Activities at Westvale House Care Home

Staff and residents at Barchester’s Westvale care home in Warrington were treated to an armchair work out courtesy of the Green Goddess, Diana Moran, and Shackleton’s furniture company, followed by a mindfulness session led by Shackleton’s Emma Raybould.

Diana rose to fame as a glamorous fitness guru on BBC’s Breakfast Time in the 1980’s and has made an outstanding contribution to improving the health and wellbeing of people in the UK. She now brings that experience to Shackletons as their Health and Wellness Adviser.

To celebrate National Vegetarian Week, staff and residents at Barchester’s Westvale were treated to an interactive virtual cookery demo courtesy of chef, Alex Connell, from Vegetarian for Life.

Chef Alex whipped up some tasty, healthy vegetarian snacks in a live, interactive cookery demo.  Much to residents’ delight, Westvale head chef had prepared the same recipes so that residents could try all the dishes. Residents sampled delicious, light and summery veggie dishes including Borlotti bean and dill pate, Greek fritters with Tzatziki and Coronation 'chicken' pastries. All finished off with a sweet and simple but totally yummy banana bread.

Residents at Westvale in Warrington enjoyed celebrating the 76th Anniversary of  VE day by hosting an in-house ‘street party’ and reminiscing about what they were doing on that day. Resident, Heather remembers walking down the main streets of Knutsford with her school, singing and dancing with her friends.

As part of the celebrations Residents made their own VE Day banner, dressed up in their headscarf’s and rollers and made their own jam butties.  Just look at those rollers, headscarves and big smiles!

Residents at Westvale House in Old Hall, Warrington were reunited today with their favourite 4 legged friend, in the homes back garden. Teddi the cockapoo, is a therapy dog and visited the residents for the first time in over 14 months, today! The residents absolutely loved seeing him again and he got lots of snuggles kisses and tummy rubs!

The visit was arranged by Activity Co-ordinator Sarah Morley. They managed to spend a good portion of the morning with Teddi, and also managed to swerve the opening of the heavens and be safely indoors before the downpour!    Disclaimer; No dogs, or humans, were soaked during this reunion!

Residents and staff at Westvale House paid tribute as they gave thanks to all the nurses at home for all of their hard work and dedication over the years. Resident Nancy Jackson, who used to be a nurse took part in a friendly nursing themed quiz against the homes Unit Manager, Deb.

Everyone thanked the team by reading a specially written ‘Thank you’ speech, poems were read and each of the team received a trophy and some delicious cup-cakes especially prepared by the homes hospitality team.

Staff and residents at Barchester’s Westvale House care home in Warrington were treated to an exciting virtual tour of Five Sisters Zoo, hosted by Head of Education, Adam Welsh.

Five Sisters Zoo is a family run zoo with over 160 different animal species from around the world.  Originally a garden centre that helped to rehome unwanted pets, the animal collection grew and grew until the zoo was officially founded in 2005.  Now Five Sisters Zoo is the most visited wildlife attraction in West Lothian.

Gone are the days when a visit to the zoo was merely a fun day out.  Adam’s presentation showed all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes at the zoo and explored the vital conservation, rescue and education work carried out at FSZ, and at most modern zoos.