Do your children like animals??

[wildsammy]

Hi all,
Im not yet a mum myself but I want to ask you all for your advice!

I am trying to set up a new business venture, where I take animals into schools to educate children.

I am a qualified zoo keeper with over 10 years of experience. I have looked after most things from small harvest mice to large tigers!

What I would like to do is take my two owls and hedgehog, snake, toads, slow worms and mice into schools and teach children.

Im also thinking of doing birthday parties and special needs groups, brownies, cubs etc.

Do you think there is a gap in the market and is this the sort of thing your children would like??

Please let me know your thoughts....
Sam

Depends where you are. On Teesside, there's already a bloke who does this as well as parties. Popular.

My DS would have loved this when younger. Good luck!

My DN had a party like this last year - very popular. So it's not unknown, but I would imagine there is space in the market for more.

There's one near me that does school visits and birthday parties. It's very popular. If your area has an Extended Services department (a group that puts on half-term and weekend activities for parents and children to do together) I think it would be worth contacting them to see if they'd be interested. In our area Extended Services offer animal experience mornings/afternoons in schools during the holidays, as well as lots of other activities like cookery/pottery/sport etc.

Dd2 would love this. Who is this man in Teesside? Where he does bring the animals?

There is a local chap here does this - for parties, schools, brownies etc. He is never out of work...

The kids love it when a (pre designated) teacher is asked to hold the tarantula

ZooLab cover most of the UK

but there are others www.junglejo.co.uk/ www.thewildroadshow.co.uk/

having said that if you are in the NE I would be interested in a visit from your owls

The local zoo do an outreach programme that goes into schools (also holiday sessions at libraries) here in Bristol. The animals they use are snake, giant spider, giant cockroach, African snail and gerbil/hamster. There is also a group from another wildlife rescue centre that came to Brownies with an owl and hedgehog. It was very popular with the children though.
Only difficulty was with children who were allergic to animals !

I can remember the "animal man" coming in when I was at school with owls, snakes etc etc. We really loved it and as you can see can remember it to this day.

There are a few around here, our school has a bugs visit, a bird visit, a visit to a farm etc as standard.

I don't think there is a gap in the market as such but that does not mean that you couldn't do it near you where it may not be so well covered as we are IYSWIM.

Yes, DD (8) loves animals and has had the zoo visiting her school, as well as going to animal encounter sessions at the zoo, and a friend had animal handlers at her birthday party including a skunk (de-scented or whatever the term is, I think). Her only complaint was that she wasn't allowed to actually hold the snakes - she's held snakes before at places overseas, but I think there were health-and-safety rules about salmonella here. She would have loved to do the same sort of thing for her birthday, but our house isn't really suitable.

The whole experience goes down well with most children, IME, though you'll always get a few who are a bit nervous and don't want to get close. So if no-one is doing it in your area, I'd say it's definitely worth a try. There's probably lots of paperwork and insurance involved if you turn it into a business, though, specially if you visit schools.

Our school has a visit from farm animals, reptiles, and birds of prey.

My dds loved this, and always looked forward to it, height of year - not too sure how much they learned from it.

My ds are very much 'pah' about it, I find out that it has happened in the weekly newsletter, I ask them, they say 'yeah they came in'. Not too sure how much they learned from it

yes go for it! ds loves animals in schools and has also held an owl

yes my dd would love that

sounds like a lovely idea

When my DS was in primary he and his BF had a plan to set up their own business doing the same thing when they grew up

Hi

Where are you? Im a teacher and could use your expertese for year 1 in Brighton? Within the next 2 weeks...!

Thanks

KW

I am based in sheffield, but willing to travel. check out my website:www.wildlife-workshops.com/index.html

@redyellowblue33 my parents are in east sussex though and visit them often, what sort of thing are you looking for??

If you look at my website you can see that I have tried to be different by just covering native wildlife, rather than the usual, either reptiles, bugs or farm animals.

I think native animals are just as important and I feel our children need to know about these as much if not more than the tigers in India and Lions in Africa.

Thanks so much for your responses!!

Sam

My two (6 and 3) would both love this. Good luck.