Activities at Lancaster Grange Care Home
Activities are the cornerstone of a wholesome home experience and our Activities Coordinators are always putting their creative minds to the test by organising new and exciting social events for residents to partake in. Of course, we take into account the likes and dislikes of those we support, so if someone doesn’t feel like trying something new, there will always be something on offer to reflect their personal interests. For the people who may just prefer some peace and quiet instead, we also offer one-to-one time that can be enjoyed with a nice cup of coffee or just a simple chat – whatever they desire.
Charlotte Thompson
We would like to introduce to you our Senior Activities Coordinator, Charlotte Thompson. Charlotte has worked at Barchester since 2015 and prides herself on delivering a person centred approach, valuing equality, diversity & offering tailored activities. Charlotte joined the team at Tennyson Wharf in October 2022 before moving back to us here at Lancaster Grange in January 2023.
Charlotte is pleased to be welcoming families and volunteers back into the home. Charlotte is a senior activities coordinator and enjoys supporting other homes in our region as part of her job role.
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 Lancaster Grange Care Home
Celebrating Music
We wanted to share a wonderful day with our residents here at Lancaster Grange, celebrating the power of music within our home. In the morning, in our Memory Lane community, we held a sensory sing-a-long with props and percussion.
We sang songs that we would recognise and enjoy, evoking many memories and helping our residents to sing. Many of our residents were engaged in the group; singing and physical movement were encouraged, leading to much joy!
We continued our theme in the afternoon and welcomed the Grantham U3A Ukulele group into our home. We held a fun singing group in our Thorsby community.
This enabled residents to hear music in our nursing community and encouraged residents from other communities to join us. Have a look at our pictures from our power of music day!
Music can benefit the brain in many ways, including improving mood, reducing pain, and stimulating brain activity. It can also help with memory, cognitive function, and social bonding. We definitely benefited in many ways. What a great day here, celebrating music at our care home, Lancaster Grange.
National story telling day!
Throughout the day, we have been asking our team what stories are significant to them.
What were the books that you read to your children, or what do you remember being read to you? This morning we had a storytelling morning comprising short stories and reminiscing about stories we remember and challenging our memory.
Ann happily helped out in the morning by reading a funny short story to our residents in the life enrichment group. We continued with our day, and to our delight, we had a surprise visit from our friends Paddy and Diane.
Paddy and Diane kindly made Bailey's Fudge for us to complement our Who Am I quiz afternoon with Bailey's hot chocolate. Following a fun and interesting quiz that challenged our minds, Nicole happily assisted in handing out the delicious fudge, which we all thoroughly enjoyed. Thank you Paddy and Diane for you kind gesture.
A great day here at Lancaster Grange, stimulating our minds, bodies, and souls.
Time to talk
What a great way for our residents here at Lancaster Grange to recognise this day, by meeting new people, making new friends, talking and getting to know one another.
We asked ourselves… What is Time to Talk Day? Time to Talk Day is the nation’s biggest mental health conversation. It’s a day for friends, families, communities and workplaces to come together to talk, listen and change lives.
The afternoon was certainly embraced by our residents. We were thrilled to welcome Alison and her colleagues from the U3A group Singing for Fun.
We welcomed back Vicky and her husband from Fernwood Community Coffee Morning group along with other members.
We were also happy for guests to join us from The Dementia Friends group. We had such a great time getting to know each other over coffee and cake, and we recognised so many shared hobbies and interests, especially Beryl, who shared her story of music and singing with Alison.
What a successful afternoon! We certainly all benefited from the power of talking and getting to know each other.
New Years Eve celebrations with a magic show from David Fox
We were thrilled to welcome Davi Fox Magic back for our New Year’s Party here at Lancaster Grange. Each year David visits us here at Lancaster Grange and provides a great show!!
David’s Magic Show kept our residents of all communities enchanted with his magic tricks, involving the ladies and gentlemen in the audience.
Residents were thrilled to receive personally themed balloon art, made in front of their eyes by David himself.
Dennis gave a chuckle when presented with a balloon motorcycle, Ann was thrilled with her balloon horse and Alice, our Care Practitioner, challenged David to make a balloon Guinea pig, which we all thought he did really well.
Celebrating Elvis Presley’s Birthday with our residents here at Lancaster Grange
We celebrated what would have been ‘The King of Rock’n’roll’s’ 90th Birthday in style here at Lancaster Grange with our very own ‘American Diner'.
Residents joined the activities team, Charlotte and Cherilyn, along with volunteer, Owen, for an afternoon of music, American diner food tasting, quizzes and puzzles.
On our menu we had homemade dishes that we had made in Cookery Club yesterday:
Pecan Pie with ice-cream
Blueberry Pancakes with Maple syrup
Ring iced doughnuts
Rocky Road
and Knickerbocker Glory, which was very popular.
A lovely multisensory experience that was brought to our residents as part of their life enrichment weekly program.
Elsie proudly delivery her hats to charities
Here at Lancaster Grange, we encourage our residents to keep up with their hobbies and interests, stimulating their mind, body and soul.
Elsie’s in her 90th decade and joined us here at Lancaster Grange nearly 4 years ago.
Elsie worked for many years supporting children with additional needs and had a natural tendency to care and give. This led Elsie to the idea of using one of her favourite hobbies, knitting, into something she could give back to the community.
For many weeks in our knit and natter club and when relaxing in the evenings, Elsie has been working hard to knit hats and scarves for several charities.
Elsie chose to support homeless men and women in our local community, and proudly delivered her hats and scarf to Newark and Sherwood District Council today, to be distributed at the council-run drop-in shelters.
Castle House receptionist was thrilled to receive it on behalf of the Homelessness Prevention and Rough Sleeper Strategy department, and thanked Elsie for all her hard work and dedication.
Elsie and fellow residents enjoyed a coffee, cake and a little essential shopping at Waitrose & Partners after her charity donation. Elsie now plans to carry on with her knitting. Her next delivery will be to an orphanage in Zambia (by post)!!
