Activities at Waterside Court Care Home

Residents celebrated St George’s Day today with a wonderful array of activities. We started the morning in Benson community lounge, enjoying a cup of tea and a St George’s Themed quiz. The afternoon then took residents and staff to the kitchenette, where residents took part in themed cake baking.

Waterside Court’s kitchenettes are designed to help residents easily take part in cooking and baking activities. The kitchenettes are easily accessible, spacious and safely set up so that residents can maintain as much independence as possible.

Activity Coordinator, May Kidner, commented: “It was lovely to see residents getting involved and reminiscing over their own baking experiences. The activity encouraged residents to share their own family recipes and the themed baking even sparked some healthy competition. It was a lovely afternoon”.

Residents and staff made the most of the wonderful weather by enjoying Afternoon Tea on one of Waterside Court’s balconies. Today’s menu offered a variety of hot and cold beverages, home-made banana cake, fruit cake and fresh strawberries.

With the trees now starting to blossom and wildlife becoming more active in the local area, residents also took part in some nature-watching whilst they enjoyed their refreshments.

Our wonderful kitchen team baked some delicious, royal-themed cupcakes in honour of Queen Elizabeth’s birthday.

Our themed refreshments were not only served to residents as they enjoyed high tea and reminiscence discussions around the royal family; we also donated some to Cholsey Volunteers and Cholsey Day Centre.

Waterside Court have been working with these two groups to enhance our life enrichment programme and also help support members of the local community. Cholsey Volunteers were established last year to support the elderly and vulnerable amidst the pandemic, so we were delighted to be able to help fill their food bags and include others in our celebrations.

Residents and staff enjoyed an exciting virtual presentation, provided by SEA LIFE London Aquarium.

Everyone at the home had the opportunity to learn more about the SEA LIFE London Aquarium, which is a home to more than 300 species and 4,000 creatures and to see green sea turtles, feeding of Gentoo penguins and sharks in their 1 million litre shark tank.

The SEA LIFE London Aquarium is located on the ground floor of County Hall on the South Bank of the River Thames in central London, near the London Eye. It opened in March 1997 as the London Aquarium and hosts about one million visitors each year.

Roxana Moldova, General Manager at Waterside Court, said: “Our varied life enrichment programme keeps the residents active, and provides a daily choice of engaging physical, mental and spiritual activities tailored to the residents’ interests and abilities. We are lucky to have a cinema room at Waterside Court, so the experience was truly enhanced by watching it on the big screen in our comfortable, high-back chairs.”

Waterside Court were grateful recipients of some tasty brownies, kindly made and donated by Jojococo Chocolate Bakes in South Oxfordshire.

Jojococo Chocolate Bakes make freshly home-made chocolate bakes and deliver to a variety of customers in the local area. They currently support local day centres with donations and also reach out to key worker groups and care homes.

An amazing scheme that the company run is the ‘Moment of Joy’ scheme, which allows someone who makes a purchase on their website to nominate somebody to receive a free cookie of their choosing. Jojococo Chocolate Bakes are avid believers in random acts of kindness and this is a huge part of why Waterside Court look forward to working with them in future.

Jo has kindly offered to donate brownies to Waterside Court on a regular basis. As government guidelines change and restrictions ease, there will be lots of ways that we can work together to help enrich the lives of our residents.

Waterside Court’s own Activity Coordinator was lovely enough to have donated an ornate Dolls House for our residents to use and call their own.

Residents immediately took to the Dolls House and played a part in where it went in the Activity Café to allow them to access it comfortably. The Dolls House was donated with miniature sized furniture and dolls, which residents have loved decorating and organising.

One of the most fruitful things that came from this activity was the discussions it encouraged around our residents’ own memories. Reminiscence activities, particularly for those living with dementia, can be hugely rewarding to residents’ wellbeing. By talking about their own memories, our residents also allow us to build strong and meaningful relationships with them, which then enables us to provide a more person-centred approach to their care.