NEWS IN DETAIL...
Weeth Pupils Learn about Animal Senses
LOCAL school children enjoyed a day out at Duchy College Rosewarne recently where they came face-to-face with the College's vast assortment of creatures and learnt about their animal senses from college students.
Pupils from Weeth Community Primary School were invited in to the College by the Animal Management Extended Diploma Level 3 students, who organised the visit as part of their studies. Sixty pupils from age four to seven were split into groups and given a workshop about animal senses and how they use them for different purposes in the wild.
Hannah Torry, 18, from Camborne, said: “I really enjoyed the whole module; I liked working as a team to discuss and plan what activities we wanted to do and although I was nervous when the pupils arrived once I relaxed it was great. It was really nice to see them enjoying themselves and it has boosted my confidence in working with children.”
Toinette Benney, 19, from Redruth added: “It was great experience and all the questions the children and teachers asked really tested our knowledge. I’d like to do this kind of thing again, working with children and animals is really interesting and I got lots out of doing this, it was very rewarding.”
The younger children were able to handle and find out more about the smaller animals and the older ones enjoyed tours of the College grounds where they had to fill in questionnaires about the animals they came across on their travels.
Lecturer Jill Thrower said: “Although this was a business planning module we wanted to make it hands-on and student led. A school visit was perfect for this, the students worked well together in both preparing and running the event and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.”
During the visit the children came in to contact with a whole range of animals including giant millipedes, geckos, snakes, tortoises, rabbits, cows, ponies and goats.
Debbie Thornton, Assistant Head KS1 at Weeth School said: “We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on our visit. We loved meeting all the animals and really liked learning about how you care for them all. It was very exciting to have the chance to get so close to the animals, both big and small. The students were really helpful and very informative. Thank you and we hope to visit again very soon.”
Andrew Counsell, Head of Duchy College, said: “This was excellent experience for the students; a great opportunity for them to try out new skills and ideas as well as a good team and confidence building exercise. We take pride in playing host to local schools and the students were great ambassadors for the College.”
For further information on the Animal Management courses available at Duchy College Rosewarne, please call 0845 605 0455 or visit the website www.duchy.ac.uk.
