Activities at Woodland View Care Home
Activities at Woodland View
Woodland View is passionately committed to providing residents with a varied choice of entertainment, social, health and well being, craft and relaxation based activities.
Activities will all be meaningful and based on the likes of residents and will continue to evolve depending on our residents. 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.
Read our brochure 'Life-enriching activities' for more information about life in our care homes.
Read our brochure
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
PAT Dogs Visit
Woodland View has finally managed to make arrangements for a PAT Dog to visit residents on a regular basis.
The PAT Dog scheme is volunteer-based and relies on there being someone in the area available. Woodland View has been trying to get someone for almost a year and were thrilled to finally be contacted by Leah O'Kane.
Leah will now be visiting Woodland View every Monday with Bear - a sweet Pug/Chihuahua mix. Their first visit on Monday 22nd May was a complete success; Bear was a hit with residents in general, but especially with those who, for a number of reasons, spend most or all of their time in their room.
Woodland View now has regular animal-based activities, which includes regular dog visits from a couple of agencies, as well as a fortnightly trip to a local animal therapy farm.
And the award goes to...
Celebrating the film festival season, Woodland View residents held their own awards ceremony.
Over a period of a week, residents were handed out slips of paper asking who the 'Best Actor/Actress' was and what 'Best Film' of all time was. The slips were all collected, counted and a special presentation was prepared announcing the winners.
This presentation was shown on Sunday afternoon to residents prior to the screening of the winning film. The 'Best Actor/Actress' award went to Laurence Olivier, and 'Casablanca' was named the 'Best Film'.
Full House!
Pupils from Queen Boudica Primary School joined residents at Woodland View for a game of bingo recently. You might be wondering, 'what is so special about that?'
Well, we have been hosting game sessions with Queen Boudica's pupils for a number of months now; we usually play Snakes & Ladders, Play Your Cards Right, skittles, etc., and they're always great fun!. However, Activities Coordinator, Kevin Riley, asked the children if there were any games that haven't played that they'd like try, and they excitedly replied with "Bingo!"
So, residents and pupils gathered on Thursday 18th May and the game commenced. One resident emerged victorious and was rewarded with a box of chocolates, but all pupils received some treats from Kevin's 'Sweety Treaty Jar'.
Another thoroughly enjoyable afternoon for everyone involved, and bingo was, yet again, a runaway success... phew!
The Boys are Back in Town!
Having been such a popular trio when first performing live at Woodland View in February, 'The Jolly Boys Outing' made a return visit to deliver a very enjoyable mix of songs from across the musical ages for residents to reminisce to.
The selection of songs covered had residents singing, clapping and tapping along, with one number also evoking a very emotional response too; so, all in all, it was a very wide-reaching performance that was enjoyed by all.
Residents have asked for the boys to be invited back again - and they have accepted! Watch this space for upcoming performances.
It's Eurovision time again!
It was a great success at Woodland View last year, so residents requested the Eurovision experience all over again.
Residents whizzed through the songs from each of the semi-finals during two afternoons. They used a buzzer for each team; if teams got bored with a song or just plain didn't like it... they hit their buzzer! If all teams hit the buzzer, the song was stopped and the next one began. It was fast, furious and just a little bit of a giggle.
For the final, the same approach was adopted and a sweepstake ran with cash prizes for the countries placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Money was also set aside to donate to the Alzheimer's Society as part of Dementia Awareness Week's events. The sweepstake was so popular that a second one had to be coordinated in parallel with the main one.
It's a shame that Lucy Jones didn't win for the UK, but everyone at Woodland View loved her song (no buzzers!) and were very pleased with how she performed.
Eurovision 2018? Bring it on! Woodland View is ready.
Dementia Awareness Week - Animal Magic
As part of Dementia Awareness Week, Woodland View returned to Dedham Animal Therapy Farm with some more Memory Lane residents.
Pigs, chickens, pygmy goats, ponies, guineafowl, running ducks, turkeys, Border Collie puppies... It was wonderful to see the sheer delight on their faces. Yes, there were hens again, nestled in the arms of residents. They seemed very relaxed until it was time to head back to the home and the hens knew the party was over (groan) and flew back to the ground - pure poultry in motion!
Dedham Farm and Woodland View have established a working relationship to enjoy ongoing fortnightly visits to the farm, with alternate weeks featuring visits to Woodland View from Nurture Dogs, another service provided by the farm.
