My name is Simba and I am the school dog at Princetown Primary School on Dartmoor!

Last week, I saw snow for the first time! I had never seen anything like it. Being so high up, and on Dartmoor, all we normally get throughout the year is rain, wind and more rain. The children and I couldn’t believe our luck when the fluffy snow fell and covered the playground!

Miss Byrom decided that we should be allowed out at lunchtime and a school snowball fight ensued! One of my very important jobs during play times is to keep an eye on all the children and to ensure they play nicely. Sometimes, I am not allowed out when they are playing football because I steal the balls! Instead, I patrol the corridors, checking for leftover lunch and wait for children to scratch my ears on their way past!

Now, another one of my jobs is to guide and teach children the ways of life and I generally do this through the antics I get up to. The snowball fight was no different and during the excitement I accidentally muddled up a snowball with the beginnings of a snow man. I didn’t understand why I was being told to leave it at first but when I saw the tears, I realised I had done something wrong. I quickly wagged my tail at the boy in a hope to make things better but to no avail! But to my surprise, as quickly as the problem had appeared — it was resolved! The teary boy suddenly had an army of friends surrounding him offering to help and before he knew it the snowman was rebuilt. My guilt quickly faded when I realised I had given the children an opportunity to learn about the importance of resilience, friendship and team building!