More than 550 schoolchildren across the Wye Valley are busy pond dipping and surveying water quality in advance of this year’s free, fun-filled Wye Valley River Festival which runs from April 29th to May 15th.

Countryside professionals are visiting 11 schools across Herefordshire, Monmouthshire, and the Forest of Dean, to work with children aged four to 17 on an environmental research project which culminates in the creation of fabulous flags for the festival itself.

In Herefordshire they are working with primary schools in Whitchurch, Goodrich, Walford and Ashfield Park (Ross-on-Wye) as well as St James C of E Primary School and Lord Scudamore Academy in Hereford.

The Wye Valley River Festival’s schools outreach project started at the beginning of March, in the run up to this year’s event, which combines arts and environment in a unique and inspiring way.

Professional volunteers are visiting schools to involve children in pond dipping and water testing using the Freshwater Habitats Trust testing kit, inputting the results on the Trust’s website. They are also looking at water samples under microscopes and partaking in the Open Air Laboratories (OPAL) survey.

Building on this work, artists Becky Prior and Faye Joines are then getting students involved in making flags for the river festival, showing them how to create large double-sided flags that reference river life around the Wye Valley. The flags are made using a printing process called Cyanotype.

The outreach project involves countryside professionals from the Wye Valley AONB; Wye and Usk Foundation; Forestry Commission; Environment Agency; Forestry Commission; Gwent Wildlife Trust; Welsh Water; OPAL; Monmouthshire County Council; Herefordshire Wildlife Trust; The Brockweir and Hewelsfield Parish Grasslands; Herefordshire Mammal Group and the Marine Conservation Society.

The Wye Valley River Festival is a biennial event inspired by the landscape and led by the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) unit and arts professionals working with local communities. Starting with a spectacular launch even in Hereford on April 29th and reaching its fantastic finale in Chepstow on May 15th, it promises an artistic outpouring of song, story and spectacle celebrating the River Wye and its connections to rivers and people around the world under the theme Global Arteries.

During the festival several of the schools involved in the outreach programme will receive a special visit from one of the intriguing travelling caravans which form the Wye Serai, a performance and activity space at the core of the festival. They are The Caravan of Myths and Legends; The Caravan of Curiosities and Hydrosities and The Caravan of Fact and Wonder. There’s also The Arts & Environment (A&E) River Health Check Laboratory, conducting a comic river health check with serious intentions.

The Wye Valley River Festival education outreach programme is a Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Partnership initiative made possible by funding from the Sustainable Development Fund, a Welsh Government Initiative in the Wye Valley AONB, and by the Ernest Cook Trust.

Visit the website www.wyevalleyaonb.org.uk for more information about the Wye Valley River Festival; follow on Twitter: @wyebeauty #wyevalleyriverfestival or like the festival on facebook: www.facebook.com/ wyevalleyriverfestival.