Activities at Tixover House Care Home

Dementia Champion Kathy and Head of Activities Caroline completed training on our new Hapi Table for the home. Residents have been busy exploring what the table has to offer. They have said the following:-

"Isn't it clever."
"You can get just about anything."
"Isn't it wonderful?"
"You wonder how they make these things."
"Oh look at that one."
"It's amazing."
"You could sit here forever."
"All the different colours."
"You could play with it for ages."

It is fabulous to use technology with our residents and we are already seeing the benefits.

Staff and residents were treated to a live talk entitled ‘Fashion and Food’ hosted by Holly Power and Rafin Jannat from the V&A South Kensington.

In celebration of London Fashion Week, residents joined Holly from the V&A Learning team and designer-artist Rafin for a live make-along session. They learned about 18^th century fashion and the dessert-inspired designs featured in the V&A South Kensington’s stunning Marie Antoinette Style exhibition of her exquisite gowns and accessories. Residents were encouraged to create their own sweet-inspired still life paintings on paper with Rafin’s expert guidance.

Look at how beautiful the flowers are which our residents put together with Activities Denise during our weekly Gardening Club. This was an activity which crossed all areas of our home, with lots of opportunities for 'show and tell' and springtime tailored conversation.

There were too many beautiful photos to share, in particularly with our Nursing Community, where often activities are having to be delivered bedside. Residents were so pleased to have their rooms full of sensory elements, the colours, scents and to touch the beautifully made displays. It was a very heart-warming activity to deliver.    

A day in our volunteer… knit n natter monthly community club, Valentine's Day colouring, Valentine's Day sticker creative, Valentine's Day-themed bingo, singing and dancing, lots of introductions and conversation and companionship.

Welcome to the team. Evie is already bringing a lot to our home. Residents are enjoying the additional intergenerational nature of the activities too. We are already looking forward to your next visit!’      

Emma Howcutt-Kelly joined our home and delivered a water colour workshop. We put this workshop on, having seen what a huge hit the Barchester virtual painting was and wanted to make sure we did more of what our residents love. Included are some of the finished watercolours. Don't they just look wonderful! 2 hours seated in the Garden Lounge for our residents taking part in this watercolour workshop. We went around the residents following to find out how they found it, and it was really well received!

Thank you, Emma, would thoroughly recommend you. In line with this, through speaking with our residents, they have asked for a new paint-by-numbers class, resources have been bought and this is due to start first week of February.  

Well done to Activities Jess and the staff team on shift on Mothering Sunday, who delivered an exquisite afternoon team. Huge thank you as always to our Head Chef and kitchen team. Look how beautiful the afternoon tea was and the resident's accompanying floral table crafts. It was a splendid day when there were lots of celebrations within our home. 

We continue to love themed dining in our home, enjoying having a long table in our main dining room for mealtimes. St Patrick’s Day was a similar format, as it would be our Easter high-tea event for family and friends.       

Starting with a chair-based exercise routine, through to balloon tennis, parachute bean bag throw and hoop toss, there was something for everyone in our morning full of group-based exercises. The room was full of activity, so even for those that chose not to participate, they could sit and watch something different, between their independent activities, of reading books, reading paper, doing their artwork or having family visits. 

There were refreshments served by the care team and then, following all the exertion, activities delivered, a gentle group-based jigsaw activity, 1 to 1s, including singing, conversation, puzzles and colouring, and then a group-based reading of interesting articles from the National Geographic to close the activity session. 

From our residents meeting activities were made aware that the residents would like to go out for lunch. In advance, this was communicated to the residents and a sign-up sheet taken round the home.  If your loved one lets you know of an outing they would like to do, please speak with activities or place on our wish tree in reception. 

Residents enjoyed a main course and accompanying wine. There was no room for pudding! Residents said the following:- "It's nice to get out sometimes isn't it. It's been a lovely day today," "I enjoyed it very much, I like going out. It was a good choice," "Well this has been nice, it is lovely and bright here."       

We are delighted to have passed a recent Care Quality Commission inspection with an overall ‘Outstanding’ rating - the best possible rating the home could achieve.

The CQC inspected Tixover House in November 2025 and rated the home, as ‘Outstanding’ in two areas of the inspection - well-led and caring - and ‘Good’ in the safe, effective and responsive categories.  The report stated that there was a strong sense of belonging and teamwork in the home nurtured by a very well-respected management team who encourage a culture of genuine warmth and inclusivity and where residents are supported to maintain their interests and independence by exceptionally kind, caring, respectful and attentive staff. 

We celebrated International Hug Day within our home and here are just a few of the snaps captured. It is so heart-warming to see both the relationships that we have with our residents and the staff team. 

Everyone was open-armed giving and receiving hugs. It was such a feel-good start to the day! I keep revisiting these photos, as they truly do show the love within our home. One lady even has it built into her life enrichment care plan to have hugs from the staff team, wanting that much-needed human touch.’     

What a brilliant morning celebrating our residents' 90th! Can you tell he loves trains! So we tailored our outing to continue his pastime! Thank you to Ferry Meadows Country Park for facilitating this wish this morning! Celebrations are to be continued, but for now I wanted to share this magical moment! 

We had previously delivered a wish fulfilment for this gentleman to Rail World for a day out. This was an extension of this. In addition, a train-fanatic is due to come into the home over the coming weeks to deliver a one-one to this gentleman, to share his passion and knowledge in this area.   

Leading on with the beautiful flowers from our weekly Gardening Club. We have had some fabulous creatives in our home surrounding flowers, including The Great Daffodil appeal and also flower table centre-pieces made in readiness for Mothering Sunday in our home. This was a good example of the use of technology within our activities in our home, with residents following ‘how to’ videos on YouTube through the residents' iPad. 

Again, with all of our activities, we then take the finished items round the home and deliver a ‘show and tell’ activity to include all, in an activity whereby they may have chosen not to attend. 

Our residents enjoyed Chinese New Year celebrations in our home. Enjoy sweet and sour chicken, beef stir-fry and prawn crackers and accompanying fortune cookies. 

Activities ran flower arranging, creatives, quizzes and exploring Chinese radio on our activities platform Oomph. I would like to take the time to thank all the staff that have adapted to the busy Valentines' weekend, Chinese New Year celebrations and a day late will be pancake day because of just how many tasty treats we can eat in a day! A big shout-out to our chef team – thank you! In particular, our Head Chef Tony and our Hostess Cheryl, thank you!!’

We had a wonderful morning, having a coffee on our Memory Lane. Lots of conversation and a real giggle throughout. Thank you to Chef Ian for producing an amazing sponge cake and also to Dementia Champion Kathy, who supported activities on this occasion. Definitely do a re-do soon as it was so well-loved! 

This is fundamental within our home, having the understanding of our residents and knowing that not all of our residents would be able to access the Community Coffee Morning in residential or outings into the community. The residents, during this simple activity, whereby we had a mock-up tea-shop, commented that they felt like they had gone out for a special coffee. In fact, all that was different was that we encouraged a social setting for their morning refreshments.  

Staff and residents chose to spread some joy on International Hugging Day which took place on January 21st.

International Hugging Day is an invitation to extend your arms and offer affection, understanding and warmth. The idea is that by promoting a simple but meaningful act of kindness in the form of a hug, we can transform people’s lives, one small gesture at a time.

The Tixover House team made up of staff covering all departments decided to come together to spread love, warmth and kindness through such a simple gesture of giving and receiving a hug, the smiles on the faces of all and how accepting of a hug show truly how well received this act was.