Activities at Newington Court Care Home
Our Activities Coordinator here at Newington Court constantly strives to mentally and physically stimulate those we support in our home. We have our own minibus enabling residents to go shopping, to the local garden centre, out for fish and chips, and for boat trips in the summer. We also have regular visits from the PAT dog, musicians and entertainers. We hold cheese and wine evenings for residents and their families and our residents attend services at the local school for Remembrance Day and Christmas. The junior school also come in and sing for our residents at Christmas. The residents also attended a Christmas Party held at a local Grammar School hosted by the students.
Jo English
I joined Newington Court in September 2021. After working as a Carer in September 2022 I became the Lead Activities Co-coordinator. It is a pleasure to care for our residents and make sure that their needs are met to the highest standards. Every day is different but it is a very rewarding job and gives a great sense of satisfaction. I am looking forward to ensuring that our residents are getting an enriched lifestyle and by getting to know them on a one-to-one basis making sure that we cater to everyone’s needs and interests.
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 Newington Court Care Home
Wreath masterclass
Barchester homes across the country were joined by BloominHaus Master Florists to provide residents and staff alike the opportunity to create their own wreath masterpieces. The event was delivered live over Zoom and a competition ensued to deem the most creative wreath. At Newington Court we scaled down our wreaths to make pretty centrepieces for our Christmas dining tables.
Christmas tree
Residents enjoyed decorating the Christmas tree with pretty baubles and tinsel. They also enjoyed making Christmas cards and decorations for their home. We held a competition for relatives for the ‘Best Dressed Tree’ and the residents judged each one. The winner won a bottle of Baileys!
Cinderella
Residents were delighted with the pantomime Cinderella by the company Tickled Pink! Cries of “It’s behind you!” and “Oh! No it isn’t” rang through the home. Staff also put on a Christmas Show to showcase their talents! We had singers, dancers, poetry and magic! Of course, residents had to join in the fun by wearing their funny Christmas hats!
Remembrance Services
Barchester hosted a virtual event via zoom, for all their care homes, in which the English National Ballet performed a moving tribute, we practised our plie’s and sang fitting songs for the occasion with them. Later a representative from St Mary’s Church came to the home to provide a Remembrance Service for us. We read poems and prayers and sang a selection of hymns. We shared what Remembrance means to us, it was a very moving service.
Halloween Party
We are aware that some people find Halloween a frightening time so we centred our party mostly around autumn. We dressed in black and orange, our Activities Coordinator dressed up as a scarecrow and we had healthy party snacks like pumpkin oranges, spider web rice cakes, ghostly bananas and ghostly strawberries. We played party games and danced away to the music for the afternoon. Much fun was had by all.
Autumn Flower Arranging
We spent the morning scooping out the seeds from the pumpkins and carving a few for a display around our fireplace. In the afternoon we filled the hollow pumpkins with oasis and arranged a beautiful flower display for our table centrepieces.
