Activities at Harton Grange Care Home
We understand that the people we support have passions and interests that could be difficult to pursue after moving into a care home – but that doesn’t mean we don’t encourage them to try! Some hobbies can define a person, so our Activities Coordinators are dedicated to ensuring that everyone we support is able to do what makes them happy to the best of their abilities. Social events are organised with individual tastes in mind and with the idea that residents have the opportunity to try new and exciting things.
Marius Sidoriuc
Hi, my name is Marius, I am the activities coordinator here at Harton Grange. I joined Barchester's family in 2021, as I found their approach and standards on dementia very interesting. Since early 2022 I work for Barchester as both activities coordinator and care assistant. In 2018, I started my journey in health and social care as a care assistant and very soon after, I completed courses on dementia and activities (NAPA, level 2) and I worked as both activities coordinator and care assistant in Kent. I'm also an apprentice in health and social care. I've met some amazing people that have guided my understanding of dementia.
The most important thing for me is to see our residents achieving a meaningful raison d'etre, living as they like and to benefit from a range of activities starting from Namaste to reminiscing and spiritual needs (such as praying or listening to hymns), art and craft, armchair exercises, music therapy or finger nail pamper sessions.
I like to acknowledge that I am working as a part of a whole team, including the fantastic management, hospitality and maintenance departments, promoting a person centred approach for each resident and we are glad to know each persons preferences and abilities in order to plan how the day will look with them. One way we are able to do this is through our residents' and family' meetings where we try to let everyone have their say about the way they want to live and the activities they take part in.
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 Harton Grange Care Home
Magic of the Nutcracker
We experienced the magic of the Nutcracker with a special interactive workshop led by English National Ballet Associate Artists.
Our residents were able to take a magical journey thorough Edwardian London and to learn more about the enchanted Nutcracker characters: Clara, the Mouse King, and her valiant Nutcracker doll.
The session included a chair-based dance workshop, clips of the ballet on stage and a Christmas carol sing-along, truly enjoyed by all.
Christmas Truffle Making
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.
Bauble Workshop with Goldfinch Floral Studio
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 Palace Christmas Extravaganza
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.
Our residents were able to discover the story of The Nutcracker re-imagined within the palace rooms, each one exquisitely transformed and filled with hidden surprises – from the toymaker’s workshop on a frosty Christmas Eve; through the glistening Land of Snow and onto the candy-cane Kingdom of Sweets adorned with the sweetest of treats and larger-than-life gingerbread men.
Then the residents explored the after-dark illuminated trail in the palace’s picture-perfect gardens. A feast for the senses, as we witnessed glittering tunnels of light, dancing lakeside reflections, trees drenched in jewel-like colour and mesmerising flickering flames in the fire garden.
It was a truly magical experience, enjoyed by all.
Living kitchen
At Harton Grange, it is so lovely to see our residents being active and joining in with daily life skills that they wold of produced in years gone by. We have an amazing Living kitchen, it is filled with old memorabilia from times gone by and it certainly brings up memories from our youth, cooking with our parents or grandparents or teaching our children how to bake. On this day we made chocolate crispy cakes while having a good talk about the good old days, we used the china cups for a lovely cup of tea and once the cakes were set, these went down a treat with other residents.
Knee's up!
At Harton Grange we love an old knees up, our friends from Mind Active from Northumberland invited us to an afternoon of song with a musical duo called fool’s gold, this was streamed via zoom. We had a gathering and out came the wine and lemonade, we knew every song including the lampton worm. A big thankyou to mind active, we had a lovely afternoon!
