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
Nurses Appreciation Week
Residents wanted to show our local nurses just how much they appreciate all their hard work on International Nurses Week by writing them a 'Thank you' letter and inviting them along to The Fernes for tea & cake. The nurses were overwhelmed by the lovely gesture and had a wonderful time reading their letters together.
D-Day Celebration
Here at Fernes Home we stepped back in time to relive life in the 1940’s to mark the 75th Anniversary of D-Day.
The trio ‘Knightingales’ came to wow us with their stunning vocals with past time favourites and a quick change of outfits. One resident said ‘It brought back those happy memories with my husband’ and didn’t stop smiling throughout the whole show. All enjoyed the celebration, by singing along, tapping their feet and getting up to have a jive.
The Magic Table
We are delighted to announce that we have just had a Magic Table installed, which is an interactive light projector, designed to support residents living with dementia by keeping them engaged through specialised games.
The light projections respond to hand and arm movement, promoting movement, allowing residents to stay stimulated and, most of all, have fun!
You can read more about it on this page.
Mini Mayhem
Residents at The Fernes had an egg-citing afternoon over the Easter bank holiday with the animals from Mucky Bucket’s Mini Mayhem Mobile Farm.
Friends, families & staff came along with their children to help residents experience a taste of life on the farm. They took part in feeding, cuddling, grooming and even took the goats for a walk!
Everyone had a fun-filled afternoon and couldn’t stop talking about it for the rest of the week; it really made our Easter special and one to remember!
Time for a Cuppa
On Wednesday 6th March, we popped the kettle on to raise money for Dementia UK. We hosted a lovely afternoon cream tea, where residents and loved ones got the chance to tuck into homemade scones, cakes and drink endless amounts of tea. We raised a total of £28, and are looking forward to hosting our next one later in the year.
Ladies Day
On Cheltenham Ladies Day, everyone got their hats on with bubbly in hand to place their bets. We did a sweepstake for the main race, and prizes were given to 1st, 2nd & 3rd place.
