Activities at Leonard Lodge Care Home
Our teams are trained to enrich the lives of residents through stimulating the mind, body and soul, and taking the time to learn about each person to ensure everyone receives support that adds enrichment to their life.
Our activities team offer a wide range of social events, from the very popular Friday morning bingo, to gentle exercise sessions, skittles, regular animal visits and arts & crafts sessions. We are fortunate to have a team of volunteers who stop by weekly to provide additional support, allowing residents the opportunity for one-to-one sessions. These sessions could include anything, even something as simple as playing a game of Scrabble or just having a cup of tea and a chat. We believe that it is essential to support people in such a way that they are able to continue to live full and happy lives doing the things that they enjoy.
Lynn Amiri
My name is Lynn and I lead the Activities Team here at Leonard Lodge.
Since working at Leonard Lodge I have dedicated myself to ensuring that each of our residents can continue to partake in the hobbies that they have enjoyed for years. It is important that all of the residents here have access to life enriching, fun and social activities.
The whole home supports my team and I to organise activities, events and entertainment tailored to every residents preferences, abilities and needs. Each year we have a fantastically full calendar, and we look forward to the future when we can invite the families of residents to join us in the home again.
I am married with two children and two rather annoying rescue cats. I lived in Italy for a number of years and love all Italian food, especially when somebody else cooks it for me! I love to read, especially crime novels. I am a regular theatre goer with a passion for musicals. I like to sing and dance (albeit badly!).
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 Leonard Lodge Care Home
Brentwood School Visit
Today, we had the absolute pleasure of enjoying a truly magical Christmas choral concert, beautifully performed by the talented students of Brentwood School.
Their angelic voices filled the hall with cherished melodies of our favourite Christmas hymns, creating a very festive atmosphere.
As if that wasn’t enough, we were treated to a tasty afternoon tea, making the experience even more special. It was a heart-warming and memorable afternoon, perfectly continuing our festive celebrations here at Leonard Lodge.
Thank you to Brentwood School for sharing your wonderful gift of music with us again!
All Saints School
We enjoyed a lovely visit from year 3 Beech Class from All Saints Church School.
The children started by singing in the corridor for the residents in their rooms.
They moved onto the dining room where they did some readings from the Bible and sang some more Christmas carols.
The children then chatted to the residents, shared their Christmas cards and tree decorations and then visited some residents in rooms.
The children were a delight and we were thrilled by their visit.
Thanks to Rev Lisa, the teachers and teaching assistants who made the visit possible.
History Talk
Residents were pleased to welcome Geoff Rudd from Brentwood Museum to Leonard Lodge in Hutton. Geoff who is a volunteer at the museum gave a fascinating talk about the history of Brentwood starting with the origins of the name Brentwood which was Burnt Wood at one point and talked about pilgrims passing through Brentwood on the way to Canterbury.
Some residents have lived in Brentwood for over 50 years and were very interested to hear about the building of the railway station and that there was even an airport at one time. General manager Fiona Crickmore said everybody really enjoyed the talk and this sort of activity is made possible through our close links with the local community.
We hope to visit the museum next year as part of our regular outings programme.
Portrait Competition
We invited local schools to take part in a portrait competition the subject of which would be a grandparent. We were overwhelmed by the number of entries we received and the residents spent hours sorting through the entries. We originally had 3 categories with 3 winners in each one, but it was so hard to make decisions, that we ended up with 18 winners! We welcomed children from Woodlands school Hutton Manor and St Joseph the Worker primary school, together with parents and grandparents. Our residents were thrilled to spend time with the children who were excited to chat about their pictures and show their grandparents their winning entries. We love getting involved with our local communities and building strong relationships with our neighbours.
Performing Pets Visit!
Here at Leonard Lodge, we love having visits from animals, so we're always excited to welcome Bonzo the barn owl back.
The last time we saw her, she was a white fluffy ball of down and now she is a beautiful fully grown barn owl with lots of beautiful feathers!
Bonzo was very relaxed with the residents and enjoyed being stroked by them. Many of the residents had never seen an owl up so close before, so it was so exciting for all to see.
The residents can't wait for the next visit.
Halloween Tree
Our residents here at Leonard Lodge love a trip out, so we decided a visit to our local garden centre would be ideal, especially at this time of year.
The garden centre was certainly full of surprises...first we encountered a group of skeletons talking about Halloween, then we saw a Halloween tree which is certainly an interesting alternative to a Christmas tree!
We then found out that the Christmas decorations had already been put up, in October.
We the retired to the cafe to recover from the sensory overload, enjoying tea, coffee and delicious cake.
We had a fantastic afternoon and we can't wait for the next trip.
