Red kites find friends at Roman Road Primary School

Oct 20 2008 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

MORE than 100 North East schools have now adopted red kites. Roman Road Primary School, in Leam Lane, Felling, Gateshead, is the hundredth school to adopt one of the birds of prey reintroduced into the Derwent valley since the launch of the scheme four years ago.

Children at the school, which is located close to the Roman road of Wrekendike, have called their red kite Centurion. It is one of 22 young red kites which fledged in the North East this summer.

Bronia Lacey, adopt-a-kite teacher at Roman Road Primary School, said: “Using the kites is going to be a great way for our children to learn about the environment.”

The adopt-a-kite scheme has been so successful that the Northern Kites Project has had to develop a new strategy to meet the demand from schools for red kite educational material.

A total of 105 schools are now part of the adoption scheme.

Melanie Hills, access and education officer of the Northern Kites Project, said: “It’s wonderful that so many schools wish to be involved with red kites, but as there are not yet enough kites to be adopted, we have created Kids4Kites, a new, free scheme that any school can become involved with.”

Kids4Kites, can be found on the education pages of the Northern Kites website at www.northernkites.org.uk/education/index.html and choose Kids4Kites.