Activities at North Park Care Home

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. 

We had a lovely time joining V&A Dundee curator, Kirsty Hassard, as she introduced us virtually to the history and design of night clubs and the club culture from the 1960s to present day.

We explored the evolution and development of night clubs around the world, from Italy to America, and closer to home, looked at their importance as cultural venues and designed spaces.

This current exhibition celebrates night clubs at a very important moment, as we all look to a brighter future where everyone can come back together, to dance and to enjoy nights out once again.

We all enjoyed the virtual talk.

We enjoyed a wonderful virtual introduction to the world of robots with V&A Dundee Curator, Kirsty Hassard.

Kirsty talked us through the history of robots and their early beginnings, the presentation traced the fascination of all things wired and wonderful and considered what the future might hold for our relationship with a multitude of mechanical machines.

It was absolutely thrilling to learn what robots can do now and what they might be able to do in the future.

We had a lovely time exploring the amazing gardens of Blenheim Palace through a virtual talk, hosted by the Historian - Antonia Keaney.

We enjoyed a virtual look at how the gardens at Blenheim have developed over the past 300 years - from the formality of Henry Wise through to the ‘natural’ landscape created by Capability Brown and beyond.

Everyone was very impressed by the many jewels hidden within the 150 acres of beautiful gardens.

Staff and residents at North Park care home in Darlington have been celebrating la fête nationale or Bastille Day on July 14, the most important date in the French calendar.  Bastille Day marks the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789, which was a symbol of the monarchy and the freeing of the prisoners held there. 

The home was decorated with French flags and residents took part in French-themed activities throughout the day including a French history session, quirky facts, practicing some French phrases, and having quizzes throughout the day.   Residents enjoyed authentic French cuisine prepared by our head Chef Kyle Aylward as well as feasting on French pastries and other delicious titbits. Residents also enjoyed a French cheese and wine tasting afternoon where staff dressed in berets with strings of onions or garlic around their necks which everyone really enjoyed. 

Lisa Frame General Manager at North Park care home said: “We’ve all had great fun celebrating Bastille Day, the home looks lovely decorated with French flags and we’ve been dancing to French music and tasting French wine and cheeses.  It was lovely to watch videos of previous parades and fireworks on YouTube.”

We were able to virtually dive into the impressive wildlife of Dartmoor Zoo.

We explored its grounds and learnt about the unique history of the park from the zoo’s educational team. The culmination of the tour was the live tiger training demonstration, which was wonderful to see and enjoyed by all.

Our residents were delighted to see amazing photos and short videos of the animals and take a peek inside their home.