Animals in schools

and any other non-chem subjects.
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curie
Posts: 360
Joined: 27 May 2010, 09:42
State/Location: NSW

Animals in schools

Post by curie »

Hi all,
Does anyone have animals in their schools?
At one stage we had a semi functioning fish tank, but the fish died off as the tank was at the back of a lab and would collect everything from chemicals, glassware, pens, paper and lunches. I think the last one went when some darling emptied a bottle of fish food into it. We had stick insects for a while, but no one could decide what happened to them during holidays etc. so they left the mortal coil. :-(
At the moment the only animals I deal with at school are dead and dissected.
Has anyone else been asked to sign documentation in dealing with animals for scientific /research purposes?
I don't think anyone has really thought about animals in schools policy before, and I'm wondering why it's coming up suddenly - especially since we don't have live animals on site. (and to be honest I don't want to be responsible for any. My HOD brought her dog in once and tried to get me to babysit it . :redcard: Um no.)

Any thoughts?
Merilyn1
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Joined: 12 Mar 2013, 08:10
Job Title: Labbie
School: Wollondilly Anglican College
Suburb: Tahmoor
State/Location: NSW

Re: Animals in schools

Post by Merilyn1 »

We sign off on the animals in schools policy each year although we don't keep any animals.
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sunray18
Posts: 1488
Joined: 14 Feb 2008, 12:30
State/Location: NSW

Re: Animals in schools

Post by sunray18 »

We had Yabbies, stick insects, fish tanks.. but because the HOD had to sign as Animal Welfare Officer and there are strict rules - we now have NONE.
I am not sure whether I am sad or happy. At least I don't have to come in on holidays to feed fish or take 3 huge cages of stick insects home to take over my lounge room in the air conditioning..And I am also not tramping around the bush at 6am every 2nd day collecting the right type of leaves for the stick insects.
MariaQ
Posts: 84
Joined: 02 Sep 2015, 08:41
Job Title: Boss
School: Central Coast Grammar
State/Location: NSW

Re: Animals in schools

Post by MariaQ »

We have Mr Squiggs, a spotted python
curie
Posts: 360
Joined: 27 May 2010, 09:42
State/Location: NSW

Re: Animals in schools

Post by curie »

sunray18 wrote:We had Yabbies, stick insects, fish tanks.. but because the HOD had to sign as Animal Welfare Officer and there are strict rules - we now have NONE.
I am not sure whether I am sad or happy. At least I don't have to come in on holidays to feed fish or take 3 huge cages of stick insects home to take over my lounge room in the air conditioning..And I am also not tramping around the bush at 6am every 2nd day collecting the right type of leaves for the stick insects.
Exactly.
I don't want to be the person responsible for their pet projects by default. (And doing it all in my time.) It's too far to drive to feed fish in the holidays!
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AnnNos
Posts: 190
Joined: 17 Nov 2011, 07:32
Job Title: Science Assistant
State/Location: NSW

Re: Animals in schools

Post by AnnNos »

Yabbies and fish. I bring the yabbies home with me on term holidays and the fish at Christmas. That way I know they will survive. I'd rather do this than travel to the school in my holidays. One teacher wanted tarantulas but I gave him a risk assessment of the requirements and we never got them.
DawnR
Posts: 33
Joined: 18 Mar 2011, 12:48
State/Location: VIC

Re: Animals in schools

Post by DawnR »

We have tropical fish, goldfish, two blue tongue lizards and one shingle backed lizard. We used to have stick insects, green tree frogs, a yabby and a cockatiel but I didn't replace them as they died. They were too hard to house over holidays, as it is I take the lizards and the fish home over Christmas (and I used to have the stick insects and the yabby too) but other staff take the lizards through the year and the fish have feeding blocks. It was particularly hard to get someone to take the frogs. The staff think it's great to have them but there is no offer to look after them, leaving it all up to me to sort out. I have to ask a few times before I get a begrudging offer to look after the lizards over the holidays, even though they come with everything, and even then it's not teaching staff but others who do this. And yes, we had a fish tank at the back of a classroom too, all sorts of things were put in it but I reckon the best was a metre ruler!! Guess what, there's no fish tank there any more..............
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smiley
Posts: 1398
Joined: 20 Nov 2006, 10:00
State/Location: QLD

Re: Animals in schools

Post by smiley »

Well we have geckos, but since they come and go as they please, I guess they don't count. :w00t:
Cheers, K 8-)
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Jody1
Posts: 17
Joined: 04 Jun 2015, 17:16
Job Title: Allrounder
School: Casula High School (currently)
Suburb: Casula
State/Location: NSW

Re: Animals in schools

Post by Jody1 »

Only animals we have here are some of the students! Kidding, we do have chooks as we have an ag plot, but the ag guys look after them and I know they come in during the holidays to tend the plots etc so they look after whatever other animals have collected here as well!
Jody :D
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sunray18
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Joined: 14 Feb 2008, 12:30
State/Location: NSW

Re: Animals in schools

Post by sunray18 »

My s-i-l teaches at a large school in Victoria and they have snakes.. they have so many of them that they have a demountable building full of their cages AND a large outdoor snake pit area beside the buildings. They have a never-ending supply of student volunteers to help and the teacher who started it all spends most of his weekends and holidays at the school caring for them.. I dont think the teacher concerned is science teacher . I woudl hate to do the risk assessment on that one - and I would never volunteer to help
india
Posts: 20
Joined: 03 Sep 2010, 09:50
State/Location: NSW

Re: Animals in schools

Post by india »

http://nswschoolanimals.com/

Prior to acquiring any animals at the schools we go through a thorough code of responsibilities, especially the chain of responsibility if someone in that position moves on, importantly what happens over the holidays, in case of power outages, routine and emergency maintenance, anticipated costs, projected lifetimes and usually this is enough to stop the irresponsible. The long term teacher and dedicated is another matter. Always expect at some point that the assistant will be picking up the pieces. With the chicken imprinting expt some years back, I encouraged the RSPCA to come in and discuss the roosters they were taking into care, then asked the teacher to get students to sign along with their parents a code of lifetime ownership of their chick so they would take the adopting of these sentinent beings seriously. Of course no roosters are allowed in suburban Brisbane and the expt is flawed from the start in regards to animal welfare :(
tuesday
Posts: 98
Joined: 07 Apr 2009, 10:01
Job Title: Lab Tech
State/Location: ACT

Re: Animals in schools

Post by tuesday »

We have 6 turtles in a special outdoor area that has only one entrance to it but windows all around for students to see them moving around. It's our job to clean out the pond 4 times a year and feed them in the warmer months of the year. We use them for year 7 science, living and non-living plus senior biology. We also have two gold fish in a small bowl in the prep-room. The maintenance men feed them during the holidays and I just make sure that they have enough food for it. During the two week shut down I make sure that the animals have treats around to find plus the turtle pond is open to the outside from the mesh on top. The vets from Canberra zoo have told me that they must be the most spoiled turtles they have ever meet, so I must be doing something right.
After been here for 11 years they know me and come to me when I visit which is so nice and relaxing . We have 1250 students at my school and they all love them and take good care to inform me if they think something is not right in there. Many times it's helped kids with special needs calm and feel special themselves when you take them in quietly .
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Xenon
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Job Title: Rocket Scientist
School: Arndell Anglican College
Suburb: Oakville
State/Location: NSW

Re: Animals in schools

Post by Xenon »

None atm, just ag plot. I've always been a part-timer here and never been asked to look after animals, except the odd injured bird. Past teachers have taken responsibility for hermit crabs, yabbies and stick insects in their labs. One was a Leading World Authority on yabbies, showed me a book he co-authored on the subject. Some kids brought in some yabbies from a local dam which he put in a fish tank. The next morning, I noticed one had escaped into the Prep Room and headed for the Equipment Room door, but had expired on the floor. Poor little guy didn't have a chance. The rest were dead within days.
Xe, SD, KOPR
mtg
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School: NDSC
Suburb: west gippsland
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Re: Animals in schools

Post by mtg »

We got 2 kittens. They go to welfare meetings,(staff), and cure sad year 7's. They have their own little display room but go home each night with a teacher. The kids love them but they will go to homes at the end of term. It has been fun. The kids want them to stay tho'.
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