Peacocks. An emotional support duck. And an entire zoo.
These are just some of the animals I have met on my travels as a school speaker around the UK. Not to mention one of my favourites, an emotional support Golden Retriever in Wales, called Disney. You could lose yourself in her fluffy cuddles and feel calmer immediately.
My own son’s school has Missee the cavapoo, a hugely popular addition to the school ‘staff team’, who is wonderful for reducing pupil anxiety, or calming stressful situations among the young people, and as an ice breaker for shy children. Dogs can even help children to learn to read better (though I suspect their pronunciation is a bit ‘rruff’!- apologies, I couldn’t resist!).
Having animals in school isn’t new of course (who doesn’t remember the termly battle to be the one entrusted to take the class hamster home for the holidays?), but as one teacher told me the other day, with a smile, they don’t cover ‘managing peacocks that wander around the art department’ at teacher training college! You have to learn that skill on your own from Day 1, and peacocks are not particularly known for their keenness to follow school rules or even basic courtesies, like keeping to one side of the corridor!
The rise in school pets for emotional support is one I wholly support, and not just because I am a ‘dog person’. There is a lot of science behind the idea of having animals close to us for human wellbeing, and a well behaved dog can be a real advantage to a learning environment, perhaps even more so if it is a boarding school and essentially a home from home. Not all schools may have a zoo of their own of course, but a gentle labrador or teddy bear-like cavapoo can work wonders for building children’s confidence or helping them to open up to talk about difficult things.
In fact the largest ever Pets in the Classroom study showed (in 2019) that school pets had a positive impact on academic and social behaviour, reducing shyness and hyperactivity, and building confidence as well as understanding of animal welfare.
Universities have got in on the act too, with campus zoo petting days, puppy events and other blood pressure lowering opportunities of the animal variety, especially around exam time, with students queuing up to sit on the floor and cuddle a cute puppy, or wander round campus stroking a (relatively) domesticated llama.
Feeling anxious? There’s an alpaca for that!
So whilst I have yet to see a duck actually do anything vaguely resembling being ‘emotionally supportive’, I will continue to look forward to meeting a curious and entertaining range of animals on my travels around the UK. Though I might avoid the ‘ferret club’ of a particular school in North Yorkshire, because those little fellas can bite (the ferrets of course, though who’s to say about the children – there’s a reason they say “never work with children or animals”!)