Activities at Oaklands Care Home
Our home is always full of life, and we can thank our wonderful Activities Coordinators for this. Dedication to creating a unique and interesting activities programme is what sets us apart from other homes. We always take into consideration that some people would prefer to pursue their own interests, which is why our team strive to incorporative activities that cater to a wide range of tastes and hobbies. Our trips out are always fun and exciting as well, and residents are guaranteed to return with stories to tell their loved ones!
Anna Bate & Jo Lawn
Anna is our Activity Lead. She started working at Barchester over 14 years ago at our sister home Hilton Park. Having built strong relationships with staff, residents and families, Anna brings lots of fun to our home. Anna loves to sing, dance and laugh and generally brings oodles of joy to ours days.
Working alongside Anna is Jo who started her career here at Oaklands as a carer on Elms community in 2014 developing a passion for dementia care and completing her social care N+VQ Levels 2 and 3. Jo Joined the activity team 3 years ago and has since become the homes dementia champion, championing for a better lifestyle for our resident through staff training and regular audits.
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 Oaklands Care Home
Eid celebrations
We enjoyed celebrating Eid with Ifte our resident who has lived with us for over 15 years and some of his fellow residents. We had made stain glass window decorations the day before in preparations and we decorated the dining room beautifully with golds and silvers and lots of bright colours. Residents enjoyed an array of delicious sweet treats a favourite being the baklava which provoked conversation’s about how you make it and that we might like to try in our cooking group. Malcolm who loves to read ,gave us all the facts and stories from our Oomph newsletters and we all listened on with interest. We then had the chance to listen to traditional music which made some of us feel like dancing with our colourful scarfs even Pater the maintenance man got dragged in for a little performance. Jazz a member of staff then took the time to design some henna tattoos on those that wished to have them with flowers butterfly’s and creative patterns being drawn. Ifte was extremely happy with the afternoons celebration’s and shook everyone’s hands and gave kisses to all the ladies.
Patricia turns 103!
Patricia has lived in a Barchester home for 17 Years starting at Hilton park and then later moving over to Oaklands. Patricia turned 103 on April 13th and although Patricia isn’t living life in the same way as she started with us due to her health she still loves a sing song and a sherry from time to time so we could not disappoint on her birthday. As Patricia couldn’t come to the party as such we took the party to her and residents all joined in her room with staff to sing her some songs and later enjoyed cake together. Who knew sherry in a chocolate mousse was a thing well Patricia thoroughly enjoyed hers.
Later in the day Patricia was joined by family from various generations although we think the sherry mousse may have helped Patricia to enjoy a birthday snooze
Here at Oaklands we try to ensure all residents can be included in celebration’s and everyday life enrichment no matter what health conditions you have, there is always a way to adapt and enjoy.
Supporting Local
We like to support our local amenities and we are so fortunate to have Bottisham air museum just a stone’s throw away.Daivd and Robert have shown interest in aircraft and learning new things through various conversations so we took the opportunity to visit and it really didn’t disappoint. The gentleman had smiles on their faces the whole way round and were beaming when we headed back asking to go again another day. We had a pause in our visit to enjoy some refreshments in the flying tractor café where there is more to see and do with models hanging above our heads and interactive computer games. When walking outside they play music which just sets the scene and gives a great opportunity for a little sing song, all in all this was a fabulous morning out and we look forward to visiting again soon.
Hoy in reception
Hoy is a fun simple card game giving resident the chance to compete against each other in a friendly way.Hoy gives residents and visitors the opportunity to connect and share fun story’s about other card games they used to play because it allows for pauses in the game for communication . Marjorie loved the game so much she has asked to play it again the following few days even though she didn’t win.
Anyone can join in and anyone can win which makes it easily accessible to all our residents
St David’s day
We enjoyed a paint and plonk evening to celebrate St David’s day using the famous welsh symbol the Daffodil as our subject matter.
We have a paint and plonk once a month usually enjoying a glass of wine a natter and some painting takes place!!
The activity is a group activity primarily but we can adapt for those resident cared for in their rooms so no one is left out .
Edna loves her painting sessions and is so proud of her pictures and loves that she can be included whilst maintain her comfort of her bed.
Mother’s day
We were honoured to have Jackie from Mill blossom flowers a local business in the next village to come into the home and hold a flower arranging workshop for some of our lady’s and their familys,the morning was extremely special for all. We were treated to glasses of Prosecco and some delicious sweet treats throughout the morning too.
Jackie gave us a wealth of knowledge from names of flowers to the way in which to arrange them in our teacups, we were offered a huge variety of beautiful fragrant flowers which filled the room with such a wonderful smell for the following couple of days. Once we had finished our teacups Jackie showed us another very simple but so effective craft of twig hearts which now hang on residents walls with pride. We look forward to welcoming Jackie back into the home for more fun workshops
