Avocet House
Turnstone House
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This poem was written by a looked after child from a London Borough who was formally placed in a children’s home in a seaside town in Kent, at which he was a serial absconder, violent and quite prepared to hit authority figures such as the police.
His comfort zone was the urban streets and although he was positively involved in the decision to move to Avocet House in Norfolk, with all the benefits of a high quality home and personalised learning environment, it challenged his survival identity and his perception of himself. His initial time wasn’t easy and he tested boundaries and challenged the established settled family culture.
Restorative approaches were foreign to him and difficult.
Now seven months into his time at Avocet House he wrote this poem. His habit of absconding has subsided, loss of temper and violent outbursts are much reduced. He’s engaged in full time education and has just been short-listed for the final stage of a national competition for an extreme classroomchallenge to walk to Everest Base Camp.
The Avocet House motto is “Care and Education without Limits”, a belief that anything is possible.
The principle of children in care being placed as close as possible to home is a good one. His poem is stark warning that it should never become a dogma.
On 10th December 2012 all the boys were invited to spend the day at Open Youth Venue in Norwich, as part of the ‘Sites and Sounds’ project they have been involved in this term.
Funded by Culture Works East, the boys worked over a number of weeks with a music producer and artist as well as musicians Tarro and TJ, to develop their skills in music production, seeing their original music through to a finished product.
At Open the boys had the opportunity to record their work in a professional studio, and create art work for their finished CD cover. The day began with a team building challenge on the Climbing wall, and the boys were able to make the most of the facilities available for young people at Open throughout the day.
The creative work they have produced will count towards the Bronze Arts Award all the boys are currently
Turnstone house, a brand new 52 week school and children’s home for boys and girls is planned to open in September 2012, expanding the excellent and innovative work of SES.
SES is planning to open a brand new facility called Turnstone House on the border of Norfolk and Suffolk. It will build on the high quality reputation already developed at Avocet House for innovative and outstanding work with children and families.
Turnstone House occupies a Grade 2 listed country house in 7 acres of parkland. Initially it will have space for 8 children with phase two of the development seeing a stable block annexe being renovated and extended to provide further space potentially for two or three independent living places. The house itself and its residential annexe will retain all the virtues of a domestic, family environment created at Avocet House.
Most excitingly Turnstone House will have a purpose built, single storey, eco-friendly, sedum roofed, state of the art Learning Centre looking out over the grounds and lake. There couldn’t be better outlook (or a more therapeutic one!) for a work environment.
Fifteen year old Robbie Kilgallon, who attends Avocet House School in Heckingham, near Loddon, has come through a national competition to be one of 10 students to be selected to take part in a challenge of a lifetime: a nine-day trek across the floor of the Great Rift Valley, starting from the sacred Mount Longido and ending at the stunning Crater Highlands and Ngorongoro Crater. The expedition party will fly out to Tanzania on the 27th of June.
The expedition called “The Hottest Classroom On Earth” is being covered by a BBC documentary which will follow the participants, all of whom are from schools within the Engage In Their Future network — a national body and charity supporting the education of students whose life circumstances have left them with some social emotional and behavioural difficulties.
Candidates had to complete a detailed application which included a letter, CV and supporting evidence of their achievements.
28 students from across the country were then asked to attend a rigorous selection weekend in the Brecon Beacons, the training venue used by the SAS. Students were put through their paces on the coldest weekend of the year so far.
“The first thing we had to do was to strip bare foot and complete a two hour martial arts training session followed by a walk in arctic conditions climbing the three highest peaks in The Brecons . It was tough but I loved it and the views were amazing” explained Robbie. Robbie received the news that he had been one of the final ten selected on Wednesday of last week.
Andy Robinson, the member of Staff from Avocet House who accompanied Robbie on the weekend challenge said: “Candidates had to demonstrate qualities of personal determination and a team ethic. Robbie was fantastic and it did not surprise me in the least that he got selected.”
The potentially life-changing adventure is to be guided by members of the Maasai tribe across a fascinating geographical and geological region. It will also involve each student being accompanied by a sporting or business mentor. Scott Quinell, TV presenter and Former Welsh and British Lions Rugby star was one of a number of mentors who attended the selection weekend.
“The Hottest Classroom is to be one of a series of observational documentaries under the banner of ‘The Extreme Classroom’ and the Team leading it makes impressive reading:
Neil Dawson, Head of Education at Avocet House said: “We are really proud of Robbie. He was able to put forward a strong application because he has, through his enthusiasm for adventure and challenge, built up quite a CV. Last summer he walked the whole length of Hadrian’s wall and has previously canoed the Wye Valley. He’s responded to academic challenge, sitting his GCSE Maths early whilst in Year 9 and has made very significant gains in his attitude to English work which he will also sit at GCSE. We are grateful to the ‘Engage In Their Future’ organisation for setting up this opportunity. The most powerful learning invariably takes place beyond the traditional classroom. The hottest classroom on earth concept epitomizes what we are about at Avocet House and fits perfectly with our vision of ‘Care and Education Without Limits’. ”
Robbie acknowledges that it is an expedition that will test him to his physical and emotional limits and the hard work is just beginning. Apart from ensuring he’s in good physical shape he is expected to show initiative and raise at least £2,000 between now and July to fund his part on the trip. Anything extra that he manages to raise will go to the ‘Engage In Their Future’ charity.
An assessment of Specialist Education Services took place in September 2011, against the seven LILAC standards.
The key purpose of LILAC is to draw upon the experiences and expertise of care-experienced young people to improve the policy and practice of agencies in how they involve and consult with children in Care and Care Leavers. It does this by using a framework of quality standards for involvement which has been developed by care-experienced young people. Young people from Care are trained to assess the performance of agencies against the LILAC standards.
The LILAC standards are based on the well-known ‘Hear By Right’ approach to participation but they have been developed to closely reflect the nature of the care system. They have been developed by care-experienced young people to reflect what is important to them. Each standard is backed by a number of criteria to ensure a robust methodology that focuses on quality over processes. (Website: www.lilacanv.org)
Quotes from the report:
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The LILAC assessment team had not encountered a service use as SES that provided such a large number of services for young people and the number of good practices already in places that the team found it to be outstanding as an independent organisation providing specialised education and residential care throughout Norfolk and the wider UK.
LILAC Assessors wanted to acknowledge and commend the “No limit approach” ‘in place at AVOCET House for supporting young people’s achievement and the genuine focus of the staff team in supporting the young people in place and the continuous learning ethos throughout the entire service. LILAC Assessors felt that this sort of ‘placement/home’ offering both emotional and practical support can be invaluable for young people and for some young people this was the first time they have been empowered in making decisions about what happens to them. None of them had experienced this service in their own Local Authorities but felt it would have been extremely useful.
Messages from LILAC Assessors:
They are doing great work with the young people, I think most of the young people are happy and I wish for more young people to have that kind of opportunity and their work is outstanding really.
This home would be ideal for some of the new young people I know.
All the staff at SES really care about the young people and want to do the best for the young people they look after and really want to make their lives better
Messages from LILAC Assessors:
For six weeks between 20th Feb and the end of March all the boys at Avocet House took part in an exciting and innovative theme that ran across every evening in the house. The idea stemmed from members of the care team looking creatively at how an aspirational target within our Development Plan could be translated into a powerful, fun, reality.
Within the development plan the aspiration was:
“Through raising expectations of manners, courtesy and dress, for all children to be the epitome of smartness, cleanliness and high personal standards in respect of appearance, personal care and behaviour.”
A six week programme involved staff dressed as tooth fairies, visitors from the armed forces to inspect personal standards, pamper evenings including pedicures, manicures and facials, elocution lesson’s, visits from the ‘language police’, spring cleaning the house to the sound of Madness “Our House” and much more. The highlight, however, was in the final week where the boys took their very best learning and decorum to join an established Ballroom dancing club for the evening. Each boy was partnered by a girl who played a key role in teaching the boys to dance. So successful was this that some of the boys are continuing to attend on a weekly basis.
The spoof heading for the programme was “Chavs to Chaps”.
Here are just some of the comments about it.
What a lovely, well-mannered group of boys. Robbie and Connor particularly impressed me with the effort they had made, in their dress, their bedrooms, and their social skills. Robbie is an impressive young man, with a good attitude. Norman listened well, demonstrated the right attention to detail, and followed instructions, which were a credit to him. Six very well groomed and polite young gents. It was a pleasure to take part in their Inspection evening, very kind of James to ask if I would like to stay for tea, and extremely difficult to choose a winner, as they were ALL WINNERS!!
Staff View: Rachel
I have to say that the Chavs to Chaps idea is probably the best, most creative idea we have tried.
The fact that the whole community has been involved was genius and really helped to pull it off. It has been a lot of fun to be part of. Overall, you can see the difference in how the boys are interacting with each other and showing more respect and consideration for others and at times they really feel and act like a community too. Excellent work!!
Student’s View:
I enjoyed everything about “Chavs to Chaps”. I found it hard at first but once I was more comfortable with it, I enjoyed it all. My highlights were the Ballroom dancing, The Officers Mess inspection Evening, and the Grand Finale meal – seeing Jon in his Tuxedo being our Waiter! I feel more positive, grown-up, and well mannered. Not just at Avocet House but in general. I would like to continue Ballroom dancing!!!
On the 16th of April Avocet House was awarded its Team Teach Gold Status Accreditation for the second time. The Gold Award is a recognition of excellence for positive ways of managing behaviour reflected in a holistic approach within a positive environment. Pictured below is George Matthews of Team Teach presenting the award to a selected group of the Avocet House Community.
