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
Tropical House
Residents from The Fernes were delighted to visit Cumberland House in Portsmouth recently. They jumped aboard their minibus and headed off down the motorway to visit the wonders of the butterfly house, and were not disappointed!
Staff were there to welcome them as they arrived, and they headed straight for the tropical house, where there were a myriad of butterflies waiting to be found. The butterflies and long wings were all beautiful colours. Some had outstanding markings, like the one seen on the huge owl butterfly, which flew all around residents, through their legs and around the paths as everyone watched in awe.
Beach Day
With the sun shining high in the sky, residents at The Fernes boarded the minibus and set a course for their nearest beach: Lee-on-the-Solent!
Residents were looking forward to getting out to the seaside to listen to the waves and watch the people playing in the sea, enjoying this very rare and wonderful British summer.
Residents even got their hands on some traditional Mr. Whippy 99s, with the choice of a flake as well, which went down a treat.
The residents all enjoyed their time out and remarked that it was a very relaxing and wonderful trip, and can’t wait for the next one!
Friends & Family Day
Residents at The Fernes have had a blast celebrating International Friendship Day by hosting a 'Friends & Family BBQ'.
Residents honed their arts and crafts skills making handmade invitations to send far and wide, and created their very own special bunting for the day.
The day itself involved lots of special friends and family time, some yummy food prepared by the home's talented chefs and a fun arts & crafts session, where friendship bracelets were created as keepsakes.
There were smiles all round as staff, residents and family members were reminded of the importance of friends and family and how they can enrich your life.
Open Day
We welcomed the local community in for a 1940s-themed tea party, complete with vintage crockery, musical entertainment, staff and residents dressing up for the occasion and the chance to meet the team and look around the home.
The open day was held on 21st April from 12:00 p.m. Guests were able to meet and chat to our friendly staff and ask all the questions they had about care, and had a chance to enjoy the hospitality and entertainment on offer.
Local tea room, The Tea Party in Lee-on-the-Solent, supplied the wonderful vintage tea sets and Sophie, Lifestyle Leader, baked some very summery strawberry cakes! There was musical entertainment from vintage singer, Becki Short, which, even with a few spots of rain, was a wonderful performance that residents really enjoyed dancing to and singing along with.
Cupcake Day
Cupcake Day has been a real treat at The Fernes, where sweet-toothed staff and residents got out their aprons and mixing bowls to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society.
The day, organised by the Alzheimer’s Society, encourages groups and individuals to host a cupcake day to raise money for the charity, where funds will be put towards finding the cure for dementia. Dedicated cupcakers have raised £1.4 million since 2016, and this year the charity hopes to raise even more to continue to support those affected by dementia.
Baking is a much-loved hobby for many people who live and work at The Fernes. The team used the occasion to host a celebration of all things cupcake-related for residents, their families and invited guests, who all got to enjoy a wonderful vintage-themed bake sale.
Activities Coordinator (and pro baker), Sophie of 'Sophie’s Sweetcakes', kindly donated specially-designed Alzheimer’s Society cupcakes. Residents had an in-house bake off between their communities, pitting divine coffee and walnut cupcakes topped with a coffee frosting made by the ground floor community, against simple but scrumptious vanilla cupcakes topped with a gorgeous glacier cherry and fondant made by the Memory Lane community.
The winner was the Memory Lane community, which was decided by the guests at the event. There was music from the wonderful Becki Short and vintage tea sets provided by local tea room, 'The Tea Party', based in Lee-on-the-Solent. There were a variety of other games and activities to take part in that helped The Fernes raise lots of money for such a great cause.
Incredible Eggs
Something wonderful has come to the residents at The Fernes; they have got to experience the joys of bringing new life into the world in the form of tiny yellow ducklings, all thanks to Incredible Eggs!
They arrived in their perfectly white eggs on Monday 24th March, ready to hatch. By Thursday, there were three tiny, yellow, fluffy ducklings, who were joined by two more on Friday!
The residents have all been interacting with the ducklings and working together to name them, so we put names into a hat and pulled 5 out.
The lucky winning names were: Millie, Amber, Dewy, Penelope and the aptly named Quack Quack. They are thoroughly enjoying making a wonderful mess, much to the residents' delight!
