Activities at Balclutha Court Care Home

At Balclutha Court our resident’s happiness is extremely important to us. We all know that a large part of this is keeping active and continuing to enjoy your interests and hobbies. At Balclutha Court, we have regular activities including arts and crafts, music, entertainment, trips to local attractions such as canal trips, safari parks and many more. Our activities team are always busy organising events, entertainment and excursions with the broadest possible appeal and many of our residents see living at Balclutha Court as an opportunity to develop a new skill or interest. It is important to us that each individual who we support can get as much from these as possible, so we try our best to arrange activities that reflect their interests and capabilities as best as possible, and encourage them to participate in any way they can. We also encourage relatives to join with activities and events as often as they can.

Enriching life
Watch our video on life enrichment in our homes.

Karen Dillon

Head of Activities

Karen Dillon is our Head of Activities and has worked within the home since 2005, starting out as a Carer. Karen is very outgoing and full of fun. She has many hobbies, with arts & crafts being her favourite, and her passion for this can be seen in our life enrichment programme.

Karen is supported by Kay Millar and Anita Marsh, between them they ensure that residents are happy and have loads of fun.

They are very keen to involve the residents in the decision making within the home to enhance their experience. They take part in the residents' meetings, catering forums and assist the General Manager in interviewing new staff members.

Life-encriching activities booklet

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 Balclutha Court Care Home

Truffles with Unilever

We had a lovely time joining Paul Hawkins and Steve Wilkes from Unilever for an exciting immersive Christmas experience.

Our residents were welcomed with chocolate treats as Paul and Steve took them on an exciting chocolate truffle making and biscuit decorating journey.

To finish off the Christmas special event, our residents enjoyed a themed quiz and a singalong.

We all had a wonderful time.

Goldfinch

We all had a wonderful time joining Jennifer Owen - founder of Goldfinch Floral Studio for a creative floral bauble workshop.

Jennifer transported our residents to the out of the ordinary world of flowers and crafts and demonstrated how to create stunning hand-made baubles filled with dried flowers and grasses.

Our residents enjoyed filling and decorating their own glass baubles and their unique creations will be displayed at the home for everyone to enjoy.

Blenheim Christmas lights

We experienced the Christmas extravaganza of Blenheim Palace with Social Historian - Antonia Keaney, who took us on a recorded tour around the Christmas sights at the palace this year.

Christmas wreath making

We were delighted to join Blooming Haus’s Christmas Wreath Making Masterclass, where Master Florist, Michal and his business partner - Michael showed us the best method to create beautiful festive wreaths.

Following the tips and ideas learnt during the amazing virtual experience, we were happy to put our skills to a test and to enter the #BarchesterChristmasWreaths competition.

A new hair do!

Who loves a new hair doo? We do that’s who. - Residents at Balclutha Court enjoy a wee spruce up from their very own resident hairdresser Carolyn in their own salon. They love to have chat while getting their weekly hair pampering. Well let's face it, who doesn't enjoy a gossip with the hairdresser.

Happy birthday Mr Monet!

Happy birthday Mr Monet! - Residents at Balclutha Court paid homage to the man himself by trying to recreate some of his life’s works. Everyone got involved and there were a few tongues out. We really enjoyed it and are quite proud of our forgeries.

Upcoming events

May

May is the gateway to summer and we have lots of fun filled things planned - all welcome.