A FLOCK of new boarders at a school had good reason than most to be a little sheepish.

Fifty ewes have arrived to stay on the grassland at the Royal Alexandra and Albert School in Reigate, to help the students studying for a countryside management course.

They will be looked after by students at the Gatton Park school for three weeks before returning to a local farm.

Headmaster Paul Spencer Ellis said: "The sheep should not be a nuisance to the children as they are both as noisy as each other.

"We are so lucky we have this amount of land to do the course and, as a boarding school, we are able to look after the sheep seven days a week."

He said interaction with the animals would give 14 to 16-year-old pupils valuable practical experience and teach them the responsibilities of animal management, adding it was not always obvious to the younger children where meat, milk and eggs came from, so seeing the animals first hand was a good lesson in life.

Mr Spencer Ellis added: "We have very academic courses but we also run more vocational courses because not everybody is going to become a lawyer or an accountant."

The sheep are bred naturally, and will be fed on grass and grain on one corner of the land until they are moved to the pasture near the boarding houses.

Teacher Bob Greenhalgh, who is head of land-based studies at the school, said: "The sheep are not only a valuable learning resource, but an important part of managing the parkland.

"If we did not have sheep grazing the fields around the school the landscape would soon turn to scrubland."

Ollie Horncastle, 15, from Ifield, who is studying for BTECs in countryside and environment, and animal care, alongside his more traditional GCSE options, said: "We are learning how to drive tractors, chop wood, trap moles, maintain graveyards and look after animals.

"At home we keep some animals such as geese and sheep and whilst I am not considering a land-based career I would like to have a smallholding when I am older."

Fellow pupil Daisy Savin, 16, of London Road, Redhill, said when she leaves school she hopes to continue her studies at a specialist agricultural college.

She added: "I'm fine with the animals being bred for food. I like eating meat. I'm a protein person.

"I've always loved being outside. I want a career that allows me to work with animals and on the land."