Diglis Fish Ladder – a feat of engineering!

On Wednesday afternoon, the King’s St Alban’s Year Four cohort took a very pleasant stroll in the sunshine along the banks of the River Severn to visit the River Severn Fish Pass, located at Diglis Lock. An exciting conservation project run by the Canal and River Trust, this amazing feat of engineering opens up Britain’s longest river, not only for the rare fish that depend upon it but also for the communities who live alongside it.

Having looked at the fish-ladder in class, the children already knew why and how it had been built, but were excited to have the opportunity to see it in action with their very own eyes. The visit did not disappoint, with all the children over the moon to see some fish swimming through it from the vantage point of the unique underwater viewing gallery window. The fish-ladder in Worcester is the only one with an underwater viewing window, on this occasion enabling the pupils in Year Four to have their hopes rewarded as three species of fish, Chub, Bleak, and Dace, swam through, and their gasps of delight were a real pleasure to hear.

The children then walked back to school, enjoying the fresh air and the sunshine, and were a credit to King’s St Alban’s. We are hugely lucky to have access to such amazing resources within a stone’s throw of our city-centre campus.

Back at school, the children were tasked with writing a creative piece from the vantage point of a fish making the arduous journey from the sea in the Bristol Channel to the smaller streams of the Welsh mountains in order to lay their eggs, now made all the easier by the fish-ladder at Diglis Lock.

Our thanks to the Canal and Rivers Trust for bringing our classroom learning to life once again.