As Sherlock Bones’ trusty Dalmation sidekick, ‘Spotson’, the honour falls to me of chronicling his most recent adventures.
As a dog of great intellect, Sherlock has been seeking out the very best places in Cambridgeshire to lay his deerstalker hat and spend some time with the most unique and wonderful group of people and, just of late, he has happened across a rather special school called 221B ‘Barker’ Street, also known by the name ‘Gretton’. From this base, Sherlock intends to continue his life’s work - to seek out and foil the evil genius of his arch-nemesis ‘Moggiarty’, a rather sinister cat who has spent many a year trying to bring about our great hero’s downfall. Over time, I will further document the ‘tails’ of our hero; but I will ‘pawse’ for now as Miss Sellars explains a bit more...
Some of you will remember that a few years ago, two dogs used to walk the corridors of Gretton School and so many of our students enjoyed their time walking and playing with the dogs as a really effective way of calming and regulating.
In the intervening time, whilst we have had the privilege of working with K9 Therapy and various members of staff have brought their dogs in for specific sessions with learners, we have missed being able to provide this opportunity for the students who benefit from this type of intervention. We have therefore been researching the benefits of reinstating a school dog and, to this end, we have joined forces with The Dog Mentor, to ensure that a dog can be successfully integrated into the school.
The Dog Mentor will be working closely with us, as they have good experience of working with schools to help us get this right, particularly where learners might have a fear of dogs or have allergies. The great news in that we have found a young pup - a ‘hypoallergenic’ cockapoo - who will become our very own Sherlock Bones!
Sherlock Bones will be introduced to the school over the next term to help him get used to all of the new noises and smells... Like so many of our students, he will be following a transition plan to help him to settle into life at Gretton. During the school day, he will initially be staying in Mrs Wickham’s office on the Rectory site and the Behaviour and Welfare Team room on Manor Farm Site. At night, and during the holidays, he will come home and live with me.
Rather excitingly, another school within the Cavendish Education group - Quorn Hall School - is collecting their pup from the same litter next week! We hope Basil & Sherlock Bones can meet up for a puppy play date in the future.
Learners who are nervous about dogs will be informed of his whereabouts and, over time, they will receive postcards and letters from Sherlock to start to build a relationship with him. After he has had some time to settle, he will then be able to start getting to know some of the students. This will be done through some English lessons, and through a referral system. For the first few weeks, whilst he goes through his training, he won’t see any students, but over time, he will spend time with learners that would really benefit from this calming intervention. We will of course keep you ‘pupdated’ as more news emerges! Watch this space for more ‘tails’ of our eponymous hero, ‘Sherlock Bones’!
Mrs Elkins and Mrs Sellars
