Activities at Melbourn Springs Care Home
Ensuring that our social events offer fun and adventure is a major focus of the ethos of our home; it’s important that those we support can enjoy an active and social lifestyle. Of course, there will always be those who prefer peace and quiet, and in these instances, a cup of tea and a chat will always be welcomed.
Denise Ashby
Hello, my name is Denise and I am the Activities Coordinator here at Melbourn Springs. I joined Barchester in 2022 and always strive to support and care for all of our residents in a way that best suits each individual.
Making sure that our residents have things to do that they really enjoy doing is something that I hold very close to my heart. It is so important to make sure that they are happy and enjoy all of the activities and events that we host for them.
A lot of our residents also enjoy our special trips out on our Mini Bus as we create new, special memories together at Melbourn Springs.
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 Melbourn Springs Care Home
They Matter Fiddle Mats
Hilary Curtis and the “They Matter” Group from the Buntingford U3A have kindly donated a selection of bespoke handmade Fiddle/activity Mats for our Elstar Memory Lane Dementia Community.
The mats make a huge difference to our residents lives alongside our Empathy Dolls, Magic Table and home lifestyle enrichment programme hosted by our Activities Coordinator Laura.
For more information about how you might be able to join or support “They Matter” please call Hilary on 01763 661508
Thank you so much to all at the "They Matter" group - we really do appreciate your generous gift to Melbourn Springs and look forward to welcoming you to our home properly in the future.
Alzheimer's Society annual Cupcake Day
To mark the Alzheimer's Society annual Cupcake Day, our Activities Coordinator Laura hosted a classic baking afternoon at Melbourn Springs.
Our residents really enjoyed getting stuck in and by the end of the afternoon there was not even one Cupcake left - they certainly were very tasty!
Families reunited and Councillors support
We are so pleased to have been able to reunite our residents with their loved ones as pre-booked, socially distanced Garden visits have begun at Melbourn Springs.
The sun was shining and our home gardens looked delightful with lots of Wild Flowers including Poppies and Lavender. A designated area with tables and chairs for the get togethers has been set which are cleaned between visits, and staff have been moved to tears by some of the reunions happening between families.
On what was a gloriously sunny day, County Councillor Susan Van de Ven and District Councillor Philippa Hart also joined the home team to show their support for how Melbourn Springs has remained free of the virus, welcome families and gain an even deeper understanding of their experiences in the community over the last few weeks.
Some residents have not seen their relatives face to face for several weeks so this was a very, very, special moment and will be remembered by us all for many years to come.
Royal Ascot
What better way to enjoy Royal Ascot than by having our very own special afternoon at Melbourn Springs!
A delicious three course lunch was followed by an afternoon of Pimms, Strawberries & Cream and Horse Racing.
General Manager Karen and Administration Manager Ian were on hand to make sure glasses were always topped up and we all had a truly delightful afternoon with one resident saying, “We really must have an Ascot afternoon weekly!”
Queen's Birthday Celebrations
To celebrate the Queen’s official birthday at Melbourn Springs we held a special Afternoon Tea for our residents to enjoy the occasion together. But no Afternoon Tea would be complete without Cake – and what a showstopper we had! Who needs the Great British Bake off when we have 2nd Chef Annie Symonds?!?
The whole team came up with different designs and we held a vote to pick our final cake design - with the winning ‘Crown’ put forward by General Manager – Karen Allen.
Our residents helped decide on the actual colour and it was a close call between Red, Blue or Purple for the Crown but the team agreed with Royal Purple for our creation.
We were all blown away by Annie’s amazing Cake, with resident Iris exclaiming, “I have never seen anything like it - absolutely excellent!”
It seemed a shame to cut the ‘work of art’ but we all enjoyed a slice together which was truly delicious and there were smiles all round as we sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to our Queen. This special Cake and day will definitely be remembered by all of us at Melbourn Springs for many years to come.
Anyone for Ice Cream?
As our residents cannot visit the Ice cream Van at the moment, our Activities Coordinator Laura organised a special Ice Cream afternoon to bring the Ice Cream to Melbourn Springs.
One resident said, “Oh, it reminds me of when I visited the pictures years and years ago - the best bit for me was always the Ice Cream at the interval but I was a bit boring really as Strawberry was always my favourite!"
Everyone had a lovely afternoon and Vanilla was definitely the most popular choice - with a Flake of course!
