Avocet House
Turnstone House
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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.
At the beginning of June 2024 three of our young people boarded the TS Queen Galadriel for a seven day sailing trip from Ipswich to Gosport with Cirdan Sailing Trust, living and working as part of the crew. The benefits gained from the experience can help to build confidence, resilience, motivation, tolerance and team spirit.
The trip had an interesting start, with all the adults (including the three established crew) suffering with sea sickness on the very first day whilst going through a spell of bad weather.
They docked at Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight where they enjoyed fish and chips and then travelled on to dock at Portsmouth.
The young people learnt how to put the sails up, scrub the decks, cook for the crew, climb the mast, and all about the engine below deck.
The younger ones gained a Start Yachting certificate, and the older ones a Competent Crew qualification.
Despite all the hard work they had to do, and feeling absolutely tired out, it was a struggle to get everybody off the boat when it was time to go!
In May one of our young people attended the National Awards Ceremony for Engage in Their Future, a national event to celebrate the achievements of children on the journey through SEMH education. He had been nominated to receive an award to recognise how very willing he is to give anything a go, and just carries on despite the changes in his life and any problems he has had to face. It was decided by the panel that the award for Innovation, Creativity and Arts would best represent his achievements.
Since living with us at Specialist Education Services he has been open to the idea of participating in anything put in place for him, including:
He was very pleased to receive the Platinum Award (the highest level achievable), and we are all very proud of him!
In April our adventurous Scout took his presentation to the Rotary Club in Lowestoft. They were delighted to hear all about his travels and found his presentation excellent, stating ‘the easy way you fielded and answered questions was remarkable for someone of your age’.
They also commented ‘Of all the donations we have made over the last two years, this was the one that has given me the greatest pleasure’.
What a great testimony celebrating the adventures of our young person!
On Wednesday 29 November 2023 our intrepid explorer hosted two presentations to just under 70 people, all keen to hear how his trip to South Korea had gone. He had spent two months producing the most amazing presentation of his whole Jamboree journey.
The presentation lasted about 40 minutes and included a ‘Question time’ at the end. He hosted both events extremely well and received many compliments on his delivery and how he dealt with all the questions.
“The three Rotarians who attended the presentation were delighted with the way they were welcomed, and by the entire evening. His presentation was excellent and his positivity shone through” Rotary President
“He spoke passionately about the impact scouting and the World Scout Jamboree had on him……he delivered his presentation with confidence and with a great sense of humour. He would be a great role model for other care experience young people.” Norfolk Virtual School Advisor
