Avocet House
Turnstone House
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At the beginning of March, three young people were accompanied by three of our adults on an overnight trip to Milton Keynes. They had headed there to visit Bletchley Park Museum and Milton Keynes Museum as part of their history lessons. One of the young people has beautifully written this account of the trip:
Bletchley Park is where the Government used special methods to decipher German and Japanese messages during World War II. Alan Turing created a machine called the Universal Turing Machine, which was used to decipher messages immediately. There were 10,000 people working at Bletchley Park when they were trying to crack the Enigma Code and stop World War II. We have all been learning about the Enigma Code and World War II in history lessons.
Why did we go?
We went to Bletchley Park because we all wanted to see where everyone involved in cracking the Enigma code worked. We also wanted to see the environment they worked in and see if they are similar to working conditions today.
What was everybody favourite part?
At the Milton Keynes Museum everyone enjoyed how hands-on everything there was, you were able to interact with everything in the museum. Everybody’s favourite room in the museum was the communications room because you were able to use all the old telephones. There was also a switchboard you could use to transfer calls to each other.
At Bletchley Park we all enjoyed learning lots of new things about World War II. We also enjoyed the interactive things that were in different rooms, it gave you a look at how hard and continuous their jobs were in the war. In most of the rooms they had a person who could talk to you about different parts of the war and they could explain things to you, we enjoyed talking to them because they knew a lot of information.
Following ongoing, dedicated rehearsals SES productions proudly presented a performance of Aladdin at The Garage, Norwich in January 2023, in front of staff and invited guests.
Our youngest performer was just 11 years old. She showed great confidence to take on the lead role and was eager to do so despite never being on the stage before.
Our Evil Sidekick and Sultan had also never performed on stage before, but took it all in their stride and we’re hoping to see them performing again now they’ve shown us all how good they are!
Our Princess was the most seasoned actors of all the young people, having appeared in all of the SES productions so far. She has also attended drama club as an extra-curricular activity. The only slight difficulty was that she absolutely NEVER wears a dress, a necessity for any budding princess, but she stepped into the role at the last minute and got us out of a fix (in a ‘dressed-down’ dress!).
Every great story needs a narrator and ours really got to grips with the role and even wrote some of his own lines, he showed great confidence and we may be able to tempt him onto the stage next time.
Some of the SES staff took on roles, including Abanazar, the Genie and Wishy Washy, our talented adults took on their roles with gusto, as well as helping to support the children. However, Wishy Washy wasn’t so keen initially as he passionately dislikes drama and was coerced (forced!) to take the role, he may have been converted though as he loved being the pantomime dame! We’re hoping it could be an annual role for him!
The whole performance was directed by two of our talented teaching staff, both passionate about drama and the benefits it offers our young people in promoting self-worth and confidence.
Avocet House received a visit from Ofsted at the end of 2022. During the two days the inspectors were on site they soon realised staff were doing an amazing job. Avocet House was rated as outstanding and the following comments were made in the Ofsted report:
“Children thrive and have a strong sense of stability, and enjoy extremely fulfilling day-to-day experiences. This stability provides children with a secure base, enabling them to make exceptional progress from their starting points. The skilled and ambitious staff provide high-quality, individualised and nurturing support which significantly enhances children’s quality of life and future life chances.”
“Children have excellent support from staff to build their independence and daily living skills. Innovative approaches, including a well-devised achievement programme, are tailored to children’s individual milestones.”
“Staff ensure that children’s health needs are a high priority.”
“Children feel safe and are kept safe by staff who understand the risks to them. There is a culture of high aspiration and regard among staff for every child. Mutually respectful and strong relationships with staff help the children to feel safe and unconditionally accepted.”
“Children are well prepared to live in a diverse society and are supported to understand people’s differences and needs.”
Read the full report below:
One of our young people had been struggling with reading, writing and arithmetic since arriving at Avocet House a year ago. An experimental approach was taken towards his education and real progress was made. Teaching staff in the Learning Centre then drew upon his previous successful work placement in a local children’s nursery as inspiration, and arranged for him to work on the weekly market held at Stowmarket.
He uses the travel time constructively to improve his reading before working on the fruit and vegetable stall. He handles all aspects of the stall from weighing out the produce, helping to display everything nicely, serving customers and handling transactions. His confidence has built and he is now a regular smiley face on the market stall, and is very popular with the older customers!
Four of our young people from Avocet House have been regularly attending lessons at Funky’s in Norwich to learn to roller skate. Each of them has had regular lessons and gradings to assess their skills in skating ability and technique. There are six grades and the young people have been excelling as they move through their grades. They are all at various stages but remain very supportive of each other as they practice new skills. Numerous certificates have been collected between them to reflect their personal achievements.
In December the young people from Turnstone House took part in a Spot the Odd One Out competition organised by Bungay Town Council and local businesses. Only one young person couldn’t join in, but that was because she was busy preparing lunch at Bigod’s Kitchen for the whole group to enjoy after the event.
Forty five shops and businesses in Bungay took part, each one displayed a number in the window to show they were part of the competition, then you had to find the item displayed that the shop didn’t sell. This was often very difficult to spot! It was an exceptionally cold day and walking around the town took just over one and a half hours, but the young people all persevered and did really well.
Our answers were handed in and, to everyone’s delight, four of our young people won prizes! A small prize was also given to the others for taking part.
Two of the boys visited the Town Council offices on Wednesday 20 December for drinks and snacks, followed by the presentation of prizes by the Mayor. Both the young people were fantastically polite and made sure they thanked the organisers for their prizes.
One of our young adults recently ticked off an activity from her bucket list in top style! It had been a longstanding dream to complete a sky dive and many hours had been spent watching other intrepid folk falling from the sky over Suffolk with UK Parachuting.
Funds were diligently saved up from working in the community as a gardener for a local gentleman, when her target was reached the event was booked. Unfortunately it had to be postponed twice due to weather conditions, but finally the day came and, despite suffering with nerves in the build-up, she managed to overcome the justified trepidation and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
There might have to be a lot more gardening to come as she has caught the sky diving bug and hopes to go again in the future.
At the beginning of October one of our young people went on a trip to France to stay with a family and experience their everyday life. He spent lots of time playing with the three children tried lots of different food, even venturing out in the rain to buy freshly baked bread from the boulangerie!
He spent a day with a class from a French school visiting a zoological park, finding a way to communicate with the other young people and not allowing there to be a language barrier. He made some lovely friends and has been invited back for a three day hike with the class in June.
He coped amazingly well and showed great resilience in getting along with several different people, in the family and the class, who only spoke a small amount English.
