Educate & engage

The SPCA’s Kids Education Portal is a unique online education resource. The portal has been designed to support children’s learning about animal welfare and responsibility towards animals, whilst developing children’s respect, understanding and compassion for all living creatures. Children can use this interactive and engaging learning tool to research and find all the information they need when being taught by a classroom teacher using the SPCA Teachers' Portal resources.

Watch our video to find out what the portal is all about

Our 24 instructional readers help children in Aotearoa to both improve their reading skills and learn to care for and respect animals. The readers cater to different ages and reading levels and free teaching notes and response activities are available on SPCA’s Teachers’ Portal.

The Companion Animals and Farmed Animals series are based on real-life SPCA animal rescues, and contain messages about animal care, animal welfare, and tips for families on how to be responsible pet owners. Animals in the Wild is all about children taking positive action to help protect animals and their environments in kind and compassionate ways. Responsible Animal Guardianship (ownership) explores a number of key animal welfare topics, such as animal abandonment and adoption.

To spread the message to as many children as we can, all 2,127 primary and intermediate schools in New Zealand have received six copies of each reader completely free, thanks to help from SPCA supporters.

Our Teachers’Portal is designed for early childhood educators and classroom teachers of Years 1 – 9 looking for innovative resources. The resources provide real-life, meaningful contexts for teaching and learning and align with Te Whāriki and the New Zealand Curriculum. Learners are encouraged to learn in a way that is their own to achieve positive, empathetic and compassionate outcomes for human and non-human members of society.

SPCA Certified was set up to improve the lives of animals by working alongside the farming and pet care industries.

We started with SPCA Blue Tick, focusing on animal welfare improvements for farmed animals. In October 2020 we rebranded to SPCA Certified and extended standards to the pet care sector.

We believe continued improvements are key to sustainable, meaningful and positive animal welfare outcomes, and we’re encouraging New Zealanders to drive real change for animals by purchasing products and services that are SPCA Certified.

We don’t just educate children on how to care for and treat animals; we also provide animal care booklets to all our adopters, and create online resources and opinion pieces on animal care and welfare for everyone to access.