Celebrating life at Barchester

Residents felt very loved upon receipt of cards and thoughtfulness from the children from WAVE ( We all Value Each Other,the  after school club in Mengham.

We enjoy a lovely relationship with this organisation as well as being loved and supported by our Community!

We share Intergenerational games events with them monthly and fun. laughter and shared enjoyment is part of the cake and coffee experience!

We warmly welcomed Andrew and Ian from the Yorkshire Hearing Clinic on Tuesday 17th February for a special community ear wax and ear health clinic, offering free ear wax checks to visiting members from the local community and were joined by a representative from Boroughbridge Chiropody. 

A perfect day with our first mini-bus excursion of 2026. Off to Watershed Mill in Settle we went. A little look around the shop to start with, then went to the café for a cup of tea and an amazing, huge scone with jam and cream. They were amazing and went down perfectly! To finish off, we had another look around the shop, had a good talk with lots of people before coming home. A wonderful first trip and so many more to come. 

Going out on the mini-bus signifies a vital, often transformative, break from routines and boosts mental and physical health for everyone.

On National Puzzle Day, we found lots of interesting puzzles in all sorts of formats and some residents really enjoyed getting stuck in and solving puzzles.

The puzzles are not just for one day but always available for anyone who enjoys a challenge. It can be great to pursue a hobby or just try something completely new.    

A lovely gathering for our new Dementia café morning and wonderful having Nicola from Dementia Forward with us. We had a good talk and our Dementia Café will be growing every month.

We also had to introduce our new amazing Life Size Touch Activity Table! Everyone was amazed and so grateful for the magic effect it would have on everyone here at The Dales. Being able to take it to every room and engage all our residents with more than you could imagine, it will be giving more than happiness!    

Skittles is back bigger, stronger and more popular than ever. Everyone’s favourite Friday fun day has returned with the help of our volunteer, Jonathon.

It is always wonderful to see so many smiling faces ready to play and amazing to see the residents so eager to get rolling again – and they didn’t disappoint! Skittles is not only great fun, but it also plays an important role in supporting hand-eye coordination, balance and gentle movement. Residents enjoyed aiming for the pins, cheering each other on and sharing plenty of laughter along the way.

The friendly competition and social interaction makes the sessions just as beneficial to mental wellbeing as it is for physical wellbeing. It’s fantastic to see how activities such as skittles club help the residents stay active, engaged and connected. We are looking forward to many more weeks of strikes, smiles and steady improvement.        

Staff and residents of Barchester’s Sherwood court care home, in Preston, Fulwood, had a fantastic time indulging in their own home-made Chinese food. 

Gary (our chef) & Jim (our care assistant) teamed together in order to give our residents a treat for Chinese new year in which is the year of the horse, they tucked into chicken wings, dumplings, egg fried rice, salt and pepper chips and so much more. It’s a pleasure for our team to come together for our residents to feel their most fulfilment.       

Fitness instructor, Mark, visited Highfield again to host an armchair fitness class for our residents. He focused on training their flexibility, hand-eye coordination and reflexes in a safe and accessible way, by getting them involved physically and mentally with fun and interactive mini-games.

Sessions like this are so valuable for our residents, and engaging their minds and bodies is a great way to support their physical and mental wellbeing. Even something as simple as Mark's football mini-game was a fantastic way for our residents to enjoy some exercise, in a safe way that allows them to develop their coordination, movement and flexibility.     

We welcomed visitors from Tadcaster and Selby at our weekly Chatty Café, which we host in partnership with the Chatty Cafe Scheme UK. This was a fantastic opportunity for visitors from the local area to stop by, enjoy a cup of tea and some cake, and have a chat with our team and residents. Michael and Phillip enjoyed having a chat with our visitors and even made a new friend after meeting David! 

The Chatty Cafe Scheme UK is a leading non-profit social enterprise created to tackle loneliness in local communities. To achieve this, the scheme creates safe and welcoming environments where people can visit and meet new people for a friendly chat. This is open to everyone. However, it is particularly valuable to elderly people who may not have the opportunity to meet many new people and have a friendly chat when they live at home.