School Dogs

Dogs

Parents, can we please ask that you are respectful of the local community, pupils and families when walking your dogs around the school premises. We have been made aware that some dogs are being tethered in narrow pinch points while dropping children at school, which is making some people very nervous about walking past.

At CHPS we are big dog lovers but can we suggest, if possible, to leave your dogs at home and not take them out while the paths are extremely busy at drop off and pick up times. We really appreciate your understanding and support with this matter.

Zorba the Guide Dog Puppy

Thomas B from Year 3 at Greenbank and his family are fostering and raising a guide dog puppy called Zorba. They have approached Castle Hill to ask if the school community could help with his socialisation and foundation training by coming onto the school grounds. Our school policy does not allow dogs onsite (apart from our school dogs Ruffles and Rogan), however on this occasion we are happy to help the family. This has also been approved by Castle Hill Infants.

Zorba will always be on a lead when on the school grounds and they ask that the children are calm around him and do not try to stoke him. To read Zorba's journey visit his blog - https://adventuresofzorba.blogspot.com

Our School Dogs

As many of you may be aware, our school dogs, have been working hard within our school community since introducing Ruffles in 2015. The process of getting Ruffles was not quick and took a lot of time and research. Ms Willmouth, our Deputy Head spoke to governors, parents, and our Student Senate about the idea and sought Health and Safety advice from ‘County Specialists’. After all the discussions were over it was decided that to have a school therapy dog would be hugely beneficial for the children both educationally and emotionally.

Rogan has now been welcomed to our Rooksdown campus and he is also a Cockerpoo. Rogan has passed The Kennel Club Good Citizen Dog Scheme Silver award for training. They are known to be playful, good-natured, loyal, friendly, affectionate and love people. Fantastic dogs to work with children!

The role of our therapy dogs is to support children at both sites with all sorts of emotional needs. These included coping with bereavement, exam pressures, anger management, anxiety and not to mention increasing the children’s understanding of responsibility and developing empathy. Plus the sheer enjoyment they get from being around the dogs is lovely to see! The feedback from the parents and children has been overwhelmingly supportive.

We understand that it is not possible for all families to have a dog therefore we hope that having both Rogan and Ruffles will be an opportunity for the children at both sites to have a ‘share’ in a dog and gain a relationship and contact on a more regular basis.

What is a reading dog?

Reading dogs are, quite simply, dogs that children read to!  Reading to dogs has been proved to help children develop literacy skills and build confidence, through both the calming effect the dogs' presence has on children and the fact that the dog will listen to the children read without being judgemental or critical. This comforting environment helps to nurture children's enthusiasm for reading and provides them with the confidence needed to read aloud.

See more at: http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/our-resources/bark-and-read/#sthash.POpf38Dk.dpuf

Training

Ruffles has been working hard at Kennel Club training courses and has passed ‘The Kennel Club Good Citizen Dog Scheme – Gold Award’. She had to pass 10 exercises to achieve this including: control at door/gate, controlled walk amongst people and other dogs and return to handler. We’re all very proud of her!

We should stress that being involved with Ruffles and Rogan is entirely optional and no child will be expected to work with the dog unless they wish to.

Here are a few photographs of them both. Enjoy!