Winnie – Our School Dog
Meet Winnie, our school dog here at Maple Cross JMI and Nursery, she is an educational support dog.
She is a black labrador retriever who is owned by and lives with our School Business Manager, Mrs Lucy Evans and comes into school several days a week.
Winnie is part of the Dog Mentor Programme. The Dog Mentor programme has built upon the benefits of the human-animal bond by providing children positive experiences with dogs that can help them educationally, developmentally, emotionally and socially.
Over the last 10 years The Dog Mentor programme has been proven to have a positive impact on children in all areas including self-esteem, behaviour, peer relationships and better engagement skills. These improvements then result in improved academic achievement.
You can learn more here by visiting The Dog Mentor’s website and Facebook page for more details and to see some of the schools that have introduced their dogs into school:
Winnie is based in Mrs Evans’s office and has her own bed and set of toys, but will often be seen on a lead with Mrs Evans in classrooms and around school. She has a designated toileting area away from where the children learn and play to ensure everyone is safe.
Winnie will be used as a dog to educate, provide therapy and listen to children read. It has been proven that working with a dog improves children’s social skills and self-esteem. Many studies have been undertaken that give credit to the benefits of dogs in the school. We also place great emphasis on using Winnie to educate children about how to approach, act around and train dogs. There is no better place to educate our children on how to treat animals than that of the school environment. Animals in schools can encourage children to respect all life, teach responsibility, motivate those children who are often not that attentive, help calm children down and improve academic achievement.
In addition to this, if children are wary of dogs, they can be supported in approaching, handling and gaining confidence in managing their fears, through the presence of a specially trained dog in school.
Winnie has been fully risk assessed but if you have any questions, concerns or reservations then please do contact the school for further information.
