The Rutland school with PUPPIES offering emotional support to kids
Brooke Priory's emotional support dog Elsie has been on maternity leave
Last updated 30th Jun 2022
A Rutland school has gone from one dog offering emotional support to children to having an army of 4-week old puppies on-hand to help with wellbeing.
Elsie the Cavapoo is regularly down at Brooke Hill Priory to help pupils feel comfortable when talking about issues experienced on the playground or at home.
After some time off, she's returned with 5 new 4-week old pups that the children love having around.
Owner Claire Sillett is a special educational needs coordinator and Year 3 teacher, she tells us she's been amazed with how loving and helpful her dog has turned out to be:
'At different stages in children's lives they might be having a few emotional issues where they might need a little bit of support from an adult, or there might be a fallout at playtime where they need a bit of emotional support and Elsie is here to help them out with that.'
'She might either just sit with them at playtime, or the children might play with her, throw her a ball just to alleviate any situation they might be in.'
'More formally she goes with our learning support assistants to actually do sessions with children where Elsie is in the room, so the children can stroke the dog, which makes them more susceptible to open up and talk to the adult that's there to support them.'
Evie, Claire's daughter, thinks more schools should follow suit:
'I'm one of three and we've all been teenagers through lockdown and we've had Elsie through lockdown and she did help us so much through that. I know with the lockdowns and everything, children have missed out on fundamental development time with their friends and I feel like the dog is a nice thing and it can help them.'
'If they have maybe not developed those social interactions as well as they would have done, being in school with a dog there to help them it might just aide them a little bit with that.'