CEO’s Blog – 17th March 2023 

‘Thank You!’

Well, if you’ve been following the updates on social media this week, you might just have noticed that almost 100 of our young people have been lucky enough to travel to Disneyland Paris.

A trip that started on Monday ended back at our Hollinwood site late last night, with lots of tired children (and staff!) arriving home after a very long journey.

In truth, the trip started a long time before Monday, and the planning and preparation for something like this was always going to be on a mammoth scale.

There are several more trips like it to come as well…

I wanted to use my blog this week to say ‘thank you’ to the people who made it happen.

Firstly, thank you to our coach drivers for delivering our people safely and soundly to their various destinations. Your capacity to work with us has been massivley appreciated.

Secondly, a huge thank you goes to our hosts, the hotel company in France. They went above and beyond for us on this trip, pulling out all the stops when we needed them most. I have written to them to express my personal gratitude.

To our parents and families, thank you for supporting us and trusting us to deliver some magical memories for your children. As with anything we do, it would be impossible without your support.

To the young people, thank you for representing our Trust with dignity and respect. You have all been a credit to your families, your staff and most importantly, to yourselves.

Last and by no means least, I want to say thank you to the staff who made this happen. On behalf of the children, their families, governors and all of your colleagues – thank you.

This commitment to go above and beyond for the sake of our young people is incredible. Working around the clock to ensure they have the support and comfort they need is a huge undertaking, but you make it look so easy. I can assure everyone out there that this is by no means easy!

The team work, resilience and enthusiasm you have all shown is beyond compare.

We made a promise that we would bring the Disney trips back.

We’ve started to deliver on that promise, and it is mostly down to our incredible staff team.

I hope they’re all getting a good rest today, as the young people are no doubt telling their families about the trip they’ve just been on.

It’s time to rest and recover for our Disney trippers, and then it’s full steam ahead for the June trips.

I can’t wait.

Once again – thank you!

Graham