Thank you Graham and Orbit

This morning we said goodbye to Orbit, the assistance dog who had been visiting us as part of his training. Graham Elliott, a ‘Puppy Parent’ from Canine Partners, first contacted us back in March with a view to Orbit becoming a regular visitor to the school. Over the months the students (and staff!) have enjoyed many visits from Orbit and Graham. They have joined us for assemblies, as well as break times and they even came to the Grand Prix back in the summer – which was a great test of Orbit’s training! Class JW invited Orbit and Graham on 2 school trips – they accompanied them on a walk to Homebase (with Orbit showing off by pressing the buttons at traffic lights for the students!) and they also met up with Orbit and Graham in the Dolphin shopping centre. A real highlight of the shopping trip was watching Alfie (JW) hold the lead whilst moving around the shopping centre! Orbit will now move on to the next stage of his training and will move to an advanced training centre for 3 months before being matched to his new owner. We have really enjoyed getting to know both Orbit and Graham and look forward to Graham, hopefully, bringing his next ‘Assistance dog in training’ to visit us in the not too distant future. For more information about the works of Canine Partners please see their website – http://www.caninepartners.org.uk/