Activities at Station Court Care Home

A Senior Carer at Station Court in Ashington has received a prestigious 15 Year Service Award in celebration of working at Barchester Healthcare for 15 years.

Audrey Langan, Senior Carer started at Barchester in July 2006 and has worked with residents and their relatives to ensure that their needs have been met over the years.

Jane McFarlane, Employee Services Director at Barchester said: “I’m always pleased to hear stories about the long service of Barchester staff and am delighted Audrey has achieved this milestone. It is dedication like this that ensures our residents are provided with a happy place to live.”

Staff and residents at Station Court in Ashington 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 watching virtual fireworks and parades from celebrations in France, learning some French phrases, taking part in French themed quizzes, sampling some French food and wine and watching Les Miserables which everyone really enjoyed. 

Ray Robson General Manager at Station Court 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 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.

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.

We took a wonderful virtual trip to Iceland’s Puffin Rescue Centre at the Beluga Whale Sanctuary.

We were able to virtually meet some of the rescued Atlantic Puffins and to learn interesting facts about their care and unique lives. We took a peek into their lives in the wild, the Puffling rescue program in the Westman Islands, and how SEA LIFE Trust Beluga Whale Sanctuary’s team takes care of these charismatic little birds each day.

It was a very exciting experience, enjoyed by all.