IT WASN’T just students making their way to St Mary’s Infant School last week, as they were joined by a host of wild animals.

From meerkats to bats and tarantulas to a python, children got to hold and see the animals up close when they visited the school.

Students met a snowy owl, parrot, stick insect, cockroach, tarantulas, large toad, small green tree frog, chameleon, lizards, a vast python, fruit bat, Madagascan hedgehog and a meerkat.

Ben and Hannah, from Spirit of the Wild, talked the children through habitats, what is means to be a mammal or an amphibian, how animals propagate seeds and pollination – all of which the children are currently studying as part of their curriculum topics in Years 1 and 2.

They all had the opportunity to touch or hold the animals and understand what the different noises they make mean.

A school spokesperson said: “It is so enjoyable to see the delight on the children’s faces as a chameleon wraps itself around their finger or a large snake slithers across their shoulders.”