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
Project Fish Tank - Part 2
The tank has been relocated to our first floor Memory Lane unit so that residents who benefit the most from sensory stimuli can enjoy it. Other residents are, of course, welcome to come and have a look.
After a thorough clean with vinegar and salt - as chemicals can penetrate the rubber that seals the tank and ultimately poison the fish - our tank was ready for its gravel to be settled and the filter to be installed.
We cleaned the gravel using our buckets and hands to make sure all the dust was gone - and we did this for our ornaments too!
We then filled the aquarium about half way with cold water – this means that the gravel, once laid on the bottom, is less likely to be disturbed or moved when we add in more water. Our residents helped to lay the gravel and then we filled the tank with water all the way to the top! After this, we made sure there was no bottom glass visible and started putting in our heater, filter and bubble pumps! Finally, we added some decorations and a dechlorinator to the water.
The tank will now cycle for a week until we are ready get our first fish!
Valentine's Day
This year marked our very first Valentine’s Day at The Fernes and we made sure we celebrated in style!
Residents spent the day making bunting, flowers and centre pieces, as well as a table seating plan in preparation for the evening’s ‘Love your family’ Valentine's buffet, with friends and family donating £5 per head to the Barchester Foundation in exchange for a wonderful family Indian buffet meal.
There were onion bhajis for starters, followed by a selection of curries, including Korma and Madras. For those who weren’t so fond of curries, our chef made an incredible Turkey a la King to accompany the choice of 2 rice dishes, or mashed potatoes for those who preferred it. On the side, of course, were papadums, herb naan bread and a little minted sour cream for cooling! Dessert followed and consisted of a mouth-watering coconut cheesecake or ice cream, all washed down with a selection of drinks, including wine and beers.
Residents, their relatives and friends couldn’t praise our kitchen team more highly, with everyone complimenting the fantastic job that they had done throughout the night. We thank all of our guests for attending our dinner, and we hope to see you soon for the next one!
Happy Valentine's Day!
Project Fish Tank: Part 1 - We're just getting started!
Here at The Fernes, residents love our trips to the local aquarium, Maidenhead Aquatics, based in The Abbey Garden Centre. We try and visit at least once a month to feed the Koi Carp and look at the other colourful and beautiful fish.
We have decided it would be a brilliant idea to have our own fish tank so that those who are unable to come with us on trips (due to numbers or other engagements) can see and appreciate these beautiful creatures.
We were kindly donated a wonderful tank and stand by a member of the public. The tank is currently having a clean and we are sourcing our filters, heaters, pumps, décor and other bits and pieces; we will need to set up a tropical tank before we can cycle the tank filters and add our first fish.
We will keep you updated as the project progresses, so keep an eye out for more!
If you have anything that you would like to donate for our fish tank project, such as ornaments, or are interested in volunteering to help with this project, please get in contact with Kat, our Lifestyle Specialist and Activities Coordinator, on 01392 443600.
Hollywood Heartthrobs
Residents received a visit from Betsy, who performed an amazing show called Hollywood Heartthrobs.
Backed by a red carpet backdrop and with multiple costume changes in between, Betsy performed songs from all the best-known artists, including Gene Kelly, Doris Day, and Elvis Presley.
The dresses matched each era that she sang through, with a simple light pink to start, through to a polka dot halter for the more 'rock 'n' roll' numbers, and finishing with a glamorous green floor length dress, completed with a white fur shawl for the more classy numbers, such as Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend.
Betsy will be back on 2nd June performing a tribute to Judy Garland.
A Day of Musical Fun at The Fernes
With a relaxing pianist in the morning and a bit of upbeat karaoke in the afternoon, our musical medley day was great for everyone.
We started the off day with Ang coming to play her piano for us in the morning. She delighted us with classical numbers, such as Air on the G String by Bach, A Thousand Years by Christina Perry and many others.
After a break for lunch, we were joined by Bernie for a bit of karaoke. With the words on the screen - and lots of energy and laughter - we sang along and danced to each and every song that was played.
The atmosphere was fantastic and all residents had a chance to sing with the microphone to different tunes if they wanted to.
We can’t wait to see these ladies again and look forward to their next visits in the very near future.
Burns Night
Resident, Pamela (in the middle), and her two sisters celebrated Burns Night at The Fernes. A special Burns Night menu was enjoyed by everyone at the home, which was followed by a little competition of guessing the content of the chocolate liquors. The dining room was decorated with tartan bunting made by residents earlier in the week.
