Activities at Ashcombe House Care Home
Activities are an integral part of life at our care home. We want to ensure that the people we support have as much fun as possible during their time with us, so it’s important that our activities programme is created with the interests of residents in mind. Our skilled Activities Coordinators bring a certain uniqueness to the home that can’t be found anywhere else, and which is reflected in the activities they organise.
Gillian Buxton
Hi, my name is Gillian and I am the Activities Coordinator at Ashcombe House. I love spending time with and getting to know our residents, this helps me to offer meaningful activities within the home. From big events to a chat over a cuppa every day is different. I am very privileged to do a job that I really enjoy.
When I'm not working my Working Cocker Spaniel Basil keeps me busy!
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 Ashcombe House Care Home
Chinese New Year!
We welcomed in the year of the snake with a day of celebrations. Ashcombe House looked wonderful, decorated with hanging red lanterns. Our Baking for Fun club spent the morning decorating a Chinese New Year cake for everyone to enjoy with a cup of tea later in the day. We covered the cake with red icing, then, using white icing which we sprayed gold, we made Chinese-themed decorations, including some snakes!
Our head chef, Tracy, cooked up a delicious oriental feast for lunch which looked and tasted amazing, followed by a fortune cookie each.
Following Chinese tradition, residents gave staff a lucky red envelope which contained a Chinese lucky coin. This symbolises best wishes and good fortune for the coming year. Joan said that “It was lovely to take part in the tradition of giving lucky red envelopes.”
A letter from Buckingham Palace
Last year we got together to write a letter to King Charles to wish him Happy Birthday. In the letter we shared some of our royal memories. Including visits to Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, how beautiful the furniture was and how lovely the little church at Windsor Castle looked. Babs said that she went by train and had fish and chips on the way home! Joan remembered how proud she was to receive a letter from Her Majesty the Queen. Joan saw Her Majesty the Queen in a beautiful yellow coat, which inspired her to write a poem which she sent to the palace. The reply said that Her Majesty the Queen greatly enjoyed reading the poem.
We were really excited when an envelope with the Royal Crest arrived in the post to Ashcombe House. The letter, from the Head of Royal Correspondence, told us that the King was most interested to learn of all our wonderful memories of the Royal Family, and was particularly interested to hear that Josie named her late daughter after the late Queen Elizabeth II. The reply from the Palace acknowledges the warm wishes and the memories we sent to King Charles making it clear that he had genuinely taken the time to read and appreciate every word. We felt honoured and cherished to receive such a personalised reply from Buckingham Palace.
Tap About Town
At Ashcombe House our residents share stories of their ‘dancing days’. Iris told us that she used to tap dance wearing red tap shoes with a bow on them.
During the War, Iris and her friends would tap dance in the air raid shelters to keep everyone entertained.
Today we welcomed Kate, Tap About Town, for an afternoon of music and tap dancing. There was lots of singing and tapping feet as Kate tapped along to some of our favourite tunes, including ‘Singing in the Rain’. Kate and Iris talked about Iris’s tap dancing days, including when Iris painted her tap shoes black, much to her mother’s horror!
Danny said that Kate was excellent, absolutely excellent, and we all agree!
Violin Melodies
Today, residents at Ashcombe House gathered together to hear the talented Jackie Drew play her violin. With the promise of an afternoon of the rich sound of the violin, there was a lot of excitement in the lounge.
We had a beautiful afternoon getting lost in the delicate melodies, and we tapped and sang along to lively folk songs. We were all totally taken in by the rich sound of the violin. Joan and Sally couldn’t believe that a small instrument could produce such a variety of music.
Music plays an important role at Ashcombe House. It provides a sense of comfort and joy, evokes positive emotions and brings back happy memories.
Ken said that the afternoon brought back many happy memories. We all agreed that we couldn’t wait for Jackie’s next visit.
New Year's Eve Celebrations
Ashcombe House celebrated New Year’s Eve with a wonderful performance by Talisha who had us all singing along.
The lounge was full of residents, staff and family members who sang and danced their way through the afternoon! The highlight of the afternoon was when we all linked hands to join together to sing Auld Lang Syne.
We are looking forward to more music, laughter and special moments in 2025!
Christmas Lunch at Lasham
Our residents thought it would be a lovely idea to have a Christmas Lunch at a local garden centre.
We chose Lasham Garden Centre as the festive venue and had a wonderful trip out.
The full Christmas dinner with all the trimmings was very tasty, we pulled Christmas crackers, shared lots of laughs and took our time exploring the beautiful garden centre.
Some of us even managed to squeeze in a bit of Christmas shopping!
It was a truly special day for everyone.
