Activities at Oxford Beaumont Care Community

The team at Oxford Beaumont have recently won a national competition run by NAPA and Careshield to have a dream tea party. The prize is £500 towards the cost of the party and, to enter, we had to finish the following sentence: 'Our dream tea party would include'.

Paula, the Activities Coordinator, asked residents and staff what they would like to have in their party, and then wrote a poem including as many of the ideas as she could. Some of the suggestions were a little unusual, as you can see from the poem below!

We are really fortunate here at Oxford Beaumont to have a Magic Table on one of our Memory Lane units. Its use is not limited to the residents there, though, and we some times take some of our other residents down to use it.

We took two ladies from upstairs down to see it and they really enjoyed the nature-themed activities, especially the fish! We always aim to make activities as inclusive as possible, and we are going to use the football game on the Magic Table as part of our Olympic Games-themed events to enable those who can’t kick a ball to take part in the competition!

Come on you blues/reds/whites/yellows!

At Oxford Beaumont, we feel very strongly that it is never too late to dream your dreams. We have recently created a wishing well and have been collecting residents’ wishes, which are written on the back of old pennies (paper ones, at least!) and lowered into the well.

We made our first wish come true for a resident, who said one thing she would really love to eat again was traditional Oxfordshire lardy cake. By the magic of the well (and a nearby bakery), a large lardy cake appeared the next day and, as it was so big, it was decided that it should be shared with other residents, who also enjoyed the experience – well most of them did! It brought back memories of childhood favourites, home baking, and dripping!

As we are missing visits from our fluffy friends at the moment, we decided to host a pet photograph competition so the residents could at least see pictures of some cuddly creatures. We invited the local community, as well as staff, to send in pictures of their perfect pooches, cute cats or even glorious goldfish. Staff and residents voted for their favourites, and we will be announcing the prize winners very shortly!

At Oxford Beaumont, we have received these lovely sweets from the family of one of our residents. It was such a kind gesture!

Residents at Oxford Beaumont had great fun decorating a cake to celebrate the Queen’s official birthday. The design was chosen by Janet, it was baked by Anna in the kitchen and Roger decorated it with cream. We had to stop Graham eating all the strawberries before it was finished!

We chose a design we could make with fruit, as we wanted to involve as many residents as possible, and those who weren’t able to help with the decoration enjoyed tasting the leftover berries afterwards!

Whilst decorating, everyone shared personal memories of the Royal Family, including Winnie, who has a wonderful photograph of a royal encounter at the opening of the Council Offices in Oxford, where she was a telephonist.