St John Bosco brings the rainforest to life

Year 9 students at St John Bosco Arts College were greeted by some new classmates in the form of creepy crawlies and reptiles.

Snakes, millipedes, African hedgehogs, frogs and stick insects were some of the animals taking over the Croxteth school as it opened its doors to a North West company offering animal handling workshops. The company offers fun and educational animal handling workshops and exciting animal parties which are suitable for all ages and abilities.

Its school workshops are linked to the national curriculum and include topics such as nocturnal animals, rainforest, minibeasts, habitats, classification and lifecycles. The informative session gave the students a hands-on rainforest experience and allowed them to look at, touch and hold a selection of animals, some of which, they might never get to see in everyday life.

Specialist animal handlers were on hand to talk through the animals, explain more about their natural habitat and host a Q&A session. During the day, the girls also learnt about concepts such as food chains and evolutionary adaption in the rainforest.

The day was also a great opportunity to support the company’s charity work in conserving rainforest animals and start discussions about endangered species and deforestation.

Joseph Brennan, geography subject leader said: “We might not be able to take our students in to the rainforest, so we thought we would bring the rainforest to them! Being able to touch and hear the animals really brought the topic to life and the girls absolutely loved the experience”.