Activities at Arbour Court Care Home

We took a stroll into our gardens to take some beautiful photos using our digital camera. Resident enjoyed getting their best photo of the grounds. 

Later on in the day, we looked back on our memories of a home with our life at Arbour Court and looked through our residents' own photo albums. We all had a wonderful day full of memories.      

On 16th August we hosted our annual summer fair where Arbour Court hosted a face-painting station, Tombola, a gift stall and adopted a bear! We also had 7 other stalls from the local community. 

We are proud to announce that we raised £450 at our fair, which will go towards our residents. 

We spend time unwinding and slowing down through relaxing our minds, bodies and senses in recognition of National Relaxation Day. Our residents enjoyed making lavender bags and lavender bath salt to sell at our summer fair. 

Many residents expressed how much they love the smell of lavender and how relaxed it makes them feel. Others, enjoyed a nice relaxing time in our garden or sit back and watching a film. We discussed all the different ways our staff and residents like to relax.  

Every month Arbour Court celebrates different countries and cultures around the world. In August, we celebrated Yorkshire. Staff and residents thought Yorkshire would be quite fitting as it was national Yorkshire day. We learnt Yorkshire lingo, and drank Yorkshire tea with a slice of Parkin cake. 

In the afternoon, we served lunch with Yorkshire pudding and snaked on Wensleydale cheese and crackers. Throughout the day we learnt about Yorkshire culture and what Yorkshire is famous for. We also spoke about family holidays to destinations such as Scarborough and Filey.   

We celebrated national friendship day by giving, reviving and making friendship bracelets.

Residents enjoyed choosing a variety of bead and patterns to make their friendship bracelets and chose who they would like to receive their handmade bracelet. We all enjoyed feeling and expressing love and friendship.  

Ludy, our senior carer on the Ground Floor, has been crowned Dementia Care Champion for the North Division. Next stop…the nationals! Over 5,250 incredibly high-standard nominations were received this year. 

Ludy will join winners from across the UK at a special awards event in October to celebrate their outstanding achievements and see if they’ve won a national award. Huge congratulations! 

At Arbour Court Care Home we are delighted to announce that we passed a recent Care Quality Commission inspection, maintaining our overall ‘Good’ rating. 

The CQC inspected the home on 2nd, 9th and 22nd April and rated the home as ‘Good’ in all areas of the inspection – safe, effective, caring, responsive, well-led. 

The report stated that people and families spoke highly of how they were treated. One relative commented, “I like how the staff are with us, they create a very friendly atmosphere.” We observed the staff were caring and spoke kindly and respectfully to people. Care plans reflected how people’s privacy and dignity should be promoted and families said this was followed.

To honour self-care day, this morning we focused on sensory and relaxation as we held wellbeing sessions. Residents enjoyed hand massages and had their nails painted, as well as sensory lights to relax. 

Later in the afternoon, we used our new boots memory box to reminisce about the past.

During the day, we had the lovely Clare, who is an ambassador for Tropic Skincare, for our visitors and staff to try out. Clare also offered free hand massages to all.

We celebrated National Ice Cream Day with a homemade Ice Cream Cart that visited residents in their bedrooms or communal areas. 

Our residents have had a great afternoon choosing ingredients to put in their very own ice cream sundaes or cones from vanilla and raspberry pavlova ice-cream, with various toppings such as to 100’s and 1000’s, flakes and wafer and sauces such as chocolate or strawberry sauce.

The finished sundaes were enjoyed with a cup of tea while chatting about their favourite ice creams.

We tumbled down the rabbit hole and into Wonderland for our Mad Hatter’s Tea Party!

Residents were treated to afternoon of fun, laughter, and delicious treats – with plenty of accessories, hats, and a table fit for the Queen of hearts. everyone got into the spirit – and let’s just say, we’ve never seen so many grins as wide as the Cheshire Cat’s!

“It’s always tea time” – and we couldn’t agree more!  

This July we hosted our very own dementia disco with music from the 50s, 60s and 70s– from Elvis to Whiney Houston. Everyone enjoyed dancing and loved getting dressed up for the occasion. 

Everyone had such a good time that we have decided to make this a regular occurrence for all to enjoy.  

Every month Arbour Court celebrates different countries and cultures around the world. In July, we celebrated Spain. We made our own fans, and used them whilst we learnt how to flamenco dance. 

Later on in the day, we made traditional sangria and Rollitos (a Spanish snack consisting of chorizo and cheese). Throughout the day we learnt about Spanish culture, snacks, language and architecture and ended the day with a game of hoopla.  

Arbour Court took part in the Get Barchester Moving initiative to raise money and move minutes for Barchester’s Charitable Foundation. As a home, we gained over 290 hours’ worth of move minutes by having danceathons, sports days, Zumba sessions and armchair tennis for all families, residents and staff to enjoy.

During Barchester get moving week we also celebrated Tour De Barchester. We held an indoor Bike Marathon to see how far we could get as a home. Our indoor bike marathon was open to family, friends, visitors, staff and residents. As a whole, we cycled 410 miles, which equates to cycling from Glasgow to Cornwall. 

To celebrate Father’s Day we are hosting a Father’s Day afternoon tea. We have the fantastic singer Burnie, playing the top hits from 50’s and 60’s. 

We all danced and sang away while enjoying light snacks and drinks such as beers and pork pies. This event brought so much laughter and joy to our residents and enabled them to stay active and keep their minds alive by reminiscing about the songs they were hearing.

There is no event in the social calendar quite as revered as Royal Ascot. After all, it’s reserved for the best; the best in racing, the best in hospitality – and, of course, the best in style.  

There really is nothing quite like enjoying a British summer’s day and here at Arbour Court we are doing it with the most beautiful and amazing ladies and dashing gents having Afternoon Tea on the patio celebrating Ladies Day 2025.

Inspiring ladies and gents, sparkling wit and conversation all served up with fantastic weather, quaffing refreshing Mimosas paired with luscious sweet treats.