Keen to create links within education, the water and waste water management company United Utilities approached St Gabriel’s RC High School. The School has specialist Science College status. The resulting partnership has benefited both the company and the school.
United Utilities work to improve moorland quality on the nland they own in the Watershed Landscape. They needed data to show if specific treatments they used had benefited the land and if bio-diversity has increased as a result.
For the past four years, students from St Gabriel's have been able to participate in a real life research project whilst learning a variety of study techniques. They have input from United Utilities as well as other organisations such as the RSPB and even old students returning to mentor younger students.
The most exciting thing is that this isn't just a dry fieldwork exercise; the student findings are having a direct impact upon the way moorland is managed in the future.
