Activities at Harton Grange Care Home
We understand that the people we support have passions and interests that could be difficult to pursue after moving into a care home – but that doesn’t mean we don’t encourage them to try! Some hobbies can define a person, so our Activities Coordinators are dedicated to ensuring that everyone we support is able to do what makes them happy to the best of their abilities. Social events are organised with individual tastes in mind and with the idea that residents have the opportunity to try new and exciting things.
Marius Sidoriuc
Hi, my name is Marius, I am the activities coordinator here at Harton Grange. I joined Barchester's family in 2021, as I found their approach and standards on dementia very interesting. Since early 2022 I work for Barchester as both activities coordinator and care assistant. In 2018, I started my journey in health and social care as a care assistant and very soon after, I completed courses on dementia and activities (NAPA, level 2) and I worked as both activities coordinator and care assistant in Kent. I'm also an apprentice in health and social care. I've met some amazing people that have guided my understanding of dementia.
The most important thing for me is to see our residents achieving a meaningful raison d'etre, living as they like and to benefit from a range of activities starting from Namaste to reminiscing and spiritual needs (such as praying or listening to hymns), art and craft, armchair exercises, music therapy or finger nail pamper sessions.
I like to acknowledge that I am working as a part of a whole team, including the fantastic management, hospitality and maintenance departments, promoting a person centred approach for each resident and we are glad to know each persons preferences and abilities in order to plan how the day will look with them. One way we are able to do this is through our residents' and family' meetings where we try to let everyone have their say about the way they want to live and the activities they take part in.
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 Harton Grange Care Home
Residents enjoy sing-a-long
At Harton Grange we love to dance and sing and be merry we had an amazing entertainer in called Dave Brewis who took us through an lovely journey through music, great singalongs and dance music and of course some Neil Diamond…all arms up for sweet caroline…then our lovely Chef brought out an amazing buffet, the weather stayed fine what a lovely day.
Tinkling the ivories
At Harton Grange we encourage our residents to continue with their interests, hobbies, past and present. Resident, Florence had an amazing career as a teacher who had an important impact on many lives, one of her passions has been playing the piano and we were delighted to hear her tinkling the ivories and we even laughed when we spotted a few notes from 'Les Dawson'. Everyone enjoyed the performance and that they were able to listen to her amazing musical gift.
Colourful art display
At Harton Grange we have been busy collaborating with Equal Arts and local gardener and artist, Jill who has very kindly been creating art for the homes garden including a wind chime made out of twigs, branches which our residents painted before Jill carefully drilled and strung together before being displayed in the garden. It looks very aboriginal and is a great talking piece
A whale of a time!
We took a wonderful virtual trip to Iceland and visited the SEA LIFE Trust Beluga Whale Sanctuary to have an inside look into the daily care of their two resident beluga whales: Little White and Little Grey.
Our residents were introduced to the history of the Beluga Whale Sanctuary and learnt more about its mission to provide a more natural home for belugas in human care with a first-hand look at how the dedicated team are not only caring for the whales, but preparing for their future in the sea sanctuary!
It was an enjoyable event for everyone, learning more about the amazing beluga whales and how they are cared for at the sanctuary.
Snap happy as we celebrate World Photography Day
To celebrate World Photography Day, we were delighted to hear from Professional Photographer, Damian Bailey who spent some time guiding us through different photography tips and techniques.
We all had a wonderful afternoon and are excited to be taking part in the #BaileyBarchester competition where we look forward to putting all the tips and ideas learnt during the talk into practice.
Thank you, Damian Bailey Photography.
English National Ballet dance workshop
We celebrated International Youth Day virtually with English National Ballet’s youth dance company, ENBYouthCo and their Creative Director, Richard Bermange.
We had the opportunity to watch A Comedy in Long-shot, participate in a chair-based creative dance workshop and observe an open rehearsal where Richard and the young dancers created a performance inspired by our childhood memories.
They took part and we didn’t realise Ballet was so meaningful, with all the different movements, and afterwards spoke of this and created their own movements and what it had meant to them.
It was a wonderful experience, enjoyed by all.
