During the Spring Term, Cooper a Pets as Therapy Dog was introduced to our Sixth Form students to help reduce stress and create a calm atmosphere during the busy exam season.

The wellbeing initiative was organised by Alicja Green (Lower Sixth), who decided a therapy dog would be a welcome visit to the Sixth Form House. Alicja reflected: “When I joined the Lower Sixth, I decided to look into dog therapy for the Sixth Form students. I initially got the idea from my old school as they had a couple of dogs come in once a week and some of us were allowed to go to a session where we could calm down and stroke the dogs. This was an amazing opportunity which helped a lot of students with mental health, problems and stress. When researching I found a company called SSG Services, a multipurpose provider of education, training, activities and experiences. They have a therapy and wellbeing dog called Cooper, who is owned by Director Chris Watson. Cooper is a trained and qualified Pet as Therapy dog who visits local Bedford schools, care homes and hospitals.

“I personally find Cooper very calm and approachable and loves the scratches and sitting on his favourite people, even being a very big dog. Whilst walking through the corridor to the careers room, Cooper draws attention from every student as they come and stop to say hello in the corridor. Friday 11th March was the pre-visit conversation with Chris Watson, his wife Jess, Cooper, Mrs Murphy (Sixth Form Pastoral Officer) and myself and some other teachers. This allowed us to personally meet and discuss the arrangement and ideas for the sessions such as number of students, topics to talk about and more.

“Our first official session with the student was on Friday 29th of April, where Jess bought Cooper. This was really lovely as many people came and sat with Cooper for some strokes and to have a conversation. Over the Easter holidays I arranged four sessions for this summer term including: Friday lunchtimes on the 29/04, 27/05, 17/06, 08/07. These are to start off with and I hope to continue next year with more sessions. I feel that Cooper has been an amazing opportunity for sixth form allowing people to meet and have conversations especially during the exam season, so they can calm down and breathe for a bit.”