Celebrating life at Barchester

Rachel our Home Services Advisor plays an essential role in delivering community events, encouraging residents to take part helping to create a vibrant and inclusive home for everyone to enjoy. Thanks to her enthusiasm and commitment, Bere Grove continues to be a wonderful place for everyone.

The residents and staff transformed a lounge into a mini-farm as they were treated to a visit from Michelle’s Petting Party with a whole host of furry friends who came to say a festive hello. It was an afternoon of pure, unadulterated joy. Residents and staff’s faces lit up as they took turns in stroking and cuddling the animals.

Activities Co-ordinator, Tina said: “The residents and staff thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon, it was not just about fun; it was a real treat for the resident’s well-being. The little festive touches to the animals was so adorable it certainly made all of us smile. It was also great as Michelle was able to take the lovely animals and visit residents in the comfort of their rooms so that no one missed out on the fun. Michelle’s Petting Party certainly brought the barnyard to Elm Bank, but more importantly, she brought a whole host of happiness, we cannot wait to have Michelle back to visit us again.”

General Manager Larisa Bledea said: “It was so lovely to see all the joy the animals created for the residents and staff, and the lovely festive touches were simply brilliant, we cannot thank Michelle enough for the joy she created.”
 

The residents were recently wrapped with joy and warmth as they celebrated World Children’s Day with a memorable and compassionate visit from the children of St Thomas More Catholic Primary School.

The wonderful intergenerational gathering in the morning at the home was a resounding success, fostering beautiful connections between the young and old. The morning was filled with the children singing and reading to the residents. The children had dedicated their time in coming over and spending time sharing their favourite books and singing to the residents.

Tina, Activities Co-ordinator said, “It was a wonderful morning for this beautiful activity and the children bought such immense delight to the residents. The residents also got to enjoy listening to the children singing and reading their favourite books.”

General Manager Larisa Bledea said: “It was so lovely to see the children here, our residents are always looking forward to the children coming over and today was as wonderful as every other time they have been over to see us. To have these links with local schools is very important to us all here at the home”
Our varied life enrichment programme keeps residents active, and provides a daily choice of engaging physical, mental and spiritual activities tailored to residents’ interests and abilities".

 

With the team’s hard work throughout the year in mind, the Christmas Light Switch-On was organised as a thank you from both residents and management to the dedicated staff and their families. 

Residents enjoyed watching the team member’s children excitedly receive their gifts from Santa and his special “reindeer”, a miniature pony. One resident shared, “This is so magical, I could watch this all day. There’s nothing like seeing the kids so excited to see Santa.”

The Christmas lights switch-on marks the beginning of the many festive activities and events planned in the coming weeks.

The Shepton Mallet Ukulele Group filled Crandon Springs on Saturday afternoon with a jam-packed audience of residents, families, friends and staff, and they did not disappoint!

Their festive concert had everyone singing, swaying, clapping and shaking percussion instruments, with lots of fun all round. And when `Sweet Caroline` kicked in, well it really was “so good, so good!”

Meg, General Manager at Crandon Springs, said: “What a great time we had! The Ukulele concert was really popular, so we all squeezed in and sang along. Many thanks to this fantastic and fun group for entertaining us so enthusiastically, and bringing the music and Christmas cheer to our home once again.”

Harry was delighted to take part in making Christmas cards to raise money for our residents fund.

He carefully chose the colours for the baubles himself and painted them very carefully using a brush and bright paints.

Harry gravitated toward vivid, cheerful colours, and the result was a wonderfully colourful watercolour painting.

Throughout the activity, Harry showed great creativity, attention to detail, and impressive dexterity. It was a joy to see how confidently and enthusiastically he expressed his ideas. We’re excited to share this lovely little project as an example of his artistic skills.

Harry has agreed to continue coming to the art club and enjoy his new passion for painting. Learning new skills is something we take a great deal of pride in here at Lethen Park. 

Our resident, Patricia, has been very keen to receive a visit from the local fire brigade for her birthday. This is a service that Particia has always admired and attended charity fund-raising events for them. We would like Patricia to enjoy a dream moment at Lethen Park and feel very special.

The life enrichment team contacted the fire team at Torry fire service and invited them along for a meet and greet event with Pat. 

Patricia was delighted with this event. She was so happy that it was infectious to the whole home. Everyone was smiling. Pat enjoyed the company of three service officers from the fire station, was taken to the fire truck and also received a free hat. Pat was so very delighted to have this moment and thanked all the staff involved in making this dream moment come true.  

By staff providing a life-enrichment dream come true, we had a direct, positive impact on her health and wellbeing. 

Our residents had a wonderful time last night at the Alnwick Gardens Winter Light Show. The gardens were transformed into a sparkling winter wonderland.

We wandered through twinkling tunnels, sparkly forests, and magical light displays that made everyone feel like they’d stepped straight into a winter fairy tale.  

We are lucky enough to have a wonderful lady called Clare from Kiddley Dive, visit us every two months. Clare’s passion is working with the elderly community, and it certainly shines through when she visits.

Clare has been coming to Winchester House for about a year now, and she brings so much joy and happiness to our residents. She has got to know them all through the past year and all their names, and also what exercises they like to do and  what music they enjoy listening to. Clare certainly livens up the room as soon as she walks in, not just that, our residents smile with joy when they see her.

As we have just had our last session with Clare until the new year, we made it a very lively session, with lots of dancing and singing. All the residents, staff and families had a fantastic morning.