Guide dog Luker visits St Bartholomew’s School in Newbury after pupils raise £25,000 for national charity Guide Dogs

Secondary school students who raised £25,000 for a national animal charity were treated to a special visit from a guide dog in training.

St Bartholomew’s School pupils in Patterson house have been fundraising for Guide Dogs for nine years and during that time they have donated enough money to support and name nine puppies.

Their latest sponsored dog is an 18-month-old Labrador golden retriever cross called Luker who visited the school with her trainer Charlotte on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 20, to show off her skills that she will eventually use to support a blind or partially sighted person.

Luker – who is named after the first headmistress of Newbury Girls’ School, Janet Luker – showed herself on stage to be skilful in her work and fantastic in social situations, unfazed by the hundreds of pupils and staff watching on as she identified empty seats and stopped in front of a pedestrian crossing.

This was the first time that Patterson pupils had been able to see the life-changing work their donations had been able to fund.

Over the nine years of supporting Guide Dogs, the money has been raised through various different activities such as cake sales, sponge throwing sessions at teachers and a recent chocolate raffle that raise around £300.

Head of Patterson Jonathan Rabin said: “It is fantastic to see the commitment from all the students and just the constant enthusiasm from all the year groups, new students and old students as well.

“This is my first year doing it and to see that, it is lovely.

“It is inspiring and it’s a real credit to them as people.”

Year 10 student Harvey Robinson has been a key fundraiser for Patterson over the past two years, having raised £1,500 by selling handmade Christmas baubles filled with either dog or cat treats.

He said: “It feels really good. It’s quite surprising because when you combine it all together there is a big total, but individually at each event it’s a lot lower.

“You don’t really realise how much you’ve raised altogether until you add it all up.”

Harvey hopes to own a dog one day, but he doesn’t think his cat would be too happy if he got one soon.

At the end of the assembly, Mr Rabin announced that Patterson had raised enough to support and name a 10th guide dog, something Luker seemed particularly excited about when she barked in response.