Jack doesn’t just love animals – he’s currently working towards a future where he gets to spend his time helping them. He divides his time between the Animal Assisted Intervention (AAI) programme, a now completed ASDAN (Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network) course in animal care, a BTEC, and paid work – all involving animals.
Jack completed two years of Animal Assisted Intervention (AAI) sessions while he was a student at Ashcroft College, our former school supporting pupils with SEMH (Social, Emotional and Mental Health) challenges.
Animal Assisted Intervention classes started because our teams noticed what a positive impact animals have on the students – it helps them regulate their emotions and helps with their language, care, and fine motor skills among many others. At the time, Jack was working with the support dogs Charlie and Rooney as well as a host of smaller animals.
He joined Inscape House School in 2024 and started the ASDAN animal care course, alongside continuing his work with our award-winning Animal Assisted Intervention Practitioner & Teacher Danielle Eaton. As our team of support animals grew from a handful of animals to a phenomenal team of eleven, Jack proved to be a very helpful aid to Danielle.
“The AAI sessions helped me to find my love for animals, which led me to request to do the ASDAN animal care course. This has improved my basis knowledge of animals and helped me grow in confidence and become more comfortable when around them.” – Jack
But his love for animals doesn’t stop at school. Jack is now dedicating his private time to help them. He managed to secure a job doing what he loves, where he’s responsible for helping with animal cleaning, feeding, and dog walking.
He says: “After passing my ASDAN animal course in the summer, I thought I would enjoy working with animals as I found a love for all different kind of animals. I applied for a job at the local animal kennels, and I was successful in gaining a paid position with them. I started in the summer holidays internally for 2 days week which has now increased to 4 days in the school holidays. I work weekends around coming to school.”
“The ASDAN course has helped me get an insight into having the knowledge to complete my job role. I don’t think this would have been possible without the Animal course being available at Inscape and my AAI teacher Danielle.”
He’s now determined to complete the BTEC Animal care course this academic year. Jack adds: “The BTEC course is more theory-based, however I am still really enjoying learning more in-depth information about animals. For example, we are currently learning about internal and external factors that affect animal behaviour.”
Danielle is incredibly proud of his progress. Her work revolves around empowering young people to discover a love for animals. “Jack has shown outstanding dedication and growth throughout his time undertaking AAI sessions, where he developed both his confidence and understanding of animal-assisted interactions,” shares Danielle.
“His enthusiasm and commitment led him to excel in the ASDAN Animal Course, which he completed with the highest grade possible. He is an absolute pleasure to teach, always demonstrating a genuine passion and care for animals. Seeing his love for animals develop into paid work within the animal sector is incredibly rewarding and a true testament to his hard work and determination and I am proud to have helped him on his journey into the animal sector.”
Jack has found something he’s truly passionate about and has made great progress towards it. He concludes by saying: “Working with animals is definitely something I’d like to do when I finish school!”
Inscape House School runs an award-winning AAI programme designed to give students access to a host of support animals as part of their school week.
We are able to run this programme thanks to support from our kind supporters. If you want to support our animal therapy you can help by donating.
At Inscape House School, we break down barriers to learning for children and young people, and create individual learning programmes matched with a core team of therapists, all delivered by our dedicated team and accredited by the National Autistic Society.
