Orange Public School (OPS) has welcomed its newest member of its family.
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It’s not a new student and it’s not a new teacher – the newest member of the OPS community is an 11-week-old Labrador named Heidi.
Heidi belongs to volunteer Lea Dally, and Mrs Dally brings her furry friend into school twice a week, on Monday and Friday mornings for classes to rotate through.
Monday marked the third week she’s been attending class at OPS.
While you’d normally expect a puppy in the classroom to be the world’s biggest distraction, Orange Public School assistant principal Jacqui Taylor said it was fantastic for students’ concentration.
Students currently have one on one reading sessions while Heidi sits in their laps, and Mrs Taylor said they were “absolutely loving it”.
As for Heidi, Mrs Dally said she had taken to coming to school like a duck to water and absolutely adored visiting, and also was extremely calm around students.
Mrs Dally said Heidi was the family pet, but she’d always wanted to be able to bring an dog into a school as an assistant animal.
“I’ve always thought I want to have a puppy to take to a nursing home, which I did with another program but also having four kids I wanted to do something with children, so that lead to me coming in,” she said.
“The school have been absolutely fantastic, I want to bring the joy and the calming influence of the puppy in.
“Last week in the library she actually picked a child that needed her and went over and sat in his lap and calmed him down … it was just beautiful.”