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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to think school staff should make care provision for their dogs?

530 replies

LoveTheirDogs · 07/10/2021 12:02

Our headteacher and business manager have both got dogs in the last six months. Now they're bringing those dogs into school. They're saying that the dogs are 'school dogs' which seems to mean that they're dogs that mostly hang around in school. They've also scheduled a number of 'enrichment activities' for the kids so that they can 'learn how to interact with different species' ie their dogs. AIBU to think this is taking the piss and they should just make provision for their dogs same as any other working person rather than having the whole school have to go to these (non-accredited) 'courses' that clearly cost a fortune and are only being put on so that BM and HT can tick a box that says everything is ok with them bringing their pets to work?

OP posts:
Original poster
LoveTheirDogs · 07/10/2021 16:52

No I'm not the wife. I just think he's a bit of a wanker who should keep it in his pants. He's a creep who gives his mates made up jobs and now him and one of the made up job holders have cooked up this scheme so they don't have to pay dog walkers.

OP posts:
YellowMeeple · 07/10/2021 16:53

@Rosesareyellow

Most schools have business managers or finance officers. Who else do you think manages the all the the financial aspects? Confused
Quite! Schools are complex financial institutions. They will be processing thousands of payments each year to suppliers and managing many times that number of monies coming in. School business managers will be responsible for maintaining the premises which can often include project managing complex building projects. Academies need to produce audited accounts and produce regular budget projections for the head and the governors. I doubt many business managers will be producing timetables- that is usually done by senior teaching staff as it interacts with the curriculum.
Original poster
LoveTheirDogs · 07/10/2021 16:54

Well we never had a business manager previously but now we've got a person who was a TA for a year and then suddenly became one. Who is v friendly with the head. Who is himself a creep.

If you don't think this kind of thing happens then you've never lived in a small town that has an even smaller middle class lol.

OP posts:
trama · 07/10/2021 16:55

You sound horrible TBH. You don't like animals so you've decided children shouldn't be around them.

YellowMeeple · 07/10/2021 16:56

@LoveTheirDogs

No I'm not the wife. I just think he's a bit of a wanker who should keep it in his pants. He's a creep who gives his mates made up jobs and now him and one of the made up job holders have cooked up this scheme so they don't have to pay dog walkers.
Well if this is the case you need to raise a formal complaint with the governors about the mismanagement of the school. However many schools use dogs appropriately to enhance pupil outcomes
Original poster
LoveTheirDogs · 07/10/2021 16:56

I do like animals. I don't understand people keeping them as pets and I really don't think they should be in schools.

OP posts:
icedcoffees · 07/10/2021 16:57

My primary school had multiple pets - a dog, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs and a pot-bellied pig, lol. My middle/senior school had several staff dogs - but it was a boarding school so the dogs mainly lived in the staff's homes/quarters on site, though one teacher had the dog in the classroom with her - it was an old Scottie dog and just slept under her desk.

It was fine and nobody got bitten, maimed, went blind or anything. I assume allergies were dealt with behind the scenes.

SW1amp · 07/10/2021 17:01

I'm slightly baffled by the number of posters who think that schools are zero-risk environments, and that would all be upset by a nasty, evil dog turning up.

In my time as a pupil, parent and governor of schools, I've seen a girl blinded in one eye by a stone, more broken and fractured bones than I care to add up, anaphylactic shocks from pupils smuggling in snacks, emotional trauma from bullying incidents, and yes - actual bite marks, but inflicted by one pupil on another.
All of these injuries were caused by children or play equipment.
So from a H&S standpoint, the most dangerous thing in a school is never going to be a dog.

The hysteria over risk assessments is just laughable, when you've got hundreds of children capable of inflicting life changing injuries on each other, deliberately or not

In my own school, we had a school dog who belonged to the headmaster, who used to wander in and out of lessons at random through the school day with Jack the lab in tow.
He didn't have any special training. He was just a slightly dopy dog who we all hugged and kissed and loved to see.

crowsfeet57 · 07/10/2021 17:09

Dammit. I left my teaching job to stay at home with my toddler, as I didn't want to put him into nursery just yet. Kicking myself for not pitching the idea to the school of a "school toddler

My school had a school toddler and a school baby. The chemistry teacher used to dump them in the 6th form common room. They're probably still in therapy as we weren't very nurturing.

darcybeau · 07/10/2021 17:13

I wish my school would get a school dog. My children want a dog but for various reasons we can't get one but they'd love a bit of pet therapy at school.
I recently went on a school open day. It was an independent specialist school and there were multiple dogs there. One in the library, another in the gardens with pupils. I loved it. I asked if they were therapy dogs but they weren't specifically- however they clearly operate as volunteers Smile
My eldest was terrified of dogs at one stage. He met a couple of mellow dogs and built confidence and now loves them.
If it's too painful/ doesn't work having them in school I'm sure they can reconsider but I'd give it a chance.

Rosesareyellow · 07/10/2021 17:14

In my time as a pupil, parent and governor of schools, I've seen a girl blinded in one eye by a stone, more broken and fractured bones than I care to add up, anaphylactic shocks from pupils smuggling in snacks, emotional trauma from bullying incidents, and yes - actual bite marks, but inflicted by one pupil on another.

Indeed - a child in my DCs class had to be sent to A and E because someone brought in one of their parent’s military grade glow sticks to show off with, snapped it, and the liquid went in the child’s eye. They turned out to be fine - but yes all kinds of crazy unpredictable shit must go down in schools. That’s kids for you. A dog would be the least of my worries!

LST · 07/10/2021 17:14

[quote BelleOfTheProvince]@LST and the evidence that these particular dogs have had the appropriate training and temperament is?[/quote]
They don't need training to be classed as a therapy dog. Just a good temperament. Where is the proof that they don't have a good temperament? The HT is hardly going to bring a dog showing any signs of aggression to school are they?

LynetteScavo · 07/10/2021 17:15

It sounds brilliant to me.

A teacher at my DCs secondary school used to bring her dog in. Disappointingly for my DC it slept a lot. They were told to put any snacks at the very bottom of their bag so the dog couldn't get it. Grin.

Some children used to read to the dog. My DC were sad their reading wasn't poor enough to get to read to the dog.
And I thought all schools had business managers these days Confused

Original poster
LoveTheirDogs · 07/10/2021 17:16

Well children kind of have to be in a school building, with all the attendant potential risks you get in a place with lots of children.

OP posts:
LST · 07/10/2021 17:16

@LoveTheirDogs

I do like animals. I don't understand people keeping them as pets and I really don't think they should be in schools.
And plenty do? Obviously
Original poster
LoveTheirDogs · 07/10/2021 17:18

So what? Not sure what your point is.

OP posts:
BelleOfTheProvince · 07/10/2021 17:18

My issue with this is that it's an abuse of power. I'm sure many of the staff would love to have their dogs at school, but it seems strange to me that the senior members of staff just so happen to be the ones bestowed with this privilege. What if one of the tas gets a puppy? Will they be allocated funds for training? Why two dogs? Seems a bit too neat for me.

By the way, as a teaching member of staff in my experience governors have very, very limited experience of how schools are run.

But in each of those health and safety nightmares you describe I imagine changes were made and new health and safety measures drawn up. And some low paid sod probably caught the flack.

In this case the health and safety paperwork would be huge. And no, no decent school would have an animal that wasn't specifically bred and trained or allocated a purpose built area in that role. If that is the case, yes it can be beneficial. Bit it doesn't seem like there's much evidence to suggest that is the case.

Everyone remembering 'the good old days' of their own schooling, your experience will be nothing like current schooling. My father was taught to read by a teacher who chain smoked throughout. Just because it was allowed in the past does not mean that things haven't changed. Individuals who work in schools are very vulnerable to parents accusations when things go wrong.

IhateBoswell · 07/10/2021 17:18

I'd have loved this tbh.
My sister though was bitten badly by a Staffy when she was a child and was terrified of all dogs (she still is really 😬).
I think my mum would have struggled getting her in to school.

SirChenjins · 07/10/2021 17:25

@BelleOfTheProvince - great post, I agree with everything you say. There’s a few people in our team who have dogs and I know that if our boss decided she’d bring in her non-trained (as in, not trained as a therapy dog) dog as therapy for staff (we’re in the NHS, it’s been a bit challenging recently) but didn’t let anyone else bring theirs in there would be mutiny - because she’d be abusing her position.

Grellbunt · 07/10/2021 17:28

Sounds like a heck of a place this school/town

New soap opera location?!

Remy7 · 07/10/2021 17:29

I'm sure done properly and managed well, school pets can be a great thing but I'd hate this in my kids school.
There are huge implications for health and safety / insurance here.

Original poster
LoveTheirDogs · 07/10/2021 17:31

Lol @Grellbunt it's boring really. The middle classes shagging each other and giving each other jobs is boring. I mean none of them are interesting people or engaging or intelligent or anything like that. They just don't behave very well.

OP posts:
HomeSliceKnowsBest · 07/10/2021 17:35

@PesosBandage School toddler Grin. Not sure which DD7 would love more, this or the dog Grin.

lawofdistraction · 07/10/2021 17:52

DD is so utterly terrified of all dogs, if this were proposed at her school I would do absolutely everything in my power to try and stop it. Schools aren't the place for bloody dogs.

LeaveYourHatOn · 07/10/2021 17:55

OP you don't actually know the details behind the dogs being in the school, do you? You just assume it's because the Head and the BM can't/won't get a dog walker.
But from your posts it's clear that the problem is more that you don't like them having pets at all:

it would be much better for them if we could all just kumbayah and pretend that having pets is notweird, that owning an animal for your own entertainment is a-ok and legit

Hmm Biscuit