Activities at Woodland View Care Home
Woodland View is passionately committed to providing residents with a varied choice of entertainment, social, health and well being, craft and relaxation based activities.
Our teams are trained to enrich the lives of residents through stimulating the mind, body and soul, and taking the time to learn about each person to ensure everyone receives support that adds enrichment to their life.
The activities provided will also include involvement from other local community based organisations and are open to all residents, family and friends of residents. Our activities will be facilitated by staff from all departments as well as invited guests. Families are also enthusiastically encouraged to play a part in activities when possible.
There will always be at least one person at every activity who has been DBS checked to ensure the safeguarding of our residents. The dignity of our residents and our respect for them is at the centre of everything we do, each and every day.
We are always reviewing and changing our schedule of activities to be a centre of excellence and actively invite feedback and suggestions for new and meaningful activities and ideas.
Petra Hardman
Hi my name is Petra and I'm the Activities Coordinator here at Woodland View. I love seeing the difference that activities can make to each individual, and finding out what interests they have and ensure I incorporate that into our activities here.
I love music and drama coming from a musical background as a singer all over the country, music is important to me and I feel it makes such a difference to everyone, it evokes memories, and creates happiness. I also love to boost residents self esteem by creating pampering sessions and having one to one time to relax and reminisce.
Activities and Events Partnerships
As part of our bespoke life-enrichment programmes, we host a number of live virtual events in the home on a regular basis through a number of partnerships with places of interest and world class performance companies
Life at Woodland View Care Home
Baking Club!
Some of our residents learnt more about LGBTQ icons, as part of the month that celebrates the history of the community, and what it means to be a part of it.
We read literature on famous LGBTQ people, such as Ru Paul, and Marsha P Johnson, through Oomph, which is provided by Barchester Healthcare. Residents involved were interested in this history, and how the community are now accepted for being true to themselves, and the issues they have overcome.
We learnt all about this alongside our baking club, in which we decorated rainbow cupcakes, to celebrate the community.
The rainbow was chosen to represent the LGBTQ community by Gilbert Baker, a gay artist who wanted to make a proud statement through a symbol showing diversity. He believed that the rainbow was ideal because it is found in nature.
Valentine's Day Celebrations!
We had such a lovely day here at Woodland View for Valentine's Day.
Our Head Chef baked us some delicious treats for lunch, and also made delicious heart-shaped chocolate cakes for every community member to enjoy, which everyone enjoyed. Her cakes are always received with joy by everyone!
Residents were also given roses and bags with a mixture of affirmations, chocolates, and dried rose petals from our very own garden.
Staff were treated to takeaway pizza and KFC, to spread the love throughout the home, by our General Manager.
We were also treated to the dulcet tones of Paul Wood of Boogie Oogie Entertainments, who serenaded us with a selection of love songs.
What a lovely day!
Woodland View Firstsite
We had a lovely minibus trip and visited for the first time, at the request of residents, Firstsite Colchester, which is such a beautiful building and museum within our city.
Residents looked at the displays within Firstsite, which included art and sculptures. We also visited the shop, with lots of books on local history, and also greeting cards. We also enjoyed a drink in the café, which was delicious!
Everyone had a lovely morning, and we will definitely be returning, as displays change regularly, so there is always something new to see!
Celebrating cultural food, and getting out in the community!
What a busy day for our Activities Team and residents!
We continued, as we did last year, celebrating different cultural food, and we made Sushi! With guidance from Sita, the team made Smoked Salmon, Seafood, and Veggie Sushi, which went down a storm with residents, staff, and also visitors!
We had quotes from residents saying how they didn't think they would like it, "but this is actually delicious!"
And we had families saying, "Wow, this is as good as I have tasted in a restaurant."
We think this was a huge success, and we have more plans for our baking/cooking club, that allow residents to discover different foods!
In the afternoon, some residents went out on the minibus for coffee, and also visited St Helena Hospice Shop on Peartree Road, to look at some new clothes and get out and about in the local community. Everybody wrapped up warm, and got some bargains!
A lovely, enjoyable Wednesday, here at Woodland View!
International Flower Day
With many thanks to generous donations from Asda Colchester and Tesco Highwoods Community Champion , the lovely Marie, we had a fantastic time displaying some beautiful blooms for International Flower Day.
Residents made some beautiful bouquets with Roses, Carnations, Tulips, Daffodils, Gerberas and Gypsophila at our Gardening Club.
Everyone agreed how beautiful these floral displays looked, and how kind of our local community it was to donate them, with residents commenting "We are so very lucky to have kind people to give us such lovely flowers."
Woodland View Wishes
Today marked the first day of our 2025 Activities Team 'Woodland View Wishes' initiative.
For our first of 2025, we made a wish come true for our lovely resident, who was a former pupil of County High School For Girls in Colchester, which is now GreyFriars Luxury Hotel and Restaurant, on East Hill.
On another outing, our resident stood outside GreyFriars, telling our Coordinator all about her days there, and how she "Would love to go and have a look, but knew it would never happen. Look how posh it is"
So, after some emails, and a lovely conversation with Jemma Mitchell there, we were invited for a complimentary Afternoon Tea. Today, our resident got to trace her steps from her school days, with a guided tour from the wonderful Julieanne. Looking at all the rooms, which were dining rooms, classrooms, and having afternoon tea in the old Head Mistress's office!
It was a lovely afternoon with lots of reminiscing, lots of smiles and the best hospitality, with fantastic food and drinks.
We are so very privileged to have been invited, and for memories to have been made today, that are priceless!
A huge thanks to Greyfriars Luxury Hotel and Restaurant, and to Jemma, Julieanne and everyone involved.
