Specialist Education ServicesUncategorised - Specialist Education Services

One of our young adults has successfully gained a new job delivering the community newspaper. She overcame some initial disappointment when the papers arrived later than expected and went on to ensure everything else was planned in advance of making the deliveries.

Initially, a member of staff supported her from a distance, ensuring she delivered on the right roads and didn’t miss any houses, but this was almost not necessary as she was fantastic and didn’t need much prompting! She delivered all 190 papers for one of her rounds, making sure it was carried out properly and professionally. She remained focussed throughout and after about 3 hours of delivering and 12,000 steps she completed it. She was extremely proud of herself and is really pleased to have a job that she gets paid for, her earnings will be saved up and hopefully used on a holiday next year.

This is a wonderful example of the progression made since being within SES and a fantastic success story, as this would have been unachievable for her a few years ago.

In November, three young people from Turnstone House, one young adult from Tower Hill and one young adult formerly from Avocet House were invited to attend the national engage in their future awards, which were held in Manchester.

The National Awards acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of students be it as individuals, teams or as a school. Nominations could be submitted against any of nine categories –

· Outstanding Personal Progress

· Outstanding Achievement

· Outstanding Personal Resilience

· Good Citizen Award

· Innovation and Creativity

· Team of the Year

· International Award

· Sports Student of the Year Award

· Success Story

An independent panel take the individual circumstances of each child into account as the journey through SEMH education is unique to each student. Acknowledging the context of the student’s accomplishments and progress is essential to making sure each nomination is judged on its own merits, not against generic benchmarks or expected standards.

All nominees receive a certificate and those that are short-listed are invited to attend the annual National Awards Ceremony to be presented with their certificate and trophy.

We are delighted that two young people from Turnstone House won awards for Outstanding Personal Resilience, one young adult from Tower Hill won an award for Leavers Success Story and another former resident of Avocet House won an award for Outstanding Personal Progress.

At the end of August three boys and staff from Avocet House embarked on the long trip to northern Scotland. To break the journey, three nights were spent on a campsite in Northumberland, and on the way there a visit was made to the Angel of the North. One of the boys is a big fan of Harry Potter so a trip to Alnwick Castle was essential while in the area. Keeping with the historical theme, trips were also made to Bamburgh Castle and a Roman fort at Hadrian’s Wall.

After a lovely time spent in Northumberland, the next leg of the journey was all the way to John O’ Groats. From this point various campsites were stayed at and trips were made to the beautiful Sandwood Bay Beach (which involved hiking a total of 9 miles), rock pooling, Glenfinnan viaduct (also made famous in the Harry Potter movies), waterfalls and Loch Ness.

Four Angels of the North!

While everyone back in Norfolk was tolerating mediocre weather, the travellers experienced fantastic weather, which helped to make the holiday so enjoyable. This was the first time any of the boys had visited Scotland and a fabulous time was had by all!

We held our annual Charity Football Match in July on a beautiful sunny day at the Beccles Football Club. We had an amazing turn out, consisting of our current SES community as well as welcoming back young people who had previously lived with us, along with former colleagues. We played 11-a-side, mixing adults with young people, and saw some excellent football throughout. The match was played in very good spirits with a finishing score of 7-4.

Following the match there was a celebratory BBQ, which gave everyone a chance to catch up with each other. Alongside this we held a raffle, which included amazing prizes such as Amazon vouches, Bluetooth headphones and a signed Norwich City T-Shirt.

We managed to raise an amazing £1000 for our local charity, Leeway, which is a Norfolk based charity supporting victims of domestic abuse. We had a significant financial donation to our event this year from Vita Health Group, for which we are extremely grateful.

It was a huge success, not only for our chosen charity, but also for the adults and young people forming the community at SES.

At the beginning of August SES attended a jobs fair at The Forum in the centre of Norwich. There were plenty of other companies there and an abundance of information for the many visitors who wanted to learn more about their recruitment options.

We loved chatting to people about the work we do and we had our eyes peeled for potential candidates with warmth, humour and the welfare of children at the forefront of their minds.

It felt like a successful day and we may well be back at the next jobs fair at the same location in November 2021.

Attitude 2021 was the third, and by far the biggest, camping festival at SES to date.

The weather was superb and the mix of activities seemed to work really well, with something for all the young people. Everyone had a fantastic time with plenty of things to get involved in, such as; live music, Forest School activities, festival make-up, crafts, drumming and a bouncy castle. There was a plenty of food available and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the barbecue out in the sunshine.

To have all the young people from Avocet House, Turnstone House and Tower Hill taking part was a real achievement, resulting in a total of 21 tents pitched on the field.

One of the young people from Turnstone House decided to embark on an adventure in North Norfolk, with the goal to walk the entire North Norfolk Coastal Path.

The challenge was set over four (very hot) days in June with two members of staff opting to go with him. Some stretches were a challenge in the heat, carrying all the gear and trudging over shingle beaches, but he persevered and completed the mission!

Several of our young people and staff went on a residential trip to Derbyshire in May. Many of the young people overcame personal fears and worked really well together, offering support to each other when needed.

Everyone showed patience and resilience and had a fun time entering into all the activities, which included; travelling on cable cars up the Heights of Abraham, exploring caves at the top of the Heights, visiting Castleton and Buxton, swimming, climbing Mam Tor, day trip to Alton Towers, hill-walking, arts and crafts.

Despite some extreme weather conditions we have continued to grow vegetables in the poly tunnel. Kale, cauliflower, carrots, herbs and onions have all been harvested and used for meals in the house.

We have been busy planting trees and have so far planted 30 of the 100 we received, including wild cherry, oak, field maple, rowan, apple, hawthorn, dogwood and elder.

Following all the hard work in the garden work last year, we won the Level 4 RHS Schools Garden Award and will be rewarded with £150 worth of plug plants in April. These will include lots more vegetables, salad plants and fruit.