Your weekly round-up of news, research, and practice from the world of animal-assisted learning — curated for teachers, SEND practitioners, and AAT/AAL professionals.
This Week in Brief
The through-line this week is policy and standards catching up with practice. In England, an equine charity has publicly urged Government to write animal-assisted alternative provision into the SEND reforms flowing from the “every child achieving and thriving” white paper — a rare moment of AAL entering the national policy conversation. Alongside it, the standards gap that researchers have flagged all year is drawing fresh attention: bodies like the National School Dog Alliance are pushing best-practice guidance, and the new Animal Welfare Strategy for England gives practitioners a policy backdrop to work within. On the ground, farm-based learning continues its strong run — the “Loan a Lamb” scheme has now reached 18,000 pupils, and a Kent school has opened a £2m farm and science block — while individual settings such as Millfield add wellbeing dogs to their pastoral teams. Overseas, a New Jersey bill would put therapy dogs on a statutory footing and the USDA has just announced a record farm-to-school funding round — both useful to watch, if firmly “elsewhere.”
🐾 Animal-Assisted Learning & Intervention
Research, best practice and new programmes shaping the field.
⭐ Push for shared best-practice standards for school dogs
National School Dog Alliance / News-Medical | 2025–2026
The drive to close the standards gap continues: the National School Dog Alliance’s best-practice guidelines set out handler training, welfare monitoring and risk-assessment expectations, against a research backdrop showing that around 90% of therapy-dog programmes in England still rely on informal observation alone, with fewer than a third using formal welfare checklists. For a field professionalising in real time, this is the practical scaffolding schools keep asking for.
New research: animal-assisted services after crisis and disaster
Springer (book chapter) | July 2026
A newly published chapter, Promoting Young Children’s Wellbeing in the Aftermath of Crisis and Disaster: An Evidence-Based Rationale for Animal-Assisted Services, makes the case for animal-assisted services within trauma-informed recovery support for young children — a timely addition as more settings adopt trauma-aware practice.
First evidence-based guide for school therapy-dog programmes (US)
University of New England | 2026
A UNE academic has co-authored what is billed as the first evidence-based protocol guide for K–12 therapy-dog programmes. Worth noting as the US counterpart to the Lincoln/WALTHAM risk-assessment tool covered in the 6 July briefing — two parallel efforts, either side of the Atlantic, to standardise the same practice.
🐕 Therapy & Visiting Animals in Schools
Schemes, case studies and news.
⭐ Millfield introduces a wellbeing dog to campus
Millfield School | 2026
Millfield has added a wellbeing dog to its pastoral provision — a fresh UK case study of a mainstream setting formalising a resident dog within its wellbeing offer, rather than relying on ad-hoc visits. Handy as a concrete example when advising schools on how resident-dog provision is structured and staffed.
Therapy-dog work recognised in the 2026 King’s Birthday Honours
Pets As Therapy | June 2026
Stephen O’Callaghan was recognised in the 2026 King’s Birthday Honours for his work with PAT (Pets As Therapy) dog Nya — welcome national recognition for volunteer therapy-animal work across schools, hospitals and care settings.
⭐ New Jersey bill would put therapy dogs on a statutory footing (US)
Morristown Patch | 2026
Bill S3453 would establish a Department of Education pilot placing therapy dogs in public elementary-school wellness programmes across six districts over three years, with formal evaluation built in. US-specific, but a notable signal of AAI moving from goodwill add-on to funded, evaluated provision — a pattern worth watching from the UK.
🐄 School Farms & Farm-Based Learning
Projects, policy and examples.
⭐ “Loan a Lamb” reaches 18,000 pupils in its fifth year
FarmingUK | 2026
Playgrounds across Sussex and Surrey have become mini-farms again as thousands of pupils welcomed ewes and lambs into school for a week. Now in its fifth year, the scheme has reached more than 18,000 pupils at 54 schools since 2022 — and for the first time this year a linked secondary joined the primaries. Children help care for the animals while learning about sheep welfare and sustainable food production.
Kent school opens £2m farm and science block
KentOnline | 2026
Westlands School in Sittingbourne has completed a new £2m farm and science facility; some of its ~1,700 pupils now care for sheep and goats, join a Young Farmers Club, and can study an animal-care qualification in Years 10–11. A striking example of farm-based learning being built into the estate — and the curriculum — rather than bolted on.
Record US federal investment in Farm to School (US)
USDA | 7 July 2026
The USDA announced the second FY2026 cohort of the Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grants — nearly $20m to 68 projects, the largest single-year award in the programme’s history. This is the follow-through on the grant round flagged as “opening” in the 22 June briefing, now awarded. US-focused, but a useful benchmark for the scale of public investment in the farm–school link.
🌟 SEND & Specialist Provision
Animal-assisted approaches with SEND pupils.
⭐ Equine charity urges Government to write AAI into SEND reforms
Horse & Hound | 2026
Following February’s “every child achieving and thriving” white paper, an equine welfare charity has called on policymakers to give animal-assisted alternative provision — including equine-assisted interventions — a clearer place in the SEND reforms, particularly for school-avoidant young people who struggle in traditional settings. A significant moment: AAL rarely surfaces in national policy debate, and this is a hook practitioners can respond to directly.
Commissionable AAI within EHCP Section F
Pets on the Green (Surrey) | 2026
Specialist AAI for children with SEND is being offered as EHCP Section F commissionable provision — 1:1 sessions for autism, anxiety, EBSNA, PDA and SEMH. The framing matters: positioning AAI as named, statutory provision rather than a soft extra is exactly how the field earns durable funding.
Equine-led alternative provision continues to grow
Sector provision | 2026
New equine-led alternative provision capacity is coming online for 2026 (for example, provision for 12–25s with SEND and SEMH needs using equine-assisted learning and life skills). A reminder that AAI in SEND extends well beyond dogs, and that equine work is increasingly delivered as accredited alternative provision — though it remains outside core NICE autism guidance, a caveat worth stating plainly to families.
🎓 Adult & Further Education Settings
Animal activities in non-school contexts.
University students value therapy dogs in their learning
Animals (MDPI) / PMC | 2024–2026
An exploratory study found university students valued therapy-dog presence within learning activities, citing benefits to mood, learning experience and social engagement — evidence that AAL’s reach extends well beyond primary settings into higher and adult education. (For UK postgraduate provision, Hartpury’s MSc — covered in the 29 June briefing — remains the key reference point.)
⚠️ Poor Practice & Welfare Concerns
Critical examples worth being aware of.
⭐ The standards gap: therapy-dog programmes still lack shared rules in England
News-Medical | 2025–2026
Research continues to show that most therapy-dog programmes in England operate without standardised rules — roughly 90% rely on observation alone to monitor a dog’s welfare, fewer than a third use formal checklists, and only about 16% involve a vet. This is the field’s central welfare vulnerability: enthusiasm is outpacing safeguards. Anyone introducing a dog to a setting should be able to point to a formal welfare-monitoring framework, not good intentions.
Animal Welfare Strategy for England sets the policy backdrop
GOV.UK / Defra | published late 2025
The Government’s Animal Welfare Strategy for England sets out a programme of reforms spanning farm animals, pets and wildlife. It doesn’t target schools specifically, but it’s the policy frame within which classroom-animal and school-dog welfare decisions now sit — useful context when making the welfare-first case to leaders and governors.
Briefing compiled end of week of 26 July 2026. Sources searched include the National School Dog Alliance, Millfield School, Pets As Therapy, FarmingUK, KentOnline, Horse & Hound, GOV.UK/Defra, News-Medical, Springer, MDPI/PMC, the USDA and Patch. Have a story or research to share? Get in touch.