Our story

Skerries for Schools was established in Richmond in 2014 by local resident and keen rower, Bamber Gascoigne, after he recognised there were very limited pathways for all parts of the community to get involved and enjoy traditional rowing. Bamber saw the growth in confidence and skills of other river users and knew the activity gave broader life-skills to its participants.

Activities quickly expanded to Kingston (now Thames Ditton) and the number of users grew year on year until 2020 when Covid-19 caused our activities to completely pause. Since 2021 we have been steadily rebuilding.

We opened in Reading in 2022  with the support of a donation from the Thames Traditional Boat Society for our skerry, Floreat, and an arrangement with the Reading Sea Cadet Corps to operate from their boating base.

You can read more about our activities in our annual reports: