Avocet House
Turnstone House
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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.
Turnstone House is looking forward to accommodating additional young people following the conversion of an old stable block on site.
The project started slowly due to the discovery of bats living in the roof space, but once we had been given the go-ahead by Natural England, work could resume on converting the space, which had previously been used as a workshop and storage.
After several months of activity (mainly in scorching temperatures) the builders completed the work and have very successfully converted the space into a large living/kitchen area with enough en-suite bedrooms to accommodate staff and young people. An additional multi-purpose room with a kitchenette has been installed, which can be used to help young people transition to independent living.
We have a few finishing touches to add, but are looking forward to settling young people into this very smart building in the near future.
In September, Turnstone House hosted a Careers Day, organised by our Careers, Information and Guidance Advisor. Local businesses were invited to attend, including representatives from the car industry, health and beauty, deep water fishing, police and army.
Stands were set up in the hall and remained onsite for the whole day to ensure there was plenty of time to ask questions and gather information about career options.
Young people from both Turnstone House and Avocet House visited the displays and engaged with the representatives confidently, spending time with them all. It was remarked afterwards how polite and interested the young people were.
The aim was to expand understanding of local job opportunities, and this was a great introduction to a wide range of possible careers. It is hoped that with this experience in mind, some of our young people will feel more confident when attending larger events elsewhere.
