Our Fishing 4 Schools programme features in the Daily Telegraph

On 21st September the Daily Telegraph published a feature on The Countryside Alliance Foundation's Fishing 4 Schools initiative, joining youngsters on a course at Meon Springs in Hampshire and hearing about the benefits, fun and magic of the programme which gives youngsters an opportunity to get out of the classroom and onto our waterways. Read the piece, "Fishing for Schools: how to get kids hooked on learning" here.

Nearly £60,000 was raised for the Fishing For Schools (F4S) campaign by "fishy goings on" in Wiltshire on 21st September. F4S, run by the Countryside Alliance's Charlie Jardine, is a programme that uses angling as a teaching tool for secondary school pupils, to explore core subjects like maths, English and natural sciences while getting them involved in a new hobby.

However F4S is so popular that the number of schools applying to take part outstrips availability, so a campaign was launched this month (September) to raise £380,000, enough to sustain the charity and help it grow over the next three years.

A fundraising dinner was held by the kind invitation of Mr and Mrs George Stephenson in Barford St Martin, Wiltshire on 21 September.

And kind guests helped raise nearly £60,000 for the charity with donations, an auction and a game that involved hooking fluorescent toy dolphins from a stream.

Mr Jardine said: "I'm absolutely thrilled with the total raised. The campaign is a defining point for Fishing For Schools and marks a new era of growth for education of young people to promote a lifelong love of angling and of an understanding of rural interests."