Activities at Wykeham House Care Home
Our activities team are great at building the activities programme around the likes and interests of the people we care for. Ensuring that our social events offer fun and adventure is part of the ethos of our home; it’s important that those we support can enjoy an active and social lifestyle. Of course, there will always be those who prefer peace and quiet, and in these instances, a cup of tea and a chat are always welcomed.
Rachel Stevens
I joined Wykeham House in October 2022 but I have worked doing activities in care homes since I left College, I began volunteering in a local home when I was 15 years old and then took on my first job in a care home when I was 18. I have enjoyed extending my knowledge to improve my work and have a Level 2 in Dementia Awareness, Domestic Abuse Awareness and Mental Health Awareness. I have also attended courses on End-Of-Life Activities as well as Dementia focused Activities. I love what I do and for me it is important that every day is a new day for our residents with new opportunities and a smiling face to come with it.
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 Wykeham House Care Home
A Visit from Joey
Residents at Wykeham House were overjoyed to meet Joey who is Rachel the activities lead’s cat. Joey came in to see a resident in her room as her wish from our resident wish tree which can be found in our reception area. Joyce’s wish was to see a cat. Joyce loved her visit from Joey and he was so well behaved he took a trip around the rest of the home. Joey loves cuddles and a bit of attention so he was more than happy to meet our residents.
Deputy Manager Skydives for Charity
A carer at Wykeham House in Horley put the ‘fun’ into ‘fundraising’ with doing a charity skydive to raise money for The Royal Marsden.
Peng Li-Poole is the deputy manager at Wykeham House and has been worked for Barchester for 8 years.
Peng skydived on the 22nd October 2023 in Salisbury. This was Peng’s first time skydiving, and they raised a total of £410 for the charity which is “a world leader in cancer care, pioneering treatment and ground-breaking research.”
Fulfilling Wishes
We strive to make sure residents at Wykeham House have access to whatever they want or need. One of our residents has been talking about doing something different with her hair for a while. She wanted to add some colour. Every time she saw Rachel's hair she said she wanted pink. Rachel made this happen and Val looks gorgeous with a flash of Pink! She was treated by Rachel to the full salon experience in our very own hairdressing suite. She had her choice of music, magazines and beverages and Rachel and Val sang and danced together to Elvis!
Residents Visit Garden Centre
We recently took a trip to the garden centre after raising an amazing £698.89 at our summer fete to look at what water features we would like to get for our garden areas! The ladies enjoyed exploring the Garden Centre. Our respite resident was so glad that we got the opportunity to go here as this is somewhere she knows well and it allowed her time and space to have a potter around before re-joining the group for tea and cake in the café. On our way home we also took a drive to Oaks Park where our residents husband has a lovely memorial bench and drove over Epsom Downs as one of the ladies who attended the trip used to visit regularly for the horse racing.
Gentleman's Day Out
We soaked up some of the last of the summer sun on a recent trip to Reigate Priory Park. Our gents enjoyed a walk down to the lake to look at the wildlife! We saw an amazing array of ducks and birds and enjoyed a lakeside picnic prepared by our very own kitchen before heading back towards the Ice Cream Van on the way to our minibus. Our residents had a wonderful day out!
Summer Fete 2023
On the 26th August Wykeham House hosted its Annual Summer Fete. Residents joined together with the community for the day with the aim to raise money to get water features for our gardens and donate an amount to St Catherine’s Hospice. We hosted a Raffle which local businesses donated towards, a tombola and a BBQ. We were joined by Carol for some light entertainment as she played her saxophone and some local businesses took over our garden with some wonderful stalls including A.I.R Exotics who bought along some animals for residents and guests to handle.
