Activities at Oaklands Care Home

The launch of our Dementia disco was quite simply more fantastic than we had thought it would be.
We enjoyed an hour and a half with a live DJ playing all our favourite songs from a playlist and requests made in the evening. We had a glow station with lots of fun things for our residents to wear and enjoy, from ties, bracelets and wands.

The evening was a huge success, way more than we had first imagined, giving residents, staff and families a chance to connect, and enjoy letting their hair down. Our DJ left the evening feeling fulfilled and said “that has given me a real sense of satisfaction that I haven’t had from any event I’ve done, and I’ve been a DJ for over 20 years.”

Kate and Sarah danced the whole time and were both disappointed when the night came to a close. Others danced, sat relaxed and then danced some more. It's safe to say we all slept well that night.  

We celebrated VE day across the whole week, soaking up everything that we could, ensuring all our residents that wanted to remember and reminisce were able to and those that wanted to celebrate could. We enjoyed a vintage tea trolley which visited all the residents' rooms along with room singing from our professional choir teacher and a small group of staff and residents that are able.

We had a large street party with music provided by Luan, which was fantastic with lots of dancing and singing, and we all took time to sing the national anthem and pause for a moment to reflect. At the weekend, we were treated to a drive-by of some military vehicles from our local air museum and some lucky residents even got a ride around in them. 

We visited our local village church to look at the flower display created specifically for VE day and later that day we attended our village celebrations on the village green to enjoy music and ice-cream. We were all pretty exhausted by the end of it, but we finished the week full of memories and reflections on how lucky we are.    

We recently celebrated World Bee day and what a fun day it was. We asked staff and residents to dress in bee costumes or yellow and black. We had some outstanding costumes and even had a competition for best dressed with a joint 1st place from Cristina, our deputy, and Gabi, our clinical lead. 

The day was filled with all things bee-related, with bee craft-themed activities in the morning, a honey tasting social in the afternoon and a tea party with honey biscuits. Our dressed-up bees visited every room so that all our residents cared for in their beds were a part of the fun.  

Our staff supported the social media hype and carried out our very own ice bucket challenge to raise awareness for MIND charity, then challenged our two sisters' home in Barchester and got the fun started.

Cristina, our deputy, was our brave victim and Gabi, our clinical lead, couldn’t wait to step up to pour the bucket of iced water with staff and residents watching on laughing and cheering. It provoked conversations about why we are doing it and then got people talking about their feelings, so it achieved what we had hoped. 

Time for the mini-bus to get a clean. This is one of Ray's favourite things to do as he used to take great pride in cleaning his car. 

Kate joined us this time and both myself and Kate got some stick from Ray for “not doing a proper job”!!

We certainly had a laugh whilst doing this and got a little wet along the way, but a good time was had by all.

We had a fantastic Saturday morning, joining fellow Bottisham villagers to participate in the monthly village litter pick. We laughed lots as some of us got stuck in bushed whilst collecting an array of items, from gloves, cans to a football top!!

We later joined the group at the Bottisham social club for bacon sarnies and a cuppa. We love to connect with the village and support the community whilst getting some fresh air, exercise and making new friends.