Celebrating life at Barchester

Derham House welcomed the New Year in with a new entertainer for 2025, Ian Gallagher. He brought all the old favourites back to life, from Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Matt Monroe and many more. It was a delight for our residents. Smiling, singing and toe tapping to all their favourite songs.

As part of out lifestyle enrichment programme we strive to deliver quality entertainments at Derham House. Ian starred in “Yanks” alongside the leading man Richard Gere. He was the big band singer; the movie was a huge box office success. He has performed on the west end and also performed at Buckingham Palace.

At Derham House we love opening our home up and hosting events that friends and family can join us for. Shared experiences are the best experiences and we ensure that our residents remain connected with their loved ones whilst they live with us and enjoy premium entertainments.
 

Residents enjoyed a morning of cocktails, mocktails, and reminiscence as they gathered for our home's 'Mocktails and Memories' event.

This special dementia-friendly event brought our residents together to engage in discussions and reminisce over a selection of delicious beverages.

Residents discussed family holiday memories and even entered a hearty discussion about ladies taking control and driving the family car on the longer journeys further afield. 

Our home had two very special guests in January as we welcomed Gill Southgate and her beautiful 4-year-old guide dog ‘Adelaide’ 

Gill, a speaker for the guide dog’s association gave a wonderful and inspiring seminar about her guide dogs, how they were trained and the work of the guide dog association.

Her first guide dog was Ruby. “I was hesitant to get a dog initially, but she transformed my life and gave me the confidence to have my children,” Gill shared.

Adelaide is a great listener, hugely affectionate, loyal, and dependable and is hugely popular everywhere she goes.

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!

Our kind care-team came together and cooked exquisite Indian food. 

We sat down at the end or during our shift and had a plate of food and a drink together as a team. 

The food was bowled-up by our night staff, and we took the food home for our families too. 

It was such a kind gesture but also so nice to just sit briefly alongside your colleagues.

We launched our Toy Drive in our home on Children In Need Day through to Friday 20th December. There was a toy drop-off area at the reception and gifts were collected by the local community: Stamford Junior Knights, Stamford Knights Basketball, Bourne Deeping Hockey Club, Rutland Water Parkrun and Morcott village. 

Delivering to Bourne Salvation Army Community Church, a lot of children will wake up on Christmas Day with a Christmas present that they might never have previously. 

It is great to know that we have made a huge difference. The aim was simple, to add a smile and a glimmer of joy, happiness and laughter to a child and those around them. 

I can safely say that we met this aim (and some).

Tandridge Heights care home in Oxted was transformed into Graceland to mark what would have been Elvis Presley’s 90th birthday on 8 January. 

General Manager, Camille Corbett, said: “Lots of our residents are big Elvis fans and love his music. We’ve had a fantastic day listening to all his hits, finding out about his early life and what influenced him and watching old Elvis movies. He was such an incredible talent. This afternoon we had an Elvis quiz. It was amazing how many songs he recorded. We all surprised ourselves by how many we remembered!”

Mary, a resident, said: “I loved Elvis growing up.  Listening to all his old hits has brought back so many memories.  We’ve all had a brilliant time reminiscing about our dance hall days!” 

The residents have enjoyed a trip to their local Chester Market for a look around the festive stalls.

They had a hot chocolate and, of course, a mince pie to warm ourselves up. 

A good time was had by all.

We had a wonderful afternoon listening to Mark Flinn and his fellow choir members sing Christmas carols around the home. 

The residents all joined in, which definitely got everyone in the Christmas spirit.

Thank you so much for the wonderful entertainment!

A creative morning with Creative Mojo Ltd.

The residents enjoyed a Christmas-inspired art class this morning with Jane from Creative Mojo Ltd.

Their paintings were transformed into a beautiful Christmas wreath, which we have proudly hung in our reception area for everyone to enjoy. 

Residents here at Mulberry Court wanted to celebrate what would have been Elvis's 90th birthday, with him being still one of the most popular artists known and, to date, selling over 1 billion records world-wide and having recorded over 700 hits. We just had to invite "The King" himself to sing for us.

Residents, family and friends all came together in our ground floor Sherwood lounge to see Elvis or, rather, local fan and impersonator Eddie Vee perform all the familiar hits, much toe tapping and hand clapping followed as everyone sang along to the classics which included: "Love me tender" and "Suspicious minds". 

Eddie certainly knew how to entertain, and the time flew by with everyone having enjoyed the afternoon.

Northeast Production came to put on a performance for everyone at Caldy Manor. 

Alice in Wonderland was performed by two actresses who swapped characters throughout the play. 

There was a part for one of our residents to take part in which was a pleasant surprise to us all. The show ended with a Christmas carol sing along which brought the spirit of Christmas to everyone.

Staff and residents had a wickedly good time at a local cinema. 

Popcorn, chocolates and sweets were enjoyed throughout the movie. Wicked was new to the residents, and they thoroughly enjoyed the costumes and the music from the film. 

They were pleasantly surprised to learn that the film was taken from a West End show. 

Staff and residents went to a local pub to enjoy a festive afternoon. 

Residents requested this particular pub as past visits have always gone down well. Crackers and festive napkins were laid on the table to bring that festive spirit. 

The food and company were wonderful and another trip for a pub lunch is under way. 

Residents enjoy their baking club and this week it was all about making pizza pinwheels. Residents were able to choose what toppings they put in with a selection of cheese and ham and then were able to enjoy them later in the day for supper. Jo our Activity Coordinator then asked for any other suggestions for baking club and there were quite a few options so we look forward to seeing them over the upcoming weeks.

Resident's had a fun morning of being rather competitive with one another over some of the classic board games. Residents were able to choose from Ludo, Snakes and Ladders and Uno! There were no clear winners but everyone all enjoyed themselves and had fun spending time together with friends.

Residents and staff were in for a treat as staff put on the pantomime performance of Cinderella (oh no they didn’t- oh yes they did!) Residents enjoyed the timeless tale full of magical twists, fun, laughter and adventures.

One resident commented; “it was the best pantomime production I have seen in years, the actors really made me laugh!”

Here are just a few photos for you all to enjoy, can you recognise the members of staff!!

Residents enjoyed an afternoon getting creative and making clay ornaments. We went to the garden first to pick some leaves and foliage and then rolled these onto the clay to make imprints. Residents really enjoyed making something a little bit different to keep.

We've been "out out"!

We kicked off 2025 with a bang and had a great night, enjoying good conversation and a little tipple at The New Inn Alphington.

It's been great to catch up with each other, sharing stories, reminiscing about 2024, looking ahead to 2025 and planning plenty of wonderful events in the coming month.

It was lovely to catch up with members of our community too, and our residents, team members and visitors said they have had a great night!

Thank you to everyone who made it with us tonight. We look forward to sharing more nights out with you and others who will join us next time, in the coming weeks and months.

Person-centred care is fundamental to everything the activities team does at Highview House. We want every resident to enjoy the things that make them smile, laugh and live. Within our daily activities, we can make time to include family members, allowing families to spend quality time together while at the same time meeting old and new faces.

We encourage family members to attend activities as often as they can, and spending that special time together means so much for each and every resident.

On the 11th December, we were delighted that Beachborough School had asked us to go along to the school to watch a wonderful nativity play dress rehearsal.

When we arrived at Beachborough School, the hall started to fill with older children in the school ready to watch A Twinkly Nativity. From the moment the first carol rang out, it was clear how much dedication and effort had gone into this production. The children's voices blended beautifully, filling the room with the timeless magic of Christmas songs. It was impossible not to be moved by their enthusiasm and the genuine joy they radiated.

Beyond the beautiful melodies, the play itself was a testament to the hard work of every single child involved. Each one, whether playing a shepherd, a wise man, an angel or, of course, Mary and Joseph, threw themselves into their roles with passion and commitment. They delivered their lines with confidence and charm, and their carefully crafted costumes added an extra layer of enchantment to the scene.

The children, from the youngest to the oldest, delivered a truly wonderful performance that filled hearts with joy and festive cheer. The smiles on the children's faces when they recieved the biggest applause will be unforgettable.

Coffee mornings are not just coffee mornings at Thistle Hill!  Residents from around the home have been coming together to make a wish tree complete with wishes as they chat and have a brew together.  

We have been reminiscing to work out what wishes everyone would like and had a lot of giggles as we worked on the tree.  The tree is not complete yet, but it is coming along nicely, and we can all see it is going to look lovely once finished.
 

The chill of December had settled in, but the festive spirit, Brackley was burning bright-literally! As we stepped into December, we made sure we took trips around Brackley, not to reach a destination, but to soak in the dazzling lights that had transformed the town into a winter wonderland.

We had our Christmas music playing on the minibus as we set off to find some remarkable houses. It wasn't long till the first house was in view, it was full of lights. Gasps of wonder rippled through the vehicle as each turn revealed another breathtaking display. From twinkling lights, to an inflatable snowman waving cheerfully from the front lawn, the variety and volume of the decorations were truly impressive. Everyone who went out to see the lights said what a wonderful time they had looking at them. There were smiles from the time we left till much later on in the evening.

Jean said how beautiful the lights were and didn’t want to come back and wanted to go see some more.
June said that it was just amazing. She said she'd never seen anything like it.

Helen said she couldn't believe how many lights she had seen. She said people go mad now at Christmas, but it's so nice to see. Keith said they are very nice, but he thinks people are now in competition to see who can have the most. Elizabeth said thank you so much for an amazing evening. We all had a great time seeing all the lights!

On New Year's Eve we held a special early evening celebration, where residents, their friends and families all came together to see in the new year in style. 

We had a wonderful selection of cheeses and wines as well as snacks.

We started off the evening with a topical quiz which featured highlights from the year and some general knowledge questions before toasting in 2025.

Residents, staff and family members have thoroughly enjoyed our resident Christmas photo booth area in reception. 

It has been good fun embracing the Christmas spirit in the home. 

Everyone has said, the warm and fuzzy feeling is palpable, aided by delicious mulled wine and minced pies, of course.

The residents had a great time at our Chef's workshop in December working on our Christmas Cake entry.

Together with our chef, Ahmet, they met to design their cake and then each week they made it together step by step.

It was great fun chatting about making cakes and various recipes and flavours that were recommended with, of course, lots of tasting along the way. 

The final result was a magnificent Advent Calendar themed cake which everyone enjoyed opening the daily boxes for, and although we didn’t win this year, we really enjoyed taking part.

We were delighted to host the young dancers from KIC Dance School this month for an evening of performances which brought a lot of joy to our residents.

With the sword dance being a particular favourite, requiring great concentration and skill.

The residents thoroughly enjoyed the dancing and reminisced about their days of dance lessons and competitions in the past in their younger times.

Such a fantastic Christmas celebration. The residents enjoyed a sing-a-long with Debby, and she did a fantastic job getting us all in the mood for Christmas. 

Residents thought it was so lovely to also get a visit from the Field House Jingle Girls. The girls danced all around the conservatory with the residents clapping all the way!

Peter, Howard and Jean did a great job on the mic, letting their hair down in style. 

This is just the start of our Christmas count down!

This year, for our Christmas card appeal, we received 170 Christmas cards from all over England and even received a card from New Zealand.

Last year launched our 'care of Christmas appeal', where we asked members of the local community to send Christmas cards to our residents to spread the Christmas spirit to those who don’t have or have very little family to celebrate the Christmas season with. 

Last year was such a success and brought so much joy to the residents. So we started the appeal again in 2024 and it had spread even further. The residents were so happy with all the cards they had received.  

What a wonderful residents' Christmas party! 

We had fun games, live music, dancing, smiles and laughter which filled the home. 

Residents and staff also enjoyed some tasty treats made by the kitchen team, they even got to cut into their Christmas cake which they had been working on, and it was delicious. 

The afternoon was filled with so much fun.