Our school pet tortoise, Sydney, is an important part of our life and is used to teach pupils about care and responsibility.

Sydney

What is the benefit of a school pet?

Pets can encourage a child’s learning needs, especially in reading, communication, observation and speaking.  This is a useful tool when teaching all children, but can be particularly helpful for those with special education needs (SEN).

Introducing Sydney

Sydney is a Horsefield Tortoise and is 10 years old.

Sydney’s favourite food is lettuce; he can eat up to 4 lettuce leaves a day. He also likes kale, cucumber, aloe vera and carrots. However, Sydney can be very fussy, so we are still trying to find other foods that he will eat.

During the day, Sydney likes to lie under his heat lamp to get nice and warm; at night-time he likes to find somewhere nice and dark (usually under his hay) to fall asleep. Sydney does like to sleep with his head and legs outside of his shell, but this is nothing to worry about - it just means that he is really happy.

Pet Therapy

Our children love to visit Sydney and care for him.  Sometimes, if children are feeling a little anxious or sad, Sydney helps to cheer them up!

Did you know?

• Horsefield Tortoises live between 80-100 years old?
• Horsefield Tortoises are herbivores, which means they eat plants and leaves, and they can eat fruit on special occasions.  
• The Horsefield tortoise is also known as the Russian Tortoise or Central Asian Tortoise.

---

Sydney's New House!

You may recall that we had a competition to design a new home for our school pet, Sydney the tortoise.

We have been fortunate to have worked with MD Creative, a local company in Sundon Park, on the design and making of the house; we are all thrilled with the end product, which has exceeded all of our expectations, including Syndney's!

A big well done to Catelya for her design which was the basis of the new house, along with Remaisa from Year 1 for her contributions. Both the designs now feature as artwork in Sydney's new house.