We are very excited to announce that we will be introducing our own school dog to the AFJS family and will be joining The Dog Mentor Programme to support us in this journey. The Dog Mentor programme has been going for over 10 years and has been proven to have a positive impact on children in all areas including self-esteem, behaviour, peer relationships and better engagement skills by providing children positive experiences with dogs that can help them educationally, developmentally, emotionally and socially. These improvements have then resulted in improved academic achievement. There are also many examples of OFSTED recognising the power of a school dog and I have attached a document sharing some of these successes. You can also visit The Dog Mentor’s website www.thedogmentor.co.uk and Facebook page www.facebook.com/thedogmentor for more details and to see some of the schools that have introduced their dogs into school.
Our school dog is called Chase and he lives with me (Mrs Webb) and my husband. He joined us over the holidays and he is a 15 month old Vizsla. He loves being around people and being the centre of attention and his favourite thing to do is to chase a ball, so his name is pretty apt really. He had already had some training before he came to live in the Webb house and he has many great skills and characteristics that will make him perfect for this role in our school, but he will also be busy completing special training to be our Dog Mentor over the coming weeks too. He will be coming in to school with me from Tuesday 10th September to get used to this new environment but will not be meeting the children straight away. Myself and Miss Wood, who is going to be another handler for Chase, will receive full training alongside Chase in order to ensure that the welfare of everyone involved is maintained as a top priority. We are hoping he will be a fully fledged ‘Dog Mentor’ by the end of October/early November, when he will be awarded with his own special coat, lead and ID card.
We cannot wait to see the positive influence The Dog Mentor Programme will bring into the school environment as a whole and look forward to the impact The Dog Mentor programme will have on our children.
