Specialist Education ServicesUncategorised - Specialist Education Services

The annual SES Charity Football match took place on Wednesday 10 September 2025. This is a much anticipated event which welcomes back those that have previously lived at Avocet or Turnstone House, including their families. All our current young people get involved along with adults who are brave enough to pull on their football shorts and boots!

There were enough willing people to make two teams of 23 players, each team had a generous mix of age and ability with a young person as captain for each side. The final score was 9-5, so it was action-packed and very tense on occasion.

Following 90 minutes of hard-fought playing, everyone headed back to Avocet House for lunch and a chance to catch up with those that had moved on from SES. Over 100 people attended the event in total, £310 was raised through match fees and a raffle, with the proceeds being donated to Norwich Guide Dogs.

Some of the Avocet House children and adults spent another fantastic week away in the Lake District in August. We are really proud of the young people and adults, several of whom clearly developed in confidence as the week went on. One of the children had never experienced a trip away with Avocet House before and, quite literally, jumped in with both feet!

All the young people thoroughly embraced the activities and had a great week of adventure surrounded by some stunning scenery.

It takes a huge amount of organisation and planning to put these trips together, made worthwhile when the children have such a fantastic time, trying activities they never thought possible!

In August a group of SES children and adults attended the Gone Wild Festival in north Norfolk. There was so much going on they struggled to fit everything in. One of the highlights was taking part in a colour run, enjoyed by the children as they could throw paint over themselves and the adults with no consequences! One of the children had to step out of his comfort zone to join in, but ended up having an absolute blast. The adults had just as much fun and one of them stated the event was probably one of his top highlights since being at SES, and he’s had a few!

After a quick lunch break and wash, everyone headed to the main arena for a four-wheeled adventure. They met up with another two children and an adult to enjoy a fun quad biking experience. One of the children said, “that has got to be the highlight of my year” and was over the moon he had been able to try it.

Once evening arrived it was time to dance! All met up at the main stage to watch the Lightning Seeds, and managed to get the signature of the lead singer. Later the band Blue performed and, despite the children being WAY too young to remember them the first time round, they all thoroughly enjoyed it and had a brilliant time dancing and cheering. All four of the young people had a fantastic evening and didn’t want it to end, so they topped it off with a final 30 minute silent disco before heading home.

The day was incredible, made more special as it was shared by children and adults from Turnstone House and Avocet House, creating lasting memories with people they don’t mix with every day.

Turnstone House was visited by Ofsted for a full two-day social care inspection in July 2025.

Leadership and management and overall experiences of the young people were both judged as outstanding, and help and protect was judged as good.

The feedback at the end of the inspection was amazing with lots of positives. This was achieved through continual hard work, commitment and dedication from the whole team, along with ongoing commitment to the young people, supporting them to achieve amazing outcomes and experiences.

The strength of feedback from the two inspectors on the progress and experiences of our children was incredible and every person at SES will take pride in this well-deserved judgement.

Children achieve an unmistakeable sense of belonging at the home. One child has lived at the home for seven years and several other children have been living there for over three years.

Turnstone House Full 10384856 Final Download

The fourth and final trip to visit the 92 football league stadiums took place at the beginning of August. So far, our football fans had visited 69 of the 92 stadiums and this next three-day trip would see them venture to the southwest of the UK.

They left at 7am on day one, facing a long drive to the south coast where they started the fourth leg visiting Southampton, Bournemouth, Exeter and Plymouth, continuing to Bristol City and Bristol Rovers (all on day one!).

On day two they ventured into Wales, visiting Newport, Cardiff and Swansea, before crossing back across the border to Cheltenham and Swindon. They then headed to the midlands to visit Wolves, Birmingham, Aston Villa, West Brom and Walsall. An attempt to get tickets for the pre-season fixture between Aston Villa and Roma was not successful, but provided a learning opportunity in recognising and understanding the risks of online ticket scammers.

On the last day they visited Coventry, Northampton, MK Dons, Oxford, Reading, and Wycombe. The latter being a particular highlight as they were guided around the stadium by an employee who also allowed them to go into one of the stands. Our young person left the stadium saying “that was sick”, with the biggest smile across his face.

The challenge of visiting all 92 football league stadiums ended at Norwich City FC (our local team). There was much celebration with hugs and high fives, followed by an immediate conversation on what to embark on next………

Summer 2025 was a busy one with several organised trips for SES young people and adults, kicking off prior to the end of term with adventurous holidays in Derbyshire and the Lake District.

Our young people showed bravery, kindness and team spirit, fully engaging in the activities that had been arranged, with enthusiasm shown by everyone. Young people grew in confidence, resilience and ability whilst tackling some pretty scary activities, from abseiling to ghyll scrambling, canoeing and hiking. This bravery and the enthusiasm to join in was also shown by the amazing adults who had volunteered to support the children, in what turned out to be a very busy few days!

Scenes from the Lake District:

Scenes from Derbyshire:

Turnstone House hosted our annual Attitude Festival in July, with the theme of ‘circus’, bringing together adults and young people from all the SES provisions. An atmosphere of excitement and togetherness filled the air as the event was opened by the debut performance from Limitless (formed by the SES leadership team!).

Activities included a demonstration of the circus skills learnt by the young people, sensory play, fishing, drumming, a disco, karaoke machine, henna tattoos and face painting; along with traditional fairground games such as the coconut shy, hook-a-duck and tin can alley. Some of the young people and adults were feeling sporty and engaged in a lively football match.

As the first evening drew to a close, everyone gathered for a ukulele performance, a little pampering and an open-air cinema experience. The fun continued the next day after a hearty breakfast, with more carnival games, a candyfloss machine and an inflatable helter skelter.

The SES adults stepped up to present an amazing two day event for the young people that will be remembered for ever. Part of our ethos is to provide children with happy, fun-filled memories of their childhood; the adults went above and beyond to bring fun, kindness and support to this festival, which truly is a fantastic and safe way for our young people to experience this kind of event.

Part three of the grand stadium tour began one early May morning. In the quest to visit all 92 football league stadiums, they set off on this leg with a long 5 ½ hour drive to Newcastle to see St James Park.

Our young person had helped with the planning, and he was excited and looking forward to seeing all the stadiums in the northeast of the country. After a very long first day spent visiting a total of 7 stadiums, with Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesborough being some of the highlights, everyone was looking forward to getting dinner and rest in the hotel. However, upon arrival they were told the hotel had been booked for the night before, and subsequently both hotels were booked for the incorrect dates! This was all part of the fun, which was accepted in good spirits, and a new plan was formulated.

They decided to travel another hour and a half to the hotel near Sheffield (which had been accidentally booked for night one, instead of night two). On day two they came up with a new plan, whereby all the stadiums would be visited that day with no need for a third day.

They set off at 7am and began the challenge of visiting the remainder of the stadiums. One of the highlights was meeting the head groundsman at Grimsby who let them into the stadium. After a longer day than originally planned, they arrived back at Turnstone House at 23:45 with 71 of the 92 stadiums completed.

There is now one more trip to go………

After more than 5 years, we saw the return of the SES annual conference! These events bring the whole SES team together to increase our knowledge, inspire us, and remind us why we have chosen to work with our special young people.

This year we welcomed Steven Russell, founder of Elements, to the beautiful setting at Dunston Hall. Steven had impressed two of our senior leaders with his heartfelt and powerful presentation at the 2024 Children’s Home Association conference. They both felt he would make a big impression on the SES team, and they weren’t wrong!

Steven spoke with us about the Power of Connection, reflecting on his own childhood in the care system and the lessons he wanted to pass on to professionals working in the care sector. His message was powerful and often emotional, giving us all plenty to think about and reflect on our own interactions with children.

The session was interactive, with an experiment to show how easily a simple message about a child can be carried incorrectly when passed on through several professionals. We also had to decorate masks with key moments and feelings from our own childhood, helping us all understand each other and realise there’s often more beneath the surface.

The conference has left us all with plenty to think about and put into practice, and we hope to welcome Steven back to SES to see us all in action later this year.

We have already started to think about the SES Conference 2026………