Dogs Helping Kids - DHK

St Nicholas Church of England Primary School and Nursery in Stevenage are very proud to be working with the charity Dogs Helping Kids.  Dogs Helping Kids is a unique charity with it's headquarters based in North Devon, England. They are one of the only organisations in the country training and assessing dogs purely to work in the school, college, and library environment as both educational and therapeutic aids. The impact our School Dogs have on children and teenagers in the educational environment is amazing and changes lives forever.

Teasel is St Nicholas’ school dog and has already passed his basic and advanced training with DHK.   To be fully certified he now has to complete a two year training programme, pass 6 increasingly difficult assessments, and once Certified, undergo an annual assessment. This is for the safety of the children, the staff, the School Dog owner and the School Dog.  Teasel is currently deployed to support 5 children with communication and language difficulties in years 5 and 6 and is also hearing reluctant readers. In time he will also be taught to read up to 150 cue cards to support the development of young readers.  Of course he also gets to go out and have some fun with the children and is rather partial to a stroke! He has his own blog and receives letters regularly from nursery and reception children who are beginning to write for a purpose.