Thousands of fish are being released into the River Clyde as part of a major conservation project involving dozens of Glasgow schools.

It follows the mass nurturing of eggs by city kids in classroom hatcheries, which has also included lessons on the river’s rich diversity of plant life and fish species.

Youngsters from Knightswood Primary were among the first to release around 200 newly hatched trout into the Clyde, with thousands more due to enter the river and local burns in the coming weeks.

Acting head teacher Nancy MacLachlan said: “The school is delighted how enthusiastic all the children were about this project.

“They enjoyed the responsibility of caring for the fish, graphing their daily temperature and learning all about them. They worked well independently and in teams and now consider themselves fish experts.”

One young expert is 10-year-old Adaam Razak, who is hooked on the subject.

He said: “I loved this topic. The bits I enjoyed most was naming parts of the fish body.

“I had 11 fish and gave them all names and we felt sad saying goodbye to our fish.”

Classmate Lauryn Kelly said: “I really enjoyed doing this work. It was great looking after the fish and learning about how they survived.”

The Clyde River Foundation launched the Clyde in the Classroom initiative in January, when children from almost 50 city schools were brought to the Glasgow Science Centre to be given batches of trout eggs to incubate in hatcheries.

Pupils were given the responsibility of keeping the eggs safe before watching them hatch.