Activities at Fordmill Care Home

Who doesn’t love a visit from the Easter Bunny!  We recently had a visit from our hopping mad friend when a local nursery also joined us to sing to our residents and play some Easter games with them.  Our residents had fun decorating eggs with the children then singing along to the Bunny Song.

These intergenerational visits to celebrate important events such as Easter allow us all to reminisce on our own traditions and learn new ways too. Discussions about hot cross buns and their significance turned to… but how do you eat your crème egg when the chocolate appeared? Safe to say everyone had full bellies, and the Easter Bunny was worn out after another year’s antics! 

We are very lucky to have a beautiful, serene garden offering our residents many opportunities over the seasons. We love it so much that we offer our community to feel free and use the space respectively. So when the first warm days appeared, we had as many walks outdoors as we could, laced with lots of chatter about the hope that Spring brings.  

Our residents were so happy when the nursery children came in to have a play and wanted to sit and watch them. However, the children came over to interact, and before we knew it, we were all filling watering cans for their water games, blowing bubbles and throwing balls for them to catch. These impromptu moments of activity are so amazing and cherished and keep our residents feeling young!

We love big games when everyone can take part and get lost in the excitement.  The Grand National celebrations are no different at Fordmill.  We made a large floor based interactive game complete with horses and fences to jump over.  

Residents and families sat in teams and rolled their dices to battle it out to be the winners.  And of course, we dressed for the occasion with our fancy hats and dined on fresh fruits and ice cream with some sparkling Prosecco.  Residents enjoyed being encouraged to shout along for their team horse, like you would at the horses and the excitement bubbled over when the winning confetti cannons went off!  

Here at Fordmill, we are very proud of our wonderful staff, and we really appreciate the work they put into every single day by looking after our residents at a very high standard.  

Today was International Women’s Day and to acknowledge it, we took the opportunity and cherished our staff with a little treat.   

The entire day was soaked in loving embraces as staff were singing songs throughout the home, and residents were encouraged to dance in the lounges.

Staff and residents celebrated St Patrick's day by inviting along The Travelling Uke Band who performed a medley of classic Irish songs to entertain the residents. Head chef Karen McGinley made some tasty shamrock biscuits which the residents washed down with Guinness or a wee dram of their choice.  

Later in the evening, the Gordon School of Dance were performing for an hour with a splendid show of Irish jigs and Riverdance routines.  The residents thoroughly enjoyed their day and were tired out with all the toe-tapping, clapping and grinning from ear to ear. 

Fordmill has thrown a surprise party to celebrate Aileen Albert’s 10-year anniversary of serving as General Manager to the home.  Staff, residents and guests commemorated this special occasion with lots of well-wishes for Aileen, with Regional Director Wendy McGowan presenting Aileen with her 10-year service pin and thanking her for her service.  As someone who knows every little thing that happens in Fordmill, the staff worked hard to surprise Aileen, and it was worth it, to see her reaction.

Under Aileen’s management, Fordmill has built up an excellent reputation over the years, having recently been awarded a rarely presented ‘Excellent – Grade 6’ rating by the Care Inspectorate. The home regularly holds events and activities for its residents and families and engages with the local community on many occasions to bring life enrichment to all.  Fordmill was also recently upgraded and visitors are quick to say it feels more like a 5-star hotel than a Care Home.