Several undergraduate students on the BA Education degree successfully completed their dissertations based on the involvement of animals in schools. These included Candice Tong 'Why should animal-assisted interventions be used in Hong Kong?'; Lydia Morgan 'An exploration of the benefits of dogs in the classroom: motivators for increased attendance in primary school.', Jordan Jehengir 'Animals in Education: Why some primary schools in Swansea choose not to involve animals' and Sophie Corbett 'An exploration of how Welsh primary schools use dogs to promote children's knowledge, understanding and skills in the curriculum'.
Helen Lewis was awarded the Research prize at the annual Society for Companion Animals Studies (2021) conference for her presentation entitled Animal-Assisted Interventions: Research meets Practice.
Helen Lewis was awarded a BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants Award for a project entitled ‘An exploration of best practices in animal-assisted educational interventions which involve dogs’. SRG2021\211214.
March 2022: Helen Lewis was interviewed for an item on animals in schools on TeacherTalk Radio.
BBC Wales filmed in local schools and interviewed Helen Lewis in June 2022, when they ran an item about dogs in school.
Helen Lewis was an invited speaker at the 2022 American Psychological Association Human-Animal Interaction Section 13, Division 17 conference. She gave a talk entitled Dogs in schools: taking the lead towards well-being for all.
In July 2022, Helen Lewis was awarded the Canine-Assisted Intervention Specialist Certificate from the University of Denver