Dogs Trust Visit
On 26th March 2019, Maria from Dogs Trust visited the school. She spent the morning with year 5, where she presented a literacy workshop to each class. The children had the opportunity to become Adoption Advisors and match certain families to the right dog. They also designed the perfect family for their chosen dog, considering their hobbies, work life and housing situation
We were also lucky enough to have Maria give an assembly to KS2. She explained and demonstrated how to approach and stroke a dog that is unfamiliar to the children in a safe way. We know how exciting it can be to interact with new dogs and now the children know to follow the 3 important steps. 1) Ask the owner’s permission first. 2) If the owner says it is ok, stand still with your hands by your side and let the dog sniff you. 3) If the dog stays by you and doesn’t walk away disinterested, stand to the side of the dog and stroke the front shoulder.
In the afternoon, Maria visited year 6. Each class had a workshop about the evolution of dogs which was perfect for their spring science topic of evolution and adaptation. Did you know that all dogs share 95.5% of their DNA with wolves? The children learnt that wolves evolved into early dogs and that a grey wolf is a dog’s closest living ancestor. Further, it was discussed how wolves first became domesticated and the advantages this brought to mankind. The workshop moved onto selective breeding and inheritance and the problems that this can now cause for the animals.
To end the children recapped their learning from year 5 about how to look after a dog responsibly. The children were very knowledgeable about the items needed, such as tasty treats for training purposes, toys to keep the dogs busy and happy and medicines such as worming tablets. The children learnt that a dog should not be left alone for more than four hours, that they should be groomed daily or twice daily for long haired breeds and that they should get 2 walks a day. Visit www.dogstrust.org.uk to find further help and advice about dog ownership.
