York House in Croxley Green welcomes 14 lambs

Eddie the Ram was introduced to ten of York House's ewes in November, and to date, eight out of ten have now given birth, with the arrival of five sets of twins and two singles.

Head master Jon Gray says the children have been delighted by the new additions and although the lambs are too young to be handled by the pupils at the moment, they have been watching their development with much excitement.

The lambs names are being chosen by the pupils at the school, on the outskirts of Croxley Green, and those selected so far for some of the twins include 'Patch and Scratch' and 'Ying and Yang'.

Lambs at York House

York House has its own farm

After a tricky entry into the world, one of the single newborn lambs, Carmen, has needed some extra special help with feeding and is being supported at regular times by resident staff throughout the day and night. He is currently doing well.

Mr Gray said: "Our pupils have absolutely loved going out to see the tiny newborn lambs each day. Some of them are only hours and days old. Although they can’t handle them just yet, it won’t be long before they will be able to get more hands-on with some bottle-feeding and have some closer contact.

"Our resident animals are very special to our school community and ironically moments like these are also a rare opportunity to teach children verbs such as 'gambolling'."

A lamb and ewe pictured at dawn at York House in Croxley Green

He added: "Our animals are an important part of daily life at school. They are not farmed; they are here until retirement and most of them are rescue animals.

"We rotate them around several different paddocks over the course of the year and our children understand that it is also good for the animal’s mental health to have companionship.

"None of our animals live alone and we feel it is important they have variety and interest in their lives. We are very happy to be welcoming our new additions to the York House animal family."