Rabbits will hopping into focus in many schools and early years settings in the north-west of England next month when RSPCA Education Week gets underway.
But rabbits, popular as they are as pets, don't always conform to their cute and cuddly bunny image, and often lead miserable lives in inadequate hutches, with no run for exercise and no companionship. And one of the week's main messages will be that animals don't belong in schools.
RSPCA Education Week from June 17 to 21 is a chance for schools and early years settings to focus on animal welfare and so promote children's respect for life, their understanding of the world and their caring and nurturing skills. The highlight of Education Week will be the RSPCA's presentation of ten animal-friendly schools awards, which recognise outstanding work in animal welfare education. The winners receive 500 each.
'The RSPCA feels it is better to not keep animals in schools because it is difficult to look after them properly,' says the RSPCA's national educational adviser Cath Laing. I will be using the week to reinforce that message and encourage children in my school to reflect on animal welfare.
The week is also a good time for early years settings to evaluate the work they do on animals and reflect on the messages they transmit. The following are some good practice points to consider, suggestions for integrating the theme of animal welfare into curriculum planning and activity ideas on rabbits.
Good practice points
* Don't keep pets, and explain to the children why not. Early years settings are really not suitable for animals - just think of the heating, the noise, the aggravation, and the disruption when school holidays come round.
* Explain to children, and parents, that 'it is okay' not to have a pet. Having a pet can be costly and time-consuming and people need to be totally committed to their care.
* Always put the animal's welfare first, whatever its educational value.
* Never set real animals alongside toy animals - it only trivialises the value of real animals and confuses children about what is real and pretend.
* Use lifelike toy animals to promote messages about animal welfare, as children can handle them freely.
* View animals in their natural environment, where children can more easily derive joy and wonder from them. That applies even to minibeasts, which should not be brought indoors.
* Do your homework about the animals that you are focusing on. Children are fascinated by animals large and small and will want to know interesting facts about them.
* Incorporate into your planning ways of conveying important messages about animals and nurturing caring feelings towards them. Caring attitudes and responsibilities towards animals can be promoted in every area of the curriculum and we must remember that in promoting these attitudes, we are also encouraging children to adopt caring attitudes towards each other.
Explain that animals are living things who have needs and feelings and they can suffer if they are not cared for properly or they are treated badly. Encourage children to see parallels between their own lives and personal needs and those of animals.
Messages about animal welfare can be communicated across many areas of early years provision.
Home corner Always provide a toy cat and dog for the home corner, with collars, name and address discs, a lead, grooming equipment, baskets, food and water. Give the animals names and encourage the children to care for and love them.
Talk about what the children need to do to look after the cat and dog well. Encourage the children to think about their own daily routines and personal needs to help them appreciate that the pets need be fed and given clean water daily, groomed, vaccinated and taken to the vet when ill. The dog will also need to be taken out for exercise every day and kept on a lead while walking along streets.
Role play Set up a veterinary surgery in the role play area. Get posters and pamphlets from the local vet or RSPCA. Create realistic conditions, for example, set up an operating table and provide recovery cages, veterinary coat, stethoscope and pet carrier. Explain to the children how each of the items is used to ensure pets are cared for properly. Set up a realistic office as part of the surgery so that the animals' owners can contact the vet, and encourage surgery staff and pet owners to discuss their feelings for the animals.
Outdoors Encourage children to observe bird and animal life whenever possible -provide magnifying glasses and binoculars if you can - and support their interest by providing good non-fiction books and materials with which to record their sightings through sketches and mark-making. Provide life-like masks of domesticated and wild animals, and props such as wings for the children to wear to stimulate exploration of animal movements.
Book corner Always have available a good selection of fiction and non-fiction books about birds, insects and other animal life.
Rabbit project
We have planned a range of activities about rabbits to tie in with RSPCA Education Week.
* We'll be making rabbit 'hats' with headbands and long ears, and the children will be encouraged to dress up as rabbits.
* We're having a huge rabbit hutch built, large enough for the children to sit in and imagine what it is like to be a pet rabbit. There will be a run in which they can play to reinforce how important it is for pets to have regular exercise.
* We'll use the giant hutch to get across important messages about rabbit welfare. What would it feel like to live in a small hutch? What would make good bedding for a rabbit? How would you feel if you weren't allowed to go outside every day? Why do rabbits need a gnawing block? How would you protect a pet rabbit from bad weather? The activity should also lend itself to some interesting mathematical problem-solving, as a hutch needs to be at least six times longer than the rabbit!
* We'll provide large cardboard 'tunnels' with a huge cardboard box at the end to represent burrows to develop children's understanding of wild rabbits and how they live. We'll also stick pictures of rabbits to the trees and outdoor furniture to give the feeling of being in a rabbit warren.
* The children will be encouraged to move like rabbits.
* We'll talk about what wild rabbits eat and what we should feed pet rabbits.
* We'll make available marking-making, painting and drawing materials so that the children can sketch rabbits or write about them whenever they wish.
* RSPCA officers will visit to talk to the children about animal welfare and one child will dress up as an officer and assess the rabbit welfare.
* We'll set up a veterinary surgery in one corner of the outdoors area to get the message across that sick animals need to be cared for properly, and the children can take turns to dress up as a vet.
* Key words for the project will be pinned on our washing line.
* We'll share stories about rabbits.
If you would like to plan similar activities and find out about the kind of questions that are appropriate to ask the children, see the 'Animal care - rabbits' section of the website www.rspca.org.uk.
Marie Charlton is headteacher of Bridgewater Nursery School, Bolton. The school is a former winner of the RSPCA animal-friendly schools awards and its work on animal welfare was singled out for praise in its Ofsted report Early years provision
NET THE PETS
For information go to the education section of the website www.rspca.org.uk.The section includes suggestions of how to get involved and special offers on posters, videos and other resources.
