Sounds like my school, although in Upper Forth onwards we were allowed hamsters or fish in our rooms
before that they lived in a common room/annexe - I too was a boarder in a girl's only convent school from 8 to 18, and before that a day pupil at another girl's private kindergarden nearer my parent's estate. I got my first hamster all of my own at 4 from my hippy aunt - it had been rescued from a research facility, my brother got a rat which sadly died of cancer not long after. I had loads of animals at home on the farm up to 8 years old when I went to big school. Even when I went to school I got to take some of my gang with me, AND still keep some at home, which my lovely mum looked after during the week
I managed to escape home most weekends, usually with a new friend in tow (human and animal)
Everyones' unwanted or surplus animals came home with me, my poor parents
I know now they are not allowed at any age in the school, sadly the nuns have all now departed, and they also allow boys at my kindergarden
I remember getting a goat for my ninth birthday I thought Nanny (imaginative I know) was the best present ever
until I got Billy (yes you guessed it another goat) for my eleventh birthday, but sadly he passed on during our family holiday