Activities at Red Oaks Care Home

Congratulations to Daphne South, who has been named as a divisional winner in the 'Volunteer of the Year' category in the 2017 Barchester Care Awards.

Polly Bearman, who has worked at Red Oaks Care Home since it opened 45 years ago, has received a prestigious long service award and a personal thank you from the Chief Executive of Barchester.

Polly, aged 74, was presented with gifts and flowers on the anniversary in May and shared a celebratory meal with residents, colleagues and guests. 

The party was attended by Pete Calveley; he thanked Polly for her years of dedication and presented her with a long service award.

It’s clear that this is more than just a job to Polly, who says that the people living at the home are the reason she does what she does.

After 45 years working in a care home, Polly says she has learned the importance of ‘give and take’. Yet it’s clear she has spent most of her time giving, going well beyond her job description to improve the lives of others, by doing things such as bringing in old coins for people to look at and reminisce about, or just stopping to have a friendly chat.

She is at the heart of the home, described by colleagues as ‘one of the big characters’, and always making people laugh and smile. 

Every month at Red Oaks, we hold a cookery club for residents. Leigh Clifford, our Head Chef, prepares the recipe cards and makes sure that all the ingredients are measured out for each table and suitable for each resident.

Most recently, residents made scones for afternoon tea. They baked the scones in our kitchen and, several hours later, they were all eating them during afternoon tea with cakes.

Red Oaks has very good links with local youth groups and, several times a year, the Cowfold Beaver Scouts come to visit the home to spend time with residents and to earn awards for their efforts.

Volunteers are often undervalued within organisations. Here at Red Oaks, we recognise the huge contribution that volunteers make to our home, so every year, we host an event to celebrate the contribution they make, which includes a nice meal, followed by a presentation of gifts from Duncan Edwards, our General Manager, just to say thank you.

To celebrate National Scrabble Day, Red Oaks got together 4 teams of residents, relatives and staff members to do battle. It was close towards the end, but everyone had lots of laughter and fun.