EVERY school has its teacher’s pets.

But one in Southampton has taken things further – by getting its own dog.

Chocolate Labrador Oscar is the newest, and furriest, addition to Cantell Maths and Computing College.

The rescue dog is already proving a big hit with pupils, and helping dramatically cut behavioural problems at the Violet Road school.

As part of the school’s restorative approaches (RA) scheme, youngsters who get in trouble in class, fall out with friends or just need somewhere to feel safe are able to go to a special classroom run by a mediating team.

There they can carry on with their work quietly and talk through problems with staff, including four-legged Oscar, who arrived at the school last term after his owner, RA co-ordinator Des Anderson, suggested he would benefit pupils.

He spends every day in the RA base, where pupils are encouraged to play with him, read to him, or just sit and stroke him. Mr Anderson said: “He’s a best mate for the kids. Sometimes we get kids who come in and they’re angry. Oscar doesn’t know he’s doing it, but he goes over and calms them down, because it’s very difficult to be angry with a Labrador.

“It means we can work with them within the hour, rather than having to wait until the next day.

“Rather than having a punitive approach we have a restorative approach where we try to get them to acknowledge what they’ve done wrong.

“It might be falling out, it might be bad behaviour, it might be having a bad time somewhere else.

Our mantra is this is a safe place to have a difficult conversation.

We record everything and I would say we’ve reduced the incidents that we have to deal with by 40 per cent since September, but what’s really key is we’ve improved the students’ ability to put things right.”

Pupils love having a furry friend to play with.

Year 7 pupil Matthew Manning, 12, said: “He’s really fun and he’s really cute. I love him to bits.

“All the times I’ve been upset he’s come over to me to cheer me up.”

Jennie O’Neill, 15, has responsibility for taking Oscar on walks.

She said: “Oscar has been such a credit to the school and the RA base.

“Some of the kids who come in here come on walks with me and they really love doing that.

“They love having him around and having the responsibility of being able to take him for walks.”