Paul Whitehouse meets our Reel Education and Get Fishing Teams

Paul Whitehouse met our Reel Education and Get Fishing teams recently and was impressed by the work going on, taking the time to speak to both our staff and many of the youngsters fishing.

He learned that Reel Education will come into a school and provide all learning materials for the day, including lesson plans, activities and exercises in Science, Maths, and Art.

As well as these angling and water-habitat based in-class activities, the Reel Education Delivery Team will provide P.E style fishing and environmental activities that will inspire and generate interest in the outdoors and the environment.

With a focus on Art, Maths & Science in curriculum-based activities, as well as P.E. and games led by the education delivery trained Reel Education Team, the all-encompassing Reel Education resource packs demonstrate a clear connection between Environment, Nature and Angling to pupils, learning support workers, teachers and even parents.

This helps create and embed a path from classroom to the water’s edge, and a tangible connection between education and the outdoors, which when embedded in minds and bodies at this early age, is proven to be more likely to create a lifelong interest and active, regular participation level.

As parents, educators and pupils, we are often faced with the challenge of making physical, outdoor activity appealing enough to generate action in young people. Reel Education and the Get Fishing Programme is overcoming these barriers, and getting everyone involved off their screens so that we can ‘re-wild’ and reconnect with nature, during the peace, quiet, anticipation and excitement of simply going fishing.

The transformative effect of fishing activity is immediately evident, and parents, teachers and LSA’s will often comment about the immediate, behaviour changing effect that picking up a rod, reel and line, and focusing on fishing for a while, will dramatically help overcome difficulty focusing and learning, slower reaction times, frustration, irritability, attention problems, over-activity, fatigue, low energy, stress, anxiety, separation challenges, feeling angry/sad/fearful, obsessive thoughts, compulsions and changes in interests and sleep.

These have been linked to impaired school performance, misbehaviour, physical issues (such as pain), substance misuse, crime and truancy. Angling is able to provide an active intervention while at the same time remains fun, safe, friendly and educational.

The in-school activities link to Get Fishing events run by the Angling Trust all over England – the aim being to introduce pupils to the outdoors and provide a lifelong connection to all the educational, health and wellbeing benefits that the wonderful world of angling brings to people of all ages and backgrounds each year. We aim to offer every pupil who engages in the project an opportunity to try fishing for free or at a low cost in their area. Our Reel Education delivery team are thoroughly background and DBS checked and we have everybody’s safeguarding at the forefront when we visit and communicate appropriately with children at KS1 and KS2 stages of their education.

Paul’s series 8 of Gone Fishing with Bob Mortimer is set to air this November on BBC2. He a fantastic advocate of the work we do at the Angling Trust, and you can find out why he’s so impressed by attending an event and fishing for yourself. Our family events are the ideal place to start fishing, and many quickly find themselves ‘hooked’.

Find an event near you and sign up today by clicking here!

The Get Fishing campaign is funded by

The Angling Trust’s Get Fishing campaign to get more people fishing more often is funded by the Environment Agency from fishing licence income as part of the National Angling Strategic Services contract with the Angling Trust, and Sport England. Children under 13 do not need a licence, and licences for children aged between 13 and 16 are free but you still need to register and receive a licence before you go fishing. You can get a licence for the full year, for 8 days (ideal for holidays!) or just a day’s fishing.

NOTE: Although young children who are under 13 year old do not need a licence to fish, the person supervising them needs to have the proper fishing licence before they take hold of the fishing rod or help the child fish with it.

Get Fishing is Proudly Supported by

The Angling Trust’s ‘Get Fishing’ campaign is proudly supported by Angling Direct, Exclusive Retail Partner
as we work towards getting more people fishing, more often.

If there’s something that you cannot find here to help you start fishing or return to angling, please contact your local Regional Angling Development Officer – you can find the nearest one to where you want to go fishing here.