LOVEABLE pooch Ripley is a class act - after becoming the country’s first official ‘attending’ secondary school dog.

Ripley is a regular at Archbishop Holgate’s school in York, where he helps pupils to become more confident at reading aloud and more focused in the classroom.

The springer spaniel and Labrador cross has become a ‘certified school dog’ and the first official ‘attending school dog’ at a secondary school in the country, and attends the comprehensive every day.

Tracey Berridge, chief executive of Dogs Helping Kids, and the charity’s school dog assessor, Gail Laurence, recently visited Archbishop Holgate’s to assess Ripley for final certification, and he passed with flying colours.

Ripley has attended intensive training days in Devon with Lucy Nicol, a teacher at Archbishop Holgate’s, as well as passing four other assessments during the last two-and-a-half years.

Lucy, who first suggested training up a school dog at Archbishop Holgate’s, said: “The training and support that Ripley and I receive from Dogs Helping Kids is superb.

“I would only ever recommend that a dog is taken into a school where strict guidelines are followed and where the dog has received formal and accredited training.

“This is in the interests of everyone. I am so proud of Ripley’s achievements so far and to be the first attending dog team in a secondary school is just the icing on the cake. He really is a very special dog.”

Ripley joined the school staff at only 16 weeks old and is now three and firmly part of the school community.

Before Ripley joined Archbishop Holgate’s, Lucy had worked with many students who sometimes found it hard to connect with adults and engage with school.

However, she found that pupils seemed more able to open up when working with a therapy dog that sometimes visited school.

Seeing the benefits of this kind of interaction led Lucy to research the use of animals in schools as part of the pastoral care team and she found the charity Dogs Helping Kids, based in Devon.

Lucy, who is also in charge of special educational needs provision at the school, contacted the charity and attended a workshop to find out more about the work it does with dogs in schools.

She then found and bought Ripley from a breeder.

Lucy takes him home and looks after him out of school hours.