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
The Fernes' Official Opening
On 21st September, we held a special event for staff, residents, relatives and guest to celebrate our official opening.
The Chairman of Hampshire County Council, Cllr Keith Chapman MBE attended the event as did The Mayor Cllr Mrs Connie Hockley and The Mayor’s Consort Cllr Geoff Hockley.
Pupils from Orchard Lea Junior School kick-started the celebrations by singing a selection of songs, which were enjoyed by everyone. Following their performance, the home’s General Manager, Catherine Bezer gave a welcome speech in which she spoke of her hopes for the home as it begins to welcome more staff and residents.
Speeches were then given by the Chief Executive of Barchester Healthcare Dr Pete Calveley and Barchester’s Chairman of the Board, John Coleman. The Mayor of Fareham also addressed the guests and shared her thoughts on the stunning new home.
Local hero, John Stephens was then invited to unveil the official plaque. John, known to his friends as Jonno, used to serve in the Royal Navy and now works as a civilian at HMS Collingwood in Fareham. He was nominated to be the home’s local hero for the support he gives to the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity. He gives up a huge amount of his spare time to organise fundraising collections for the charity and has raised over £6,000 in total.
Staff conducted tours of the purpose built home, showing guests around the bedrooms and communal spaces, as well as facilities such as the hair salon and specialised features in the Memory Lane Community for people living with dementia.
Meanwhile, people were treated to delicious canapés prepared by the home’s Head Chef and entertainment from harpist, Audrey Cameron Finnemore.
It was great day that was enjoyed by all!
The Fernes indulges in some home-made cakes!
On the afternoon of the 30th September, we hosted our first ever coffee afternoon in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support. Everyone’s friends and family came along for a bit of cake and coffee, with a huge amount of support from the bakers among them!
We had a cake-off, and the winner was a lovely raspberry cream cake. All entries were more than up to the job of winning, and it was a very close call!
On sale, we had 3 lemon cakes (including 1 that was made by residents), granny’s cookies, coconut buns, cupcakes and rice crispy cakes, to name but a few.
Our chefs also took part, selling home-made jam and supplying us with a variety of cheesecakes, including banoffee, cherry and chocolate!
We decorated our tables with bunting that we had made earlier in the week - and it looked amazing!
In total, we raised £103.87 for Macmillan, and we are looking forward to next year already. Thank you to all the family and friends that came along, to the residents for their arts and craft and baking skills, and to our staff who made sure that everything ran smoothly.
Zoolab
On the 13th September, we had a visit from Zoolab, who provide something a little different for care homes and schools across the country.
Hannah, one of Zoolab’s keepers, brought us a whole variety of different animals to get to know. First up, we met Sam the Dumbo Rat, who loved all the attention from residents.
Next, we had Brian the Giant African Land Snail. He was quite shy and didn’t want to come out of his shell to start with, but residents and staff coaxed him out to come and say hi.
We admired Rose the Tarantula from afar; she is the most common tarantula species to be kept as pets in the UK, but when this type of spider gets unhappy, it rubs its back legs on its abdomen and kicks off lots of tiny little hairs, known as urticating hairs, that can cause a nasty irritation and a rash, so we made sure that we admired her in her home.
We also got to hold a baby Giant African Millipede, whose many legs had us all mesmerised!
Residents thoroughly enjoyed the visit from these unusual friends, and relished in the opportunity to hold and cuddle all the creatures they could. We can’t wait for Hannah to come again in January!
Preparing for The Ferne's Official Opening
Staff and residents at The Fernes have been keeping themselves very busy recently in preparation for the home's official opening on 21st September, when they can expect the company of some very special guests.
Baking and Barbecues
Residents at The Fernes had a try at baking, and it took them 3 hours to make some fairy cakes. It was lovely to see them laughing and smiling throughout.
Also, our first BBQ was a massive success and was enjoyed by residents and staff alike.
Welcome, Residents!
The first group of many residents have moved into The Fernes! We made sure they felt welcome on their first night - and they had a blast! We look foward to meeting many more.
