A boy who rescued abandoned ducklings is now followed by them everywhere - including school.

Joe Griffin, eight, hand-reared the seven birds who were left alone after their mum flew away three months ago.

He and his mother Kristina Griffin, 43, made them a pen and a pool, fed them and thought they would eventually fledge and fly away.

The plan was to release them to a nearby quarry when they got big enough.

But after their release the seven ducklings kept coming back to Joe's garden and pecking on the window every morning looking for him.

They became so attached to him they even follow him to his school in Guernsey.

Kristina, who owns a nursery, said: "He was their little duckling daddy and everywhere he went they just followed him around."

"If he went outside and they were in the quarry he would just call them and they would all quickly swim over to him."

"The school was the first time he was followed and we don't know how they found him. They'd always just been in our garden or the quarry."

"I had driven Joe down to school that morning and I think the ducks must have been flying around looking for him and they landed in his playground and waddled up to his window in his classroom and they found him."

Kristina explained how the ducklings caused "a bit of a nuisance" as they went down the school corridor."

She explained how the teachers thought they had "shoo them out" but to their surprise three ducklings were still left in the staff toilet."

"They called me to try and get them so me and Joe went out in the playground and tried to get them to leave but they kept hiding," she said."

"They ended up staying in the school that afternoon"."

The ducklings first appeared in this family's life when a woman who Joe's dad knew had some ducks stuck in her garden and she didn't know what to do with them.

As the animal shelter couldn't help, they asked if the Griffin's family could take care of them as they live near a quarry.

Kristina said: "As they were only two days old and were too young to go to the quarry we made a pen in our living room and they stayed there for three weeks."

Joe said: "You could pick them up with one hand and they were really fluffy."

When they were little Joe fed them porridge, scrambled eggs and fruits.

And Joe has even named all of them - with some given Royal names such as Elizabeth.

Joe said she was the first one to be named as she looked "classy"."

He said: "She swam really elegantly."

Even though the ducklings are in the quarry Joe still sees them every day to feed them first thing in the morning.

And if he is not there early enough they come up to their garden and peck at the door.

"They are my children," Joe said."

He is hoping to keep feeding them and their own ducklings.

His mum said that Joe is an animal-lover having taken care of frogs and butterflies in the past.