Activities at Kirkburn Court Care Home
Here at Kirkburn Court, we aim to facilitate a personalised programme of meaningful activities, which are designed to promote independence, social stimulation and cognitive function. We strive to create a comfortable and safe environment where fun, creativity and individuality are encouraged. We feel it is important for us and residents to place value on yesterday, today and tomorrow – which is why we invest heavily in getting to know residents and learning their life history.
Our inclusive, yet respectful ethos is reflected in the wide range of activities we offer – ranging from larger structured group activities to one-to-one sessions. Our monthly activity programmes are extremely varied, but some of the activities you may expect to find include concerts, crafts, games, exercise sessions, reminiscing and outings. We also have a strong relationship with the local community and often invite external guests into the home, including performers, schools, and choirs.
Claire Burden
I began my career with Barchester in December 2017. Having worked within the teaching profession for the preceding 8 years, I feel that I bring a range of transferable skills to the activities team.
I strongly believe that the provision of activities is about so much more than just structured, planned events – capturing and celebrating the little moments in daily life, such as enjoying a chat and a cup of tea together, are equally as important.
Activities, no matter how big or small, should be at the heart of every home and that individuality should be celebrated. In addition, I feel that activities should take a person-centred approach, which is why I enjoy spending time with the residents and learning about their preferences and their history.
My own interests include football, politics, crafting and drinking tea, and I enjoy nothing better than engaging with residents on these topics! I aim to bring energy, a friendly smile and a willing ear to the home each day.
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 Kirkburn Court Care Home
Winston Churchill's love affair with Blenheim Palace
Our residents were thrilled to join Antonia Keaney - Blenheim Palace’s Historian for an intriguing virtual talk on Winston Churchill.
The private resources of Blenheim Palace were drawn upon to afford very new and refreshing insights into this remarkable man. During the talk Antonia shared fascinating information about the breadth of talent, achievement and personality of the "Greatest Briton": soldier, politician, statesman, painter, writer, orator, family man - and bricklayer!
We all had a wonderful time and enjoyed learning more about UK’s former Prime Minister.
Blooming Haus
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.
We all had a wonderful time creating our festive wreath/s.
Thank you @bloominghaus for helping our residents flow into the true spirit of Noel.
International Men's Day
November saw us celebrate International Men’s Day. We arranged some one to one personalised sessions with our lovely gentlemen to allow time for them to spend on their hobbies and interests. Our activities ranged from sorting through fishing equipment and playing chess to reading old football newspapers and listening to old records! Lots of reminiscing and laughter ensued and it was lovely to hear so many old stories. Well done to all our gents!
Chocolate fondue
We have recently dusted off our Chocolate fountain and enjoyed a lovely sweet treat! Our residents selected strawberries, bananas and marshmallows as the dipping items of choice and then set to work on the preparations. After melting many bars of chocolate and washing and cutting up the fruit, we were ready for action! Although our chocolate fountain was not pouring beautifully, it did provide us with plenty of chocolate for dipping! It was quite a messy afternoon but an extremely tasty one! One resident even said she did not want to eat anything else for a while afterwards as she did not want to lose the taste of the delicious chocolate!
Halloween party
Staff and residents have had great fun recently celebrating Halloween. We donned our witches hats to take part in a few spooky themed games and ate our way through lots of sweet treats! Our game of 'find the spider' was a great hit, whereby we had a competition to see who could pick out the most spiders from the bowl of rice in 30 seconds. Of course, there were a few eyeballs in there too (all plastic of course!). We also tried our hand at pin the hat on the cat, but we suspect there was some peaking going on with this one! Finally, we rounded off with a game of pass the pumpkin, with the winner receiving some beastie prizes! Great fun was had by all and some residents even suggested that the staff could try and make their way home on the broomsticks!
English National Ballet
We celebrated Remembrance Day with English National Ballet Associate Dance Artist, Richard Bermange, who led a creative dance workshop for our residents followed by a special extract of Akram Khan’s work Dust, premiered in 2014 as part of ENB’s Lest We Forget programme, commemorating the First World War.
ENB company dancers, Erina Takahashi and James Streeter performed the extract and provided some insight into this moving work.
Our residents had a wonderful time as they listened, danced and were able to singalong to famous war time music performed by ENB Associate Musician, Matt Hartley-Stevens.
