York House School Welcomes In Spring

York House School, a prep school in Hertfordshire, has seen the birth of 14 lambs on its on-site farm. The School reflects on the positive impact caring for animals can have on young people.

Pupils at York House, a local independent prep school on the outskirts of Croxley Green have been celebrating the birth of no less than 14 lambs this week as the new arrivals were welcomed into the school’s on-site smallholding.  Eddie the Ram was introduced to ten of the school’s ewes back in November 2020 around bonfire night, and to date, eight out of ten have now given birth, with the arrival of five sets of twins and two singles.

The children have been delighted by the new additions and although the lambs are too young to be handled by the pupils at the moment, they have been watching their development with much excitement.  The lambs’ names are being chosen by the pupils and those selected so far for some of the twins include, ‘Patch and Scratch’ and ‘Ying and Yang’ to name a few.

After a tricky entry into the world, one of the single newborn lambs, Carmen, has needed some extra special help with feeding and is being supported at regular times by resident staff throughout the day and night.  He is currently doing well.

Headmaster at York House, Jon Gray commented: “Our pupils have absolutely loved going out to see the tiny newborn lambs each day.  Some of them are only hours and days old. Although they can’t handle them just yet, it won’t be long before they will be able to get more hands-on with some bottle-feeding and have some closer contact.  Our resident animals are very special to our school community and ironically moments like these are also a rare opportunity to teach children verbs such as ‘gambolling’!”

The School has found that caring for the animals gives children an increased level of maturity as they learn how much the animals rely on them for their food and general care. The newborn lambs give them a glimpse of how life starts out for the animals and how we must give them time and space to adapt to their new surroundings.

Mr Gray continued: “Our animals are an important part of daily life at school.  They are not farmed; they are here until retirement and most of them are rescue animals.  We rotate them around several different paddocks over the course of the year and our children understand that it is also good for the animal’s mental health to have companionship.  None of our animals live alone and we feel it is important they have variety and interest in their lives.  We are very happy to be welcoming our new additions to the York House animal family.”