Paws for clear thoughts during exams
A classroom filled with dogs has become the newest weapon in the fight against exam jitters at Kapiti College.
The college set up a room of dogs last week to help students ease tension before senior practice exams.
The dog room was the idea of science teacher Jacqui Graham, who said it came from scientific research on the calming effects of animals.
‘‘Exams have always been a stressful time for students,’’ she said.
‘‘What the science has shown us is that stroking the dog will relax the students. So if we can give them a calm place to relax before the exams, then statistically that should make them do better.’’
She said a roster of about a dozen staff-owned pooches took turns to hang out with students in the classroom, twice a day, each day of last week.
Graham’s own dog Willow, a spoodle, was one of the pack that drew a steady flow of students before they sat exams.
The dogs on the roster on Friday included Taz, a Fox terrier-chihuahua cross, Mocha, a pug-spitz, potentially a spug, and Poppy, a three-legged labradoodle that lost her limb to cancer.
They drew a crowd of students to the classroom during the lunch break, with the dogs lapping up the attention of the teens who would head off to physics and dance exams.
One of the most popular dogs over the week was a swedish vallhund, which looked like a wolf on corgi legs. Graham said she had heard that universities had done similar initiatives but had never heard of it being done in the secondary schools.
Staff had brought in dogs that would play well with other dogs, and humans. And their presence in the school had even helped calm teachers as well.
Graham said it was the first time the dogs-in-school approach was used and it was so popular they hoped to bring it back for NCEA exams in November.