Education

Our Education Strategy acknowledges that animal welfare education and learning for both children and adults will be essential to achieving our vision where every animal is treated with compassion and respect, making it socially unacceptable to mistreat and be cruel to any animal. Through our education services, we impact over 150,000 people each year and focus on promoting kindness and empathy towards animals. Our work includes:

On and off site school and college talks Shelter Tours
Transition year and 3rd level work experience programmes Projects, workshops and online education and training courses.
Children’s Camps

VIRTUAL EDUCATION
SCHOOLS/COLLEGE TALKS
SHELTER TOURS
WORK EXP.
KIDS CAMPS

VIRTUAL EDUCATION

The DSPCA Education Department have put together a series of material which can be downloaded or viewed from the website. As we cannot come and visit groups and the Shelter is closed for tours we are focusing more on Virtual Education. We can work with all ages of children and students and are happy to create an age/ability appropriate session tailored to your group’s interests.

Find Out More

SCHOOLS/COLLEGE TALKS

DSPCA Virtual class education talks can work with all ages of children and students and are happy to create an age/ability appropriate session tailored to your group’s interests.

Find Out More

SHELTER TOURS

Learning about animals can be fun and rewarding. Groups will get to see up close the work of the DSPCA and get to meet some of the many animals in our care through our virtual tours.

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WORK EXP.

COVID-19 Update for Work Experience.

Unfortunately, we have closed our booking system for the rest of 2020. We hope to be able to take in students in January 2021 but most of the places are already booked. Please check back in April.

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Transition Year Work Experience or Community Service for the School Year September 2021 to June 2022

If you would like to register your interest in doing a week long Transition Year Work Experience or Community Service for the School Year September 2021 to June 2022 please fill in your details here

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KIDS CAMPS

The DSPCA runs a number of one day or week long camps for children ranging between the ages of 6-12.

(Please note that all our DSPCA camps will not be taking place in 2020 due to COVID 19).

We look forward to welcoming back our camps in 2021

If you would like to receive notification of upcoming camps please fill in this form here.

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Virtual Education

Bringing the DSPCA to your Classroom

We are working a multi layered system for the Virtual Visits.

Your class enjoys a Virtual Tour around the DSPCA Shelter in Rathfarnham through a pre-recorded video which can be watched online or click on the video below.
Your class can arrange a Virtual Talk from one of our dedicated volunteers through Zoom, Microsoft Team, Skype or Google Classroom. Alternatively you can watch one of our pre-recorded presentations. Check out this short video of the work of the DSPCA.
After your talk you can access a range of additional material to help the class learn more about our work and the importance of responsible pet care.
We are hoping your class will be interested in passing on the messages to other classes through projects such as designing posters, leaflets, running an animal welfare campaign in your school or even running a small fundraiser to help us continue our work.

All our Virtual Education talks are FREE – we do not charge for our Education Services. We do always appreciate donations which will help us to continue to do our important work and can be made online here.

For more information or to book your Virtual Talk please email education@dspca.ie

More Information

Videos (Please watch in advance of showing to students in case material may upset)

Posters

School & College Talks

Pre-school - Secondary Schools

Due to Covid 19 the DSPCA will be offering Virtual Talks and a range of online material. Please check back in a few days when we will have more information available.

DSPCA education talks can work with all ages of children and students and are happy to create an age/ability appropriate session tailored to your group’s interests. At the DSPCA, we feel it’s important to educate our pre-schoolers and beyond, that cruelty towards any animal is not acceptable and animals should be treated with kindness and respect. We do this through our bespoke age and ability designed programmes. Using special programmes, we can virtually visit crèches, schools, community programmes and family project centres and speak to children of all ages at their level.

Shelter Tours

Tuesday - Thursday 10.30-12.00 - Note, our shelter tours are postponed until further notice due to COVID 19

Due to Covid 19 we will not be able to arrange tours of the DSPCA but we hope to offer Virtual Tours very soon. Please check out the School Talks section above for more details.

Learning about animals can be fun and rewarding. Groups will get to see up close the work of the DSPCA and get to meet some of the many animals in our care. We can accommodate all ages from pre-school up to adult groups and all tours are age and ability appropriate. Visits taking approximately 1½ hours and this time includes a discussion session in our dedicated Classroom followed by a tour of the centre including the cattery, dog kennels, small animals, horse stables, paddocks and much more.

Our classroom can hold up to 50 students at a time. (please contact us if you have a very large or very small group before booking). Tours are free (donations always appreciated) and tour visiting hours are on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10.30 am to 12noon but MUST be pre-booked. Please email gillian.bird@dspca.ie to make a booking. Unfortunately due to COVID19, we have had to postpone our tours until further notice.

Work Experience

Requirements

COVID-19 Update for Work Experience.

Unfortunately, we have closed our booking system for the rest of 2020. We hope to be able to take in students in April 2021 but most of the places are already booked. Please check back in March.

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Transition Year Work Experience or Community Service for the School Year September 2021 to June 2022

We are not currently taking booking for work experience for 2021-2022.

If you would like to register your interest in doing a week long Transition Year Work Experience or Community Service for the School Year September 2021 to June 2022 please fill in your details here

This registering of your interest does not reserve a place for you. You will be sent a link to the booking from on Monday 15th February 2021. It will be a first come first serve basis so please keep an eye out for the email.

Please ask your school to confirm your work experience dates as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

All places for Work Experience/Community Service 2020/2021 are reserved for students who are existing Junior Members of the DSPCA Check that the weeks you are looking for are available before you sign up as a Junior Member to avoid disappointment.

The following requirements apply:

Work Experience in the DSPCA is carried out strictly on a block week basis, i.e. Monday to Friday, 8.45am to 4.30pm only.
Students must be able to get to us as we are not on a bus route and the road is not recommended for walking.
Unfortunately, we cannot take students suffering from animal hair allergies as the placement requires working in confined spaces with multiple dogs and cats.
Students do not have to be 16 years of age to apply for Work Experience/Community Service.
Students must read the Work Experience Handbook BEFORE booking their Work Experience. Handbook is found here.
Students must have an up to date anti-tetanus vaccine.
Students must be insured by their school.
Once you have your dates and can comply with requirements please apply online here.

Kids Camps

For Children aged 6-12 years

Unfortunately, we will not be running any kids camps for the rest of 2020 but hope to be back up and running for Summer 2021.

If you would like to receive notification of upcoming camps please fill in this form here.

The DSPCA runs a number of one day or week-long camps for children ranging between the ages of 6-12. Our camps are fun and informative and children will have the opportunity to be hands-on with some of the animals in our care. They will learn about and see up-close the work of the DSPCA and engage in fun crafts and projects. Camps take place during schools breaks but due to popular demand, we advise booking early. For more information about our camps, please email education@dspca.ie.

Passionate About Animals Since 1840

Education

VIRTUAL EDUCATION

SCHOOLS/COLLEGE TALKS

SHELTER TOURS

WORK EXP.

KIDS CAMPS

VIRTUAL EDUCATION

SCHOOLS/COLLEGE TALKS

SHELTER TOURS

WORK EXP.

KIDS CAMPS

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