"Ad hoc use of unqualified and poorly supervised pet dogs in schools, with no oversight or concern for the dog's well-being, would not provide the range of benefits the Education Secretary describes. Spending long days in schools, with no guidelines or a dedicated handler to supervise practice as set out in our own programme, can also be detrimental to the dog’s well-being... " Full article HERE

I've seen the benefit first hand as I trained a school therapy dog last year in the basics (puppy), and he made a huge difference to a lot of kids with behavioural problems.  But he was carefully chosen, well bred, a perfect match for it and they hired me to make sure he got the best start.

Just taking pets in is very much not the same thing, if that's what she had in mind.

Agree Nikita .one of our primary pupil referral units had a flat coat who came in with the teacher some days .that was well managed and he definitely made a difference to the children. That being said other than a show and tell.type activity which I have e also seen for any therapy it needs to be well managed for.the good of student and dog .

Of course the dog must be well brought up and this is important. Communication of children with animals makes children kinder and calmer.

> Of course the dog must be well brought up and this is important.

A lot of people would say that children need to be well brought up before being allowed near a dog.  Just saying what some think.

>A lot of people would say that children need to be well brought up before being allowed near a dog.

I would say it is a question of children learning ‘how’ to interact with dogs. For this to happen they need to be taught how to behave around / greet dogs and learn to read some basic body language (just as a young dog needs to learn how to behave around / greet humans, especially young children). Unfortunately, I think that many children (and dogs) are never taught these valuable lessons.