Teacher’s dogs in classroom?

Im surprised its allowed unless the dog has some kinda service training to help calm kids.

Id ask to see the risk assessment done -

Allergies
Bites
Phobias
Insurance for any of the above
Distraction from learning

How is the teacher supervising individuals with the dog and the rest of the class?

Whats the learning outcome of this animal coming in?

And i love dogs. Id love to get to play with a dog and work, but it would distract me from working at work

This doesn;t sound right.

Thew SENCO at the secodry school ds went to had a dog she brought in but it was trained, the kids loved her & before she was brought into school the parents were given updates with regards to the training etc. She lived in the SEN department and was used at specific times for specific children.

i should have said - I’m glad you don’t have that any more. It really is awful.

Ask to change classes , talk to the head teacher , telephone local education authority and say you have concerns ( even if you remain anonymous )

Oh gawd yeah I know that. I just thought I should point out I did get over it. But I actually have no idea if exposure helped or not. I spent years in agony with it and certainly wouldn't want anyone else to go through that, as I said.

Jesus, I'd never have gone to school again, it's absolutely psycho behaviour to take a python in for children to play with.

I find this genuinely incredible that this is happening in primary schools - and we have a dog, I love dogs, and my DC love dogs.

DC's school had one day - in mental health week - when a TA brought in their trained therapy dog. There was a whole consent form about it and any class where kids had allergies did the meet and greet outside. I cannot imagine a situation where non-specially trained, unleashed dogs were just wandering around. And nor would I be happy with it tbh - even the mildest dog can bite on a bad day, and some kids don't know how to behave around animals.

And sometimes repeated exposure makes the allergic reaction worse. You were lucky. This is survivor bias. Your experience isn’t typical.

Very much depends. We have a dog at the school (belongs to one of the teachers but he has been coming to the school since he was a puppy so is very used to the children and they love him).

As a kid until about 13 I was violently allergic to animal dander, hair and spit. But obviously I adored animals so I'd still end up touching them and my face would swell up like a balloon and water would stream out of my nose and eyes and I'd break out in hives. My eyes would swell shut!

I do think that exposure to it probably did help my allergies clear up. But it would be awful for one of the little kids to have that reaction.

This doesn’t sound like a request for a support dog. This is someone bringing their 2 pets in.

A single genuine assistance dog eg guide dog, hearing dog, medical alert dog would be covered by legislation. It’s very rare for dachshunds to do this job.

Emotional support animals are not covered by legislation.

This is insane. My child doesn't like dogs, and the ones who do would be massively distracted.

Id tell them my child was allergic. Maybe if someone in the other class does the same it wont be allowed in.

I’d hope she didn’t wonder if the dog would be ok with the children.if there’s any doubt, she should have it in a cage ,,In fact, it should be in a cage anyway, with the other one .
We had days when we were allowed to take our dogs to class, which was great fun …we were the pupils btw…but only a day or two a year

My child has severe allergies to
pet dander so I would raise this as a health and safety matter - what if having a dog triggers an allergy in a child or a parent?

I can just imagine the pro dogs in classrooms people protesting about schools not allowing the local zoo to bring in their monkeys. After all the children would love it & it would bring joy and benifit their mental health.

As for a dog in every classroom it's utterly ridiculous. The only way I see it working is the dog in a dedicated room with a carer along with an opt in or out choice to spend time with it. Try making schools pay for that when money for education is so tight

At my daughters school the headteachers and deputy head teachers dogs go in with them, it hasn’t made my 5 year old like them though in fact she just cries when they’re around them. Also a normal c of e primary

We have a school dog in school every day.

Weird assumption that it's not the default.

How awful for the little girl to be put in this position of having to spoil the fun for other kids. Kids having to wash their hands thoroughly must make her feel so awkward and humiliated. Just staggeringly bad decision making.

My DC’s primary school has a “school dog”.

It belongs to the head teacher, and there’s a crate for it in the head teachers office. Most of the time it’s either with the head teacher or in it’s crate, so it’s not constantly with one class or one year group and it has time away from the children.

It seems to work out well enough. But having said that, I’d not be happy with a class teacher bringing a dog in and having it in her classroom all day every day.

Aside from potential issues with allergies / fear of dogs, it must be terribly distracting for both the children and the teacher to have a dog constantly there. And as pp have pointed out, Reception age children are usually fairly loud and excitable, which you’d think would be stressful for a dog too.

My child's primary has 3 dogs they are between the admin office and heads office. I don't know if they go into the classroom i know some children get to walk them.

I don’t think it is ok without specially checking with each parent especially re allergies. We have a reading dog come in and the children love it but it is in a specific area and contained. There is a little girl in our class who is very allergic to dogs and it can’t be in her class and the kids have to wash their hands really well if they’ve seen the reading dog before coming in.

Honestly. I bet there's a list a mile long of health and safety rules, rules about packed lunches, rules about shoes and colour of socks.

Schools usually sweat the small stuff. But sausage dogs in classrooms of very young children has been given the green light.

And teachers wonder why we think some of them are absolutely hopeless. I hope this gets in the dm and the gormless teachers <and head> are thoroughly shamed!

I wouldn't like this either. I think asking for your son to move to a dog free class and letting the head know why is a good idea.
We have dogs in the office at my workplace and they are so distracting! I am not a dog person and it grates on me, but I did sign up for this when I took the job on. The kids have no choice.