Activities at Bluebell Park Care Home
Here at Bluebell Park our aim is to enrich the lives of our residents, through group, and individual activities.
We have a wide range of activities designed to mentally, and physically stimulate the people we care for, including regular trips out in the mini bus, and taking part in the community led events that happen in the village we live in. We hold monthly resident meetings so our planning reflects their wishes, and requests, for example we now hold a regular bingo club (which residents families love to attend) and a bowling afternoon which the gentlemen here particularly enjoy. Entertainers and musicians regularly come into the home and families and friends are always welcome to attend too.
Activities are one of the most important aspects of our care home, and we strive to have a full range on offer. Our team here at Bluebell are dedicated to ensuring our residents enjoy, and get as much out of our entertainment as possible. It is without a doubt our mission is to make sure that life at Bluebell is active, fun, and most of all happy.
Leanne Lowe
Hello. My name is Leanne Lowe and I am the Activity Coordinator for Bluebell Park.
I have worked for Barchester for 6 years as a Carer and I have now made the move to Activities.
During my time here I have built lovely friendships and knowledge of our residents . I aim to offer a range of varied and tailored activities and group sessions that are meaningful to each of our residents. I am thrilled to be supporting the whole team at Bluebell Park in delivering fun, engaging and interesting activities for our residents. We also have a minibus which is used weekly to take residents out to cafes, local beauty spots and day trips.
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 Bluebell Park Care Home
Valentine's Day Celebrations!
Our salon was a hub of relaxation today, with residents enjoying our foot spas and having a much needed pamper with music and reminiscing about how they celebrated Valentine’s Day. Our residents told stories of surprise bunches of flowers, expensive chocolates and dining out. Many beautiful memories were shared, and our residents said the morning was lovely to be a part of.
This was followed by a delicious lunch provided by our very talented kitchen team. In the afternoon, our residents gathered together in one of the lounges to enjoy a glass of prosecco, chocolates and homemade cupcakes whilst creating some beautiful flower arrangements to display around the home. The flowers got us talking about the start of spring and what it brings for the year ahead.
Bollywood Experience
Today at Bluebell Park we got together to experience Bollywood. Our fantastic kitchen team made a delicious Indian theme lunch menu for residents, staff and visitors which was very flavourful and smelt amazing throughout the home.
After lunch we gathered in the dining room to dance the afternoon away, we listened to a variety of music and when we couldn’t dance anymore we sat down to enjoyed some lovely Indian snacks such as vegetable samosas and Indian sweet treats.
The day was loved by so many with one resident saying “it’s been a lovely experience”. Our visitors and staff loved getting involved singing and dancing with everyone.
Chinese New Year and National Puzzle Day
To celebrate Chinese New Year and National Puzzle day, the residents from Bluebell Park welcomed the ladies from the Chellaston WI into the home.
We gathered a variety of puzzles for the residents to do and a separate table for Chinese New Year crafts. The ladies from the WI helped our residents to make concertina dragons that were vibrant in colour to display around our home. We discussed which animal we all represented for the Chinese New Year and read some interesting facts.
The puzzle table was full of talking and laughter, with our residents and volunteers all enjoying tea and biscuits while they were puzzling.
Elvis' Birthday!
Every year around this time, the dulcet tones of Elvis Presley start to emerge from residents’ rooms as their ears prick up to hear Elvis’s songs during staff preparations for his birthday celebrations.
“Blue Christmas”, “Can’t Help Falling in Love”, “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” and “If Every Day Was Like Christmas” are just a few Elvis Christmas songs that we cherish and love to celebrate. Elvis was an all-round entertainer, so not only did we celebrate listening to his fantastic songs, but we sat and enjoyed his movies as well.
We had microphones and guitars as props and everyone got into the swing of things. There seemed to be magic in the air when Elvis sings and, as you can see, we all joined in and the air was full of excitement and harmonious tunes. After all the songs were sung, we sat and watched one of Elvis’s many movies with our afternoon tea.
Bits and Bobs
We had such an exciting Friday morning when Bluebell Park invited a very interesting and infectiously inspiring person by the name of Rob Neil into our home in January. Rob is the Historian of Spondon Historical Society, which was formed by a group of friends in 1982 and has, over the past years, collected a large and fascinating amount of old photographs, documents, maps and other items which, together, tell the story of Spondon Village and the surrounding areas of Derby through the years.
Many of our residents used to live in the local and surrounding villages and mention very fondly about places they have been and schools they went to and also buildings such as picture halls and dance clubs. Where they met their husband or wife and the hospitals where they gave birth to their children. All these places have a special memory for them.
The expressions and looks on our residents’ faces mean so much to their friends and families. The excitement and interest when they try and work out what the item used to be used for and the sudden realisation that they had one of these items many, many years ago. This is when the memories come flooding back, and they want to tell you so desperately they had one of these ancient objects and what they used it for.
W.I. Meeting
Special things happen when we invite the W.I. to Bluebell Park. As you can see, it was a bright and beautiful day and everyone was in good spirits. The tea and coffee were flowing and all sorts of home bakes were available.
From colouring pictures using pencils, paint or wax crayons to getting the perfect finish required to produce beautiful artistic pictures to display in our private rooms. We also have an abundance of stickers which are the favourites of some of our ladies.
The W.I may be here at Bluebell Park to create masterpieces, but we also love to chat and make new friends when new faces appear. Our long-standing relationship with the W.I. is a comforting feeling for our residents, as these ladies have an abundance of time and experience to share with us and always a comfy shoulder to lean on. Learning what is happening in the village and at church is always an interesting time for our Bluebell Park residents.
