Avocet House
Turnstone House
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Avocet House held their first ‘Shine a Light’ open day for adults on 2 April 2025. The premise for this was for the young people to show their books, artwork, technical skills and ping pong prowess to key adults from Avocet House.
Two of the young people were unable to attend as they were on an adventure in a tall ship on the high seas! However, all the other young people and the Learning Centre adults put on a good show of the work and progress that has been made.
Everyone visiting enjoyed the experience with many of them mentioning that they were truly amazed at the quality and progress of all the young people. Drinks and snacks were supplied and fun was had by everyone attending, it was clear they all enjoyed the experience.
We are aiming for this to become a regular event in the Avocet House calendar, complementing the holistic approach of SES and ensuring all adults fully appreciate the hard work put in by all the young people. Next term the care team will have a turn to showcase everything they’ve been doing with the young people.
The event proved to be a truly lovely end to a busy term.
One of our young people had a dream to visit all 92 football league stadiums in the country. His dream was included in the Turnstone House Development Plan and adults worked hard to make this happen for him. In February 2025 two adults and our excited young person embarked on the first of four trips, this one would cover 23 stadiums in two days!
It turned out to be a test of endurance for all three of them, as the days were made longer than planned due to traffic and diversions. However, the first day started off smoothly with Ipswich, Colchester, and Gillingham ticked off the list in no time. Crawley, Brighton and Portsmouth followed after having endured a motorway closure, then back to Wimbledon, Fulham, Chelsea, QPR and Brentford. The day had been an epic 15 hours and everyone was exhausted.
On day two they drove to Crystal Palace, Bromley, Millwall and Charlton then hopped on the train to West Ham, Leyton Orient, Arsenal, Tottenham, Wembley and Watford. Back in the car to finish the day travelling to Luton and Stevenage. All three were extremely proud of their achievement and how our young person had dealt with the trials and tribulations, including very sore legs and feet!
Following the success of our first ever Christmas fun day involving everyone from all the SES provisions, which was held last year, another one was organised for Wednesday 18 December 2024.
Keeping to the same format as last year, the day kicked off with everyone feeling excited about the day.
After a fun-packed morning of team activities (who knows who won?!), we got down to the business of presenting end-of-term commendations to the young people surrounded by glitter, with some special certificates awarded to adults by the young people too.
And then, convoy-style, everyone departed from Turnstone House to a local village hall, where the disco supplied by Clownaround Castles was ready and waiting along with a food stand providing a full Christmas dinner wrapped in an enormous Yorkshire pudding!
It was hard to tell who enjoyed the disco more, the adults or young people, but everyone joined in with the classic disco tracks, including a huge conga out into the car park. All the adults agreed how lovely it was to see the young people enjoy the dancing and getting involved, it is something that not everyone will have experienced before.
The day was amazing, and exhausting, and we will be doing it all again next year!
In November, Turnstone House was visited by Ofsted, the first educational inspection to be carried out since Claire Leeder joined as Head of Education in January 2024.
Claire and her team had been working hard to ensure everything was meeting not only Ofsted’s standards and the Independent Schools Standards, but also the very high aspirations SES has for the education of our young people. Claire relished the opportunity to talk about everything that had been achieved, including the updated curriculum and sequencing.
As a result of everyone’s commitment and hard work, Turnstone House received an Outstanding judgement from Ofsted, with the following comments made in the report:
‘Pupils join a community that places ‘no limits’ on their academic and personal growth. Staff fully understand each pupil’s unique background and challenges. Staff build strong, trusting relationships that help pupils feel safe, secure and ready to learn.’
‘The school has high expectations for everyone. As a result, pupils thrive. They receive effective, individual attention to help them reach their ambitious goals. As a result, pupils feel and are successful.’
‘The school goes above and beyond to give pupils new ‘niche’ interests and career directions. As a result, pupils develop a much more positive view of themselves.’
‘Teachers are highly skilled in helping pupils to quickly catch up with foundational skills such as arithmetic and reading. As a result, pupils progress exceptionally well compared to their experiences before joining the school.’
‘Every pupil accesses tailored careers information and guidance. Staff are creative and tenacious in securing work experiences that align with pupils’ abilities and interests. The school assesses each work experience opportunity carefully for safety and appropriateness. Consequently, pupils are being very well prepared for their next steps.’
Read the full report below:
Our donation of £825.66, raised at the Avocet House fete, was recently collected by Building Lives International UK. It was an emotional meeting when we discovered our donation alone will cover the costs of 160 children accessing education for an entire year! Our kind and thoughtful young people have worked tirelessly to make this happen.
Feeling inspired by how much difference they can make, the young people were challenged to each fill a shoebox with toys for the children in Uganda. They had to take into consideration various things such as; the children are outside most of the time; they have no batteries; the gifts have to be light and small so they can be taken on an aeroplane.
Our young people excelled at this challenge, they were inventive and considered everything they needed to. They were told the children would have not seen some of the toys before and will be full of intrigue and excitement.
This project has been beneficial to everyone as helping others can be a way to heal yourself:
In August, six young people from both Avocet House and Turnstone House were taken by a team of intrepid adults to camp for five days in the Yorkshire Dales.
Several activities had been planned in advance and all the young people (and adults) knew what they had let themselves in for. They had an amazing, adventurous holiday in the great outdoors; exploring caves; climbing rock faces; visiting Diggerland (where the adults had a fantastic time!); and all of the young people were brave enough to abseil from a viaduct!
At the beginning of the summer, four SES adults took three of our young people from Avocet House for a holiday in the Netherlands, staying on a family-friendly holiday park near Amsterdam. The plan is to return to this same park every year to give the young people confidence with familiarity.
While there, they had lots of fun-packed days, including a trip to Ripleys – Believe it or Not! museum, a boat trip and sightseeing around Amsterdam, not to mention all the activities available on the holiday park!
At SES we are always trying to give our young people different experiences they will remember forever, and to give them more confidence in travelling and meeting different people. All three of the young people had a lovely time and the adults enjoyed themselves too!
On 11 and 12 July Turnstone House hosted the annual Attitude festival, adults and young people from all of our provisions were invited to attend the two-day camping experience, which always involves lots of fun and games.
Other activities included a bongo session, face painting, live music, plenty of food, arts and crafts, sports, silent disco, karaoke and outside movies. Everyone had a brilliant time and we are looking forward to Attitude 2025!
Young people and staff at Avocet House have recently raised nearly £400 for the charity Building Lives International UK. The money went to the Gorilla School in Uganda, a particularly poor, rural area. Our donation has bought them:
The shoes are particularly important for the children as many don’t own any. Walking around in bare feet all day in dirt can result in them getting little insects called ‘jiggers’ burrowing into their feet, which then lay eggs, this is not only painful but can lead to infection and gangrene.
The young people at Avocet House have been so inspired by hearing how their donation was spent they have chosen to support the charity again, they will be donating all proceeds raised at the Avocet House annual fete, due to be held on 31 August 2024. They will also be choosing some special gifts for the children that the charity will take to them in January. One gift will definitely be a football as it upset our young people to find out the children at the Gorilla School only have a screwed up plastic bag to kick around.
