Some students need a quiet nudge, and at Nescot College that help comes on four legs.

Rhubarb, a Nova Scotia duck tolling retriever, works at the Surrey campus alongside his owner, Zoe Latter, a teacher of more than 30 years who takes her “best buddy” to college four days a week.

He helps students in several ways, from walking the corridors and encouraging conversation to working one-to-one with those who may be feeling “very shy or a bit anxious”, Latter said.

Rhubarb has worked at the college in Epsom for about four years and was among the winners in this year’s School Dog of the Year Awards.

Latter said Rhubarb helped students feel more relaxed and ready to learn. He has also been allowed into GCSE maths exams as a special concession, sitting quietly with students to help them settle.

In lessons, he joins confidence-building activities, including a game where he is trained to pick out incorrect answers as a “stooge dog”. Students then explain their thinking by showing him why his answer was wrong.

Latter said it showed students it was “all right to get things wrong, and that’s how you learn”.

She said Rhubarb’s temperament was central to his role.

“Because he’s so quiet and very, very gentle, he’s ideal – because not everybody wants to be bounced on and breathed on and dribbled on and have toys shoved at them,” she said.

“He’s so good for our students that perhaps are that little bit more reticent, a little bit shyer, maybe feeling a bit lonely, and then he provides that bridge.”

Latter said she helped Rhubarb get to know the college as a puppy and that his welfare was closely monitored, with regular assessments, so he remains happy and comfortable in his work.

She said he was also a family pet, adding: “If it got to a point where he thought ‘actually this is a bit much, I’d rather stay at home in the garden’, then that would be fine.”

She added, “He’s got the best floppy ears in the world.”

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