Activities at The Fernes Care Home
At The Fernes we endeavour to make our care as personal as possible, including when it comes to activities. We will give you a 'Getting to Know Me' booklet for you to fill out with your loved one before they arrive, which includes a little life history and a tick sheet for a vast amount of activities. This enables us to offer the activities we know they will enjoy and enables us to learn valuable information about their lives and what might stimulate them in conversations and trips.
Our specialist Activities and Lifestyle staff make sure there are always meaningful activities to take part in, such as helping in the garden, baking some bread to have with our dinner, and trips out to various locations nearby such as the beach and the garden centres. Residents are encouraged to take part, but it is always the resident’s choice to participate or not as we believe that having choice is very important to help our residents feel in control of their lives. There are activities on offer every day (and night for those night owls) in the form of word puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, arts and crafts, needle crafts and board games to name a few. We have entertainment that is organised at least twice a month such as Music for Health, Zoolab or musicians, and also have a wonderful Yoga instructor who comes every other week.
Activities are provided by everyone in our home from carers and specialised activities staff, right through to our admin team. If there is a task that needs doing and a resident would like to do it, such as sealing envelopes and putting stamps on or handing out popcorn for our Movie Mondays, they are very welcome to help out which enables us to give them a better feeling of purpose and self-worth.
We are a registered member of the National Activity Providers Association (NAPA), which means that we are always working to make the quality of life of all of our residents as high as possible by working with person-centred activities that aim to stimulate our residents, both mentally and physically.
Sophie Wasteney
Hi, I'm Sophie, I am the Activities Lead at The Fernes. I've worked in the care sector for 26 years and here at The Fernes for 3 of those. When I started here I worked in care so really got to know the residents, relatives and home very well. When the Activities Lead role arose I naturally jumped at the opportunity as it was one aspect of care I really wanted to do as I really enjoy making people happy. As you cannot put a price on a smile!
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 The Fernes Care Home
Forza Italia – residents celebrate Italian National Day!
Residents have been discovering all things Italiano in celebration of Festa della Republblica or Italian National Day, which took place on Wednesday 2nd June. The date marks the official formation of the Republic of Italy after World War II.
Residents took part in Italian-themed activities throughout the day including with a pizza making masterclass, an Italian themed quiz and learnt some new Italian words from our resident Ivanna which everyone really enjoyed. The favourite activity of the day however was a cheese and wine tasting led by Zoe, where residents tasted different Italian wines with their cheese.
Ivanna, a resident at The Fernes commented: “Italy is the country of my birth and is the most wonderful place and it was so good to reminisce about my home. I loved sharing hometown memories of Italy with my friends, we have sipped the different Italian wines and trying them with different foods, and it has been a really enjoyable day.”
Out in the sunshine!
Our garden was perfect for Gwen to meet meet up with her best friend this weekend, in the sunshine the courtyard looked colourful and they had a great catch up, residents are really enjoying the more relaxing visiting arrangements
BloomingHaus Floristry Masterclass
Staff and residents were treated to an interactive virtual floristry masterclass courtesy of Master Florist, Michal Kowalski, from Blooming Haus today. We gathered together flowers and foliage and followed Michal’s demonstration to create our own stunning displays. All our arrangements will be entered into a Facebook competition judged by Michal and Michael to win Love2Shop vouchers.
Keep your fingers crossed we are the winners!
Birthday Celebrations!
Glasses of bubbly were raised in celebration for Betty's 95th birthday this week and everyone enjoyed a special birthday cake made by the homes head chef for the occasion.
Betty was surrounded by birthday cards as she spoke to her family who were able visit her indoors thanks to the new safe visiting protocols. With her family, daughter Jane and son in law Andrew it was certainly a lovely celebration as more designated visitors are visiting residents inside the home.
Hairdressing salon is open again!
This month we welcomed back Lucy our hairdresser to the salon. Residents are loving being able to go back for the hair dressing experience for a cut & blow dry, perm or anything they want. Our residents say it feels great to finally back looking like their old selves!
Trip to Garsons garden centre
The Residents had their first visit to a local attraction this week, we went to Garsons the garden centre in the mini bus, walked around the flowers and fish ponds and of course a cup of tea and cake in the Orangery Tea House.
