North Walls acting headteacher), Ken Kennedy (Orkney Trout Fishing
Association), pupils from North Walls and myself speak about the project.
For more details, don’t hesitate to contact me either through the “Troot in the Shed” blog
(https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/or/TrootintheShed/home-page/) or by email:
antoine.pietri@glow.orkneyschools.org.uk