Ask the Teachers
Frequently Asked Questions
The answers to our most commonly asked questions are below.
If you can't find the answer you need here, get in touch with us.
Contact details
Phone 07429 867013
Email: thecreatureteachers@yahoo.co.uk
You call give us a bell whenever you like, if we are in encounters, driving to encounters, or cleaning and feeding animals we will give you a call back as soon as we can. You can drop us a text or email during the day with your location, the type of encounter you would like, approximate number of handlers, and if you’d prefer a morning or afternoon visit.
If you haven’t heard back from us within 24 hours, please follow up with another form of contact. We always get back to messages we have received within 24 hours, usually much sooner.
Covid Safe Questions
How do you keep your encounters Covid safe?
Creature Teacher staff will maintain a 2m distance where possible. Given the nature of the encounter, we do have to get close for handling with some of the animals. We are happy to wear masks if you prefer.
Handlers have access to their own hand sanitiser for use before and after touching the animals, and will be prompted to do so by Creature Teacher staff.
Creature Teacher staff are fully vaccinated, and test if we have Covid symptoms.
INsurance, Licensing, Risk Assessments
Are you qualified?
The Creature Teachers is owned and operated by Lisa Kiely, and a small team of staff. Lisa has a degree in Zoology and a masters in Animal Behaviour. Prior to starting The Creature Teachers in 2010, she worked for several years in zoo education and animal encounters and displays. Learning about animals, and sharing that knowledge in an inclusive and accessible way to a range of audiences, has been Lisa’s career for 20 years. Lisa takes care of every booking, from the point of contact right through to delivering your bespoke encounter. For larger audiences, a staff member will come along too. The team includes experienced professionals who have worked in the Animal Keeping, Early Years, S.E.N., and Caring sectors, personally trained by Lisa to deliver creature encounters that engage a range of audiences from exciting birthday parties, S.E.N and animal therapy sessions, national curriculum linked school visits, and early years bookings.
Are you insured?
We are covered by Employer, Public & Products Liability insurance to the value of £5,000,000. A copy of our insurance documents will be sent to you with your other booking confirmation paperwork.
Are you licensed?
To operate a mobile animal encounters business we must have two licenses. All animal encounters companies must have their Animal Welfare Regulations 2018 license details displayed on their website as of April 1st 2019. To get this license animal encounter companies must undergo an inspection which covers the regulations. AAL 140234 is our licence number and it is held with BCP council.
This is secured through our local council, following an inspection by one of their animal welfare officers. They check the animals, how we care for them, their enclosures, our risk assessments, health and safety documentation, our animal related qualifications, any special licenses we need to have particular species, information on how we run our encounters, how we train our animals, how we transport the animals, to name but a few areas the license covers.
The second license is an Animal Transport license. This is also checked during the Animals Welfare Regulations inspection. This document is issued through the Department for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs and covers the correct transportation of animals.
Do you have risk assessments?
Yes, we have risk assessments to cover every animal that comes along to encounters. These can be provided for your records. We also provide you with a health and safety document that covers everything we will do to ensure high standards of health and safety are met before, during and after our visit to you.
Can the animals bite/scratch?
As with any animal with teeth and/or claws there is potential for biting or scratching to occur. We take every precaution to ensure that this risk is minimal.
Before an animal is included on our encounters team, we ensure that it is habituated to human contact first. The animals are handled by us daily, so are quite used to being around humans by the time they come along to their first encounter. It takes time before an animal is ready for an encounter, and when we feel they are ready, we eventually introduce them to small audiences first, earning their stripes step by step until they are a fully fledged encounter team member.
All staff are experienced with the animals and will give instructions during the encounter to ensure the audience is interacting correctly with the animal.
We know our animals, we interact with them daily and if one does not seem in full spirits we do not bring it out to an encounter. We also monitor all the animals during each encounter, ensuring that they are their usual happy self throughout.
All the animals come to encounters on a rota basis, and we keep our audience size limited per encounter to ensure that an animal is never over handled.
What about allergies and phobias?
It is the responsibility of the person in charge of the group to let us know of any animal related allergies or severe phobias. We will ask about allergies and phobias before we start the encounter. If you are aware of an allergy or phobia, let us know in advance and we can avoid bringing the animal concerned, or we can take steps to ensure the person is not exposed to the animal during the encounter. We will email you an allergy/phobia document which can be sent to parents/guardians to sign off so that you can be made aware of anything that we should know about. In the case of phobias, it is not our aim to cure anyone of an animal phobia, but we can introduce them to the animal in a responsible, safe and educational way.
What about germs?
All of our animal enclosures are cleaned daily to minimise the build up of disease causing germs. Animals receive appropriate vaccinations, flea and worm treatments etc. Encounter participants are given clear instructions on safe hygiene practice before, during and after the encounter. We provide hand sanitising gel during the encounter and give instructions to the person/s in charge to ensure all hands are washed thoroughly with warm, soapy water once handling is finished. We remind adults to ensure that children do not put hands near their face or into their mouth during handling. We do not allow eating during the encounter.
Encounter Content
What kind of encounter will you provide?
Every encounter is different given the variety of different audiences we visit, a birthday party for a 7 year old is very different to an encounter at a nursing home, for example. Our encounters promote a one on one approach, so each handler in the audience gets hands on with the animals present, we engage each person, individually, to make sure everyone gets the most out of being close to the creatures.
Can I request a particular animal for my encounter?
We will go through the content of your encounter during the booking process and will recommend the best encounter for you. Our encounters include a mix of 'exotic' (e.g. snakes) and 'domestic' (e.g. rabbits) animals. If you request a particular animal, while we aim to bring it, we cannot guarantee it in the line up on the day, e.g if our royal python is about to moult he cannot be handled, but we will bring another snake in his place. Likewise if you do not want a particular animal to feature in the line up, we can replace it with another. Certain animals are suited to certain audiences, for example a 3 year old may struggle to stroke the hedgehog correctly, so we suggest, and bring along, certain members of the team, depending on our audience.
Can I hold all of the animals?
We make each encounter as hands on as possible, ensuring that this is in a way that we feel does not impact on the animals' welfare. Not all the animals on the team are suitable to be handled, they may be poisonous or venomous! We will make the level of handling that will be possible for your encounter clear when you book so that you know what to expect on the day.
Travel, Booking, deposit, Payment, cancellations
How far do you travel?
We travel up to 45 mins from our H.Q. in Bournemouth for a one hour booking, or an hour for a two hour + slot. Please check Google maps to see if we cover your area.
How much notice do I need to give you to book a visit?
The sooner the better, especially if you have a particular date in mind. We take bookings over a year in advance in some cases, and we our weekends especially book up a couple of months in advance. To avoid missing out on your date, it's best to get in touch as soon as possible. We do sometimes have last minute reschedules, so it is worth getting in touch for a last minute slot.
What is your group size limit?
For a full handling encounter for a birthday group: a handling encounter with 1 Creature Teacher present, the maximum group size is 15. For a birthday group size with 16 to 20 handlers, 2 Creature Teachers will be in attendance. For school visits, around 30, or a typical class size for each session. For nursing homes, a max of 20 per session, though this may vary depending on the level of support the residents need from us, to get the most out of the session. Prices vary according to the type of group/ number of staff of Creature Teacher staff involved. We work hard to ensure we deliver the best encounter possible, and we want you to get the most out of our visit. This is why we state these numbers.
Can I make a provisional booking?
If you are interested in a date and we have exchanged details with you, and you need to check with venues and guest availability, we are happy to hold a time slot for you for 24hrs, if you let us know this, at no extra cost. If we do not hear back from you within 24 hours, we will drop you a text message to check if you still want the date. If we haven’t heard back from you by the end of the day, that date will be available for others to book. After this point payment secures the date for you.
How do I secure a date?
This will be discussed during the booking process, but to summarise:
For birthday parties, all payment is required in advance, within 2 days of the invoice being issued. Your deposit is the first £50 of your total. If you need to cancel the booking, you will receive the full amount back, when you give more than 21 days notice before the visit date. If you give less that 21 days notice, you will receive all the money back, minus £50.
For other events or full day bookings, such as fairs, a percentage of the total fee will be required within 7 days of confirming booking, with the balance due after our visit to you.
For nursing homes, schools, nurseries etc your date is secure from the point of booking confirmation. No deposit required.
What booking confirmation will I receive from you?
You will be told at the point of booking when to expect your booking confirmation email.
For birthdays and other private events you will receive your booking confirmation email with your invoice, invitation, health and safety, terms and conditions once you have confirmed your booking and sent us all requested details.
For nursing homes, schools etc you will receive your confirmation during the email process, with health and safety, terms and conditions, insurance and RA info. We send out invoices after the visit, unless required in advance.
What if I need to cancel my booking?
For private events such as a birthday party, you will get a full refund of all payments received, as long as you give us 3 weeks notice prior to the encounter date. If you cancel with less than 3 weeks notice you will lose your deposit of £50. If you need to reschedule at short notice, there is no charge to do so, as long as it’s within 6 months of the original date.
For groups such as schools and nursing homes you will be charged £70 plus your travel charge if we arrive at your venue and you cancel the booking. Please give us as much notice as possible if you need to cancel or reschedule your booking.
What if The Creature Teachers cancel the appearance?
We do our utmost to ensure that we do not have to cancel an encounter, but in the event that we must, despite our best efforts, we will give you as much notice as possible, and offer you the next available date. If an alternative date is not convenient for you, you will receive a full refund.
How do I pay?
You will receive an invoice via email which has a breakdown of the price, payment deadline and our bank details. We do not take payment over the phone. Payment is by bank transfer only.
Are you GDPR compliant?
Your personal information will never be shared with third parties, and financial data is not stored. You will only be contacted by us, with your consent and with regards to your booking.
Jobs & volunteering
We do not take on volunteers at Creature Teacher H.Q.
We are hiring for a part time position. Please send your CV via email if you are interested in applying.
If you are thinking of sending in a C.V. please bear in mind that you should have animal care experience, be confident in interacting with people on both an individual, as well as group, level, be motivated by animal welfare with an eye for detail, a strong work ethic, and a passion for sharing information about the natural world.
The role includes animal handling and care of invertebrate, reptile, mammal, amphibian and bird species. Interacting with the public, all ages, all types of settings. Hours may be any day of the week, 365 days of the year. Your working day usually starts between 8am and 9am, and finishes between 4pm and 5pm, though half and full days are available. Occasional evening work is required. Hours are part time. Working outside cleaning animal enclosures is part of the position, regardless of the weather, so please bear this in mind when applying for a position.
Creature Teacher H.Q. is based in the Redhill area of Bournemouth, about 40 minutes by bus, or 15 mins by car from the town centre.
Please send your C.V. and cover letter to thecreatureteachers@yahoo.co.uk .