Happy Hedgehogs at St Chad’s
4 October 2022
What a tail! Book-loving Lichfield primary school pupils learnt about spines of a different kind, when they welcomed some very important visitors into school last week.
Fiction became fact when year 2 pupils at St Chad’s Primary School – who have been reading author Dick King-Smith’s ‘The Hodgehog’ – were joined in class by some real life hedgehogs from a wildlife sanctuary.
The children had a ball meeting four hedgehogs from ‘Tamworth and District Hedgehog and Bird Rescue’ along with Carol Tyler who runs the sanctuary.
The rescue centre cares for sick and injured birds and hedgehogs from all over the country and helps them to get better with the hope of releasing them back into the wild. It is now the only sanctuary in Staffordshire, as many charities have closed, due to the pandemic.
Helen Board, class teacher at St Chad’s, which is part of the Arthur Terry Learning Partnership (ATLP) family of schools, said she saw a ‘spike’ in children’s excitement when the four legged visitors arrived:
She said: “We were excited to invite Carol into school to find out more about hedgehogs and to support pupils’ learning.
“Carol talked to Year 2 all about the hedgehogs. She told us what they ate, what they were like when they were born, where their habitats are and how we can look after them.
“She brought in an adult hedgehog who had been sadly blinded by a garden strimmer and three babies who had lost their mum. The babies were only five weeks old and every child in the class was brave enough to hold one. I was very proud of them all! “
Miss Board added: “The children said they’d had the best time and that the hedgehogs were cute. They loved holding them and said they were softer than they thought.”
