Activities at Newlands 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.
Activities within our home are tailored around the requests of residents. Our Activities Coordinator holds regular activity meetings to seek new thoughts and ideas. The home is committed to offering a varied range of activities for all residents, from hand and nail care to gardening for those who have green fingers. We carry out reminiscence activities, including planned entertainment days, bringing the seaside into the home or dance hall meetings.
We hold strong links with the community, especially schools and local children's sports teams, who visit the home to provide entertainment and engagement with residents. We also maintain relationships with the church to ensure that residents’ spiritual beliefs are met. Externally, we have our own minibus, and outings are planned and carried out, again tailored to residents’ preferences, whether it be shopping, visits to the local pub, tea and coffee afternoons, or a scenic day out in the lakes and lovely countryside that surrounds us. However, the fun does not stop at the residents we care for, but we also hold events to involve family and the wider community.
Hlabekile Nyoni (Nayoni)
Hlabekile Nyoni known by everyone as "Nayoni" is the Activities Co-Ordinator at Newlands Care Centre as of December 2023. Hlabekile joined the Barchester team in August 2023 on a part time basis then later became fulltime at the end of December 2023.
"Nayoni" says, ‘ I love sharing my ideas and knowledge to make residents life at Newlands enjoyable and memorable for them and their families. Each day is a different day and each resident is different therefore I always put that into consideration when coming up with activities that can suit each individual. I am so glad to work with a great team throughout the home, from housekeeping, clinical, care, kitchen, maintenance, admin and managers all play a pivotal role in my work. With my strong artistic background I find it easier to come up with creative ideas. I love my job here at Newlands.
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 Newlands Care Home
Flower Arrangement
Our ladies enjoying a chat over flower arrangement. They all said they were good in flower arrangement, so this was more of a "show off" and bragging rights kind of chat. Margaret said "This is one of my favourite things to do, I love this." At the end of the day all the vases looked amazing and were placed around the home for everyone to see. The ladies were happy to see their work and getting compliments from everyone.
Summer Fete
Staff, residents, relatives and the local community came together at Newlands Care Centre to enjoy a Summer Fete. There was a variety of activities throughout the day, including pet therapy, a raffle draw, live entertainment, games, a cake sale and craft stalls, which were enjoyed by everyone who came to the event. It was great to see the manager Kim Whelan have wet sponges thrown at her just to raise funds for the residents.
Alan gets a surprise
When Alan told us that his son is a performer and he has never heard him sing. We knew what we had to do. We contacted his son. It was going to be a surprise. We got residents together in our lovely garden and got his son to set up. When the music started Alan gave us a huge smile and said " I know that voice, that's my son". He could not stop smiling and singing along. He later told us that this really made his day. Everyone had a wonderful time and the weather didn’t disappoint at all.
D DAY
D - Day commemorations where underway at Newlands Care Centre. Residents enjoyed some time together reminiscing on where they were or how old they were when it all took place. There was a lot of dancing and singing and storytelling. The mood was great as they was a lot of lessons learnt.
Staff also adorned themselves with D day/war inspired outfits. Our Chef, Alan Ramsey made some delicious treats to go with the event of the day.
Carers Week
We are celebrating Carers Week this week at Newlands Care Centre for all our amazing carers that work so hard in our home and are a testament to our core values. Our care team work passionately to look after our residents on a daily basis and we are super proud of them all and their commitment and dedication to not only our residents but also their relatives. Our carers have been presented with chocolate hampers full of treats to enjoy as a thank you for all their efforts. We aren't just a care home.....we are a family!
Get Barchester moving
Staff and residents have been busy taking part in exercise like yoga, Zumba, football, a walk in the garden and a party. For some it has been the battle of the fittest. The home had organised activities throughout the week to raise funds for Barchester’s Charitable Foundation. Residents and staff had so much while getting fit.
