Activities at Ashlar House Care Home
Activities are an integral part of life at our care home. We want to ensure that the people we support have as much fun as possible during their time with us, so it’s important that our activities programme is created with the interests of residents in mind. Our skilled Activities Coordinators bring a certain uniqueness to the home that can’t be found anywhere else, and which is reflected in the activities they organise.
Rita Green
As the Community Engagement Lead and Lifestyle Coordinator, I will be spending time with each resident and their loved ones to build a detailed picture of each individual, so that each person’s stay with us is as meaningful as possible. Although I have been working within this field for many years, thanks to the uniqueness of each resident, I am always enjoying new experiences in my role. My goal is to create an activities programme that caters to the capabilities of residents, including, but not limited to, individual and group activity.
I've spent the past few years forging strong relationships within the community and developing a pool of talented individuals that can support our in-house team to bring out the best in those we care for.
As we never stop growing and changing, it is important that we maintain an up-to-date Getting To Know Me booklet. With your help, the activities scheduled for your loved ones will be as relevant and enjoyable as possible.
I’m very much looking forward to working with all of you.
Read our brochure 'Life-enriching activities' for more information about life in our care homes.
Read our brochure
Activities and Events Partnerships
As part of our bespoke life-enrichment programmes, we host a number of live virtual events in the home on a regular basis through a number of partnerships with places of interest and world class performance companies
Life at Ashlar House Care Home
Puppy Therapy
A truly fantastic day at Ashlar House because we had puppies visiting!
The incredible team from Performing Pets have been visiting Ashlar House today with a whole pack of puppies! As part of our activities program we have regular animal therapy sessions; today's session with no less than six miniature dachshund puppies was a highlight that residents and staff will remember for a long time.
The adorable little pups have everyone in the home grinning from ear to ear. No one has been able to resist their gorgeous eyes and floppy ears. This is the sort of therapy that works for everyone and brightens up everyone's day.
High Tea With The Mayor
On Friday the Mayor of Epping, Michael Wright, visited one of our newest residents Joan, joining her for a High Tea.
When Joan moved into Ashlar House she mentioned that one of her great wishes was to enjoy a High Tea with a VIP, so our Activities Coordinator Rita sprang into action and arranged just that!
The original plan had been for Joan to meet the Mayor at Ashlyns Cafe which is close to Ashlar House. Unfortunately, Joan was feeling a little too tired and instead the wonderful team from Ashlyns provided the delicious High Tea to takeaway, allowing Joan and the Mayor to make the most of our recently refurbished lounge.
Joan, the Mayor and his wife spoke at length about family matters, the advance of technology and Joan's impressive memorial plaque collection. Joan is honoured to be attending Epping Remembrance services as a guest of the Mayor in a couple of weeks.
Creative Mojo Visit
This week we gave a big warm welcome to Claire Stallan from creativemojo.co.uk, who presented a selection of Halloween inspired crafts to our residents at Ashlar House.
Creative Mojo provide all-inclusive craft experiences for the elderly and also specialise in working with people with dementia. They never run out of interesting ideas for our residents to enjoy. The Ashlar House team were very focused and showed off their creative side in an afternoon full of fun.
Ace Gardening
ACE Activities offer a full range of activity and training programmes for adults and we are proud to be partnered with them.
One of the activities provided is Ace Gardening, based at Grange Farm in Chigwell. The Ace Gardeners donated some of the produce to St John's church during Epping's Harvest Festival. The vicar of St John's, Olivia Coote was delighted to receive the hand-grown produce and it was agreed that it would be a lovely idea to donate the vegetables to us.
After collecting the organically grown winter vegetables, our residents across the home got into prepping them to assist our Head Chef, Ariel who will be making vegetable risotto.
This session was a wonderful social activity that evoked memories of cooking for large family gatherings. Winter is nearly here and what better way to keep warm than having home cooked food fresh from Ashlar’s kitchen?
Virtual Cruise Adventure
Staff and residents at Ashlar House were treated to a virtual cruise and interactive cookery demo taking in some mocktails, exotic dishes and mystery destinations courtesy of chef, Paul Hawkins, and Lisa Richards from Unilever’s Away From Home team which supports the care sector.
Chef Paul whipped up some tasty treats in a live, interactive cookery demo. Much to residents’ delight, Ashlar's head chef Ariel had prepared the same recipes so that residents could try all the dishes. As they pulled into each port on the cruise, residents were given clues to identify where they were visiting and then Paul created a typical dish from that country for everyone to taste.
Residents started off in Hamburg where they sampled Labskaus, a hearty dish of mashed potatoes, corned beef and beetroot served with a fried egg and pickles. Next it was off to Rotterdam to try delicious Bittenballen or crispy Dutch Meatballs. Finally the residents docked in Zeebrugge where they tasted Mattentaart, a traditional sweet puff pastry almond-flavoured tart.
Paul said “It was an absolute pleasure to be able to prepare these dishes for the Barchester residents and even more so because they got to taste them, despite my not being able to be there in person. Thanks to all the chefs in Barchester homes across the country who supported me to deliver this really lovely activity.”
Getting Halloween Ready
We have been getting Halloween ready at Ashlar House this week. From designing Halloween decorations, pumpkin carving, flower arranging and spooky costumes we have been getting in the festive mood.
To spread the festive cheer we have been delivering Halloween-themed doughnuts to the wonderful refurbishment team from Wren. The changes they are making to our home look fantastic! They are working very hard to complete the whole refurbishment before Christmas so that the residents can enjoy Christmas in a brand new beautiful environment.
Upcoming events
Countdown to Christmas
Take a look at all of the wonderful festive events and activities throughout December. Please feel free to join our celebrations. Contacts us for more information.
