Activities at Tixover House Care Home

Realising just how much their residents love to sing, the team at Tixover House have launched weekly karaoke sessions in their dementia community. A playlist has been created and is continually added to each week, it includes classics such as Somewhere Over The Rainbow, White Cliffs Of Dover, Show Me The Way To Go Home, Stand By Me and Take Me Home, Country Road. 

The sessions have been going down an absolute storm with more and more residents taking part each week.

Bowling is proving hugely popular at Barchester’s Tixover House so much so that staff and residents have come together to launch a regular weekly bowls club meeting, and everyone is invited to join.  The club meets on Fridays at 11am, all are welcome.

Head of Activities, Caroline Geddes, said: “The idea stemmed from a friend of the home coming in to volunteer and teach us all Boccia last summer, it was soon quite apparent that it was a huge hit!  We quickly realised it was something we could implement on a regular basis and often found ourselves playing between meet-ups, as often as two or three times a week. Now that we have launched our weekly club, there is a real buzz around bowling in our home.”
 

We have some beautiful friendships within our home. It is so wonderful to see. Our residents truly care about each other and look out for one another.

In other news in our home, one resident has taken it on himself, to read to another resident daily, who would find it hard to do so themselves. 

He has reached out to activities, who having heard this beautiful act of thoughtfulness, has purchased a book of their choice, Sherlock Holmes short stories.

This morning has been one of the most heart-warming days to date and a lot of photos to follow as I just couldn’t choose! Every resident on the lane was engaged with activities throughout the morning. 

Sitting with one resident, doing a walking tour of Guildford, listening to Doris Day and promoting independent reading. Going through another’s memory box, looking through LCFC items (thank you to Ossy’s family for allowing us to share a football top and fox teddy and continuing his memory in our home), locomotive magazines and photos and speaking about snooker and darts. 

A carer sat alongside a resident reading with her and talking about the countryside and nature, lots of questions and listening. Whilst another promoted drawing and colouring and looking through our Golden Days nostalgic calendar. Two residents happily folded linen whilst looking through the daily papers.

Staff and residents joined fellow keen quizzers from over 260 Barchester care homes and hospitals across the whole of the UK, including Wales, Scotland, Jersey and the Isle of Wight, to put their collective general knowledge to the test.

The first Barchester Big Quiz of the Year took place on January 28th 2025 when Tixover House got super competitive and took on its sister homes from all over the country to find out which Barchester home or hospital had the best quizzers. From historical humdingers and musical musings to pictorial puzzlers and connective conundrums, the homes battled it out to find out who would prevail.
 

Michelle’s Pet Therapy brought a selection of furry-friends to our home this afternoon and residents came along to enjoy the comfort of a furry-friend cuddle. 

We always have such a positive response to our pet therapy sessions within our home and actively encourage visitors, family and friends of the home to bring their pets on their visits to the home too. 

Activities often gain permission to take said pet to other departments of the home and to room visits too; creating lots of beautiful moments to enrich the lives of our residents. 

Pets tend to be a huge hit, so please do bring yours on your visits!