Our stories

Peace of mind

Moving into a care home made easy

Our care team are here to make sure that making the move is as easy as possible for you and your loved one. If you still need reassurance, here are some stories from our residents, their families and our care team.

With some many incredible mums here at The Moors, Mothers Day was filled with fun, laughter and lots of presents of course! The kitchen made a beautiful mothers day lunch and the staff made sure that all the ladies, be they mothers, aunties or mother figures all had a fantastic day.

Mother's Day at The Moors

The residents and the staff at The Westbourne had a lot of fun on Easter Sunday. They enjoyed a visit from 4 lively chickens! Everyone sang along hymns, Amazing Grace being a favourite, they listened to a Bible reading and joined in saying the Lords prayer.

Easter Sunday Activities

Marianne showed residents how to decoupage terracotta pots, using paper napkins. It was a delicate operation to separate the layers of napkins, then stick to the pots with PVA glue, finished off with a varnish.

Decoupage Terracotta Pots

We are getting ready for St Georges Day by making placemats for the tables, decorations and bunting are next on our agenda and we're discussing what menu to have on the day, so far fish and chips have been the favourite.

St George's Day Preparations and Joyce's 80th Birthday

David, Hospitality Manager, at Ashmead Care Centre, was given a most wonderful surprise by residents and staff alike on his birthday recently. All sang happy birthday whilst the Head Chef and his team presented a spectacular homemade cake to highlight the surprise.

Staff Birthday!

A long awaited opportunity to bask in the sunshine, on a warm March afternoon, as the ladies enjoyed listening to the birds, talking about the flowers, and getting well needed vitamin D. June relayed enchanting stories about her holidays to Wales, whilst we all listened enraptured.

Warm March Afternoon

We had an amazing Easter filled with fun games, chocolates, Simnel cake and hot cross buns.

Congratulations to Adele Lofthouse.pdf

Congratulations

We have been exploring some disposable cameras today. The residents have taken it in turns to turn the cog, aim the camera in the direction they choose and press the button to take the shot.

Today the residents used their problem solving skills by completing word wheels. They searched for as many words as they could find in a 9 letter grid and wrote down or communicated their answers.

We have received lovely Easter handmade cards from Hall Croft Infants and St Swithun’s Primary School. We would like to say a big thank you to everyone involved. Our residents thought they were lovely and said how kind of you all to take the time to make them.

Easter Decorations

We had a donation of Easter eggs, donuts, hot cross buns and handmade Easter cards from St Swithun's and Hall Croft Infant School. We are very appreciative for the lovely gift and the time and effort made by Morrisons.

In preparation for Easter, we spent an afternoon making Easter bonnets. Everyone chose what they wanted on their hats and created beautiful Easter bonnet, which they can wear on Easter Sunday.

Easter Preparations!

Rodger the Rabbit and his friends paid Ashmead Care Centre a visit during the Easter Weekend. In addition to creating joy and laughter, they also treated the residents to gifts of Spring flowers and individual Easter Eggs.

Easter Celebrations!

On Good Friday our residents enjoyed hot cross buns while taking part in an Easter quiz. One resident said "this takes me back to when I was young" and we discussed different Easter memories.

Good Friday Activities

Woodland residents have created the most wonderful artwork for their Easter display, including chicks made from their hand prints and gorgeous bright daffodils that were suspended from the ceiling. After their hard work everyone enjoyed a special afternoon tea.

We've been getting creative and produced some lovely art work to hang on the wall. We have also added to our spring meadow with a flock of sheep and some colourful butterflies.

Creativeness at Acorn

Easter cards and keyrings all ready to send to families. Residents enjoyed writing a personal message to their families and helping to make the keyrings with their photo inside.

Easter Cards and Keyrings

On St Patricks Day recently everyone decided to get out in the sunshine. Granted it was a bit parky but that didn't deter us at all. Everyone undertook two laps of the garden in a relay, once their laps were completed they handed the baton, so to speak, to another person.

St Patrick's Day at Buckingham

The clocks have changed and so has the weather - we all welcome the sunshine.

2nd - Good Friday - televised Church service at 3pm - hot cross buns for tea

4th - Easter Sunday - televised Church service at 10am - Easter egg deliveries - Easter lunch

April's Forthcoming Activities

We are aiming to have a fantastic Easter this year and everyone in the home is super busy getting ready for the Easter celebration.

All the residents had lots of fun celebrating Red Nose Day, it was a busy day. There was pompom making from the crafty amongst us whilst other baked cakes. There was something for everyone with plenty of Red Nose themed activities through the day.

Here at Belvoir Vale Care Homes, we had a beautiful sunny Thursday and took advantage of the sunshine by taking our reading group outside. We enjoyed listening to one of our residents reading out loud for us all to hear.

With the weather warming and daffodils blooming, spring is definitely on its way. At Buckingham House we have a number of residents who are very adept at creating fresh flower centre pieces for the restaurant and who could resist daffodils?

We have started decorating hollow eggs ready for our Easter egg hunt on Monday. The residents used stickers and ribbon to decorate their chosen egg and filled the inside with small chocolate eggs.

Today we had an unexpected visit from Red Arrows flying over Buckingham House. They are always an amazing sight and never fail to generate excitement. We were all delighted and this prompted lots of chats and reminiscing about the past long after they had roared overhead.

Red Arrows Surprise Fly Past

Our Under the Sea theme week was extended by a couple of extra days as we had to postpone our singer last week. However, we finished on a high note with beautiful sunshine for our singer Paul Martin.

The residents have been making some Easter treats for the children in our community called Chicks for the community! The residents have been sticking googly eyes onto a lollipop, an orange beak and a feather for some hair to make their own lollipop chicks.

Chicks for the Community

After a game of bingo, Arnold celebrates as he won a bag of marshmallows, which he then kindly asked to be shared with all the residents. I think, hot chocolate and marshmallows in the making.

Arnold's Bingo Winnings

This week leading up to Easter the Knights Court Activities team got out all things eggy, fluffy, furry & orange for our Easter Arts and Crafts workshop!

Easter Preparations!

Our cinema room has been completely transformed into a magical under the sea kingdom, with various schools of fish, jellyfish, seahorses, sunken treasure guarded by Pirate Pete and a very friendly, if not very startled looking octopus.

Under The Sea Kingdom

On Friday the residents had a games day with a variety of games on offer including giant snakes. Our resident (pictured) was the eventual winner, well done Pat!

Games Day at The Hawthorns

The residents trailed out some new exercise bands on Thursday. They are partly made from cotton so easier to grip and softer on the hands. The residents did brilliantly doing more formal exercises like bicep curls and experimented with their own movement.

Exercise's at The Hawthorns

We used our fine motor skills today to pop the silicone bubbles. The residents took it in turns to use their fingers and thumbs to push the bubbles through to the other side.

Popping Silicone Bubbles

We had an American Day at Mary Chapman Court 50's style. Starting the day off with what else but Grease which was a song-a-long special edition. We were also treated to cheeseburgers, hot dogs, curly fries, and

Our residents painted birds which we attached to twigs of handmade blossom to decorate the lounge.

Bird Decoration

Ay Wyndham Hall we are very fortunate that the people we care for share their memories and stories with us, it's such a privilege and a special time. Recently we sat with Hilary and went through her beautiful album and reminisced about the good old days!

Memories at Wyndham Hall

There is no time to rest at Wyndham Hall .

World Book Day was celebrated in style at Brunel House with a Mad Hatters tea party. The staff team as usual were amazing dressing up as their favourite characters from books whilst the residents enjoyed reminiscing about their favourite childhood books.

World Book Day at Brunel

Our sensory room here at Bowerfield Court offers a wide variety of sensory stimulation for our residents. The multi coloured lights are visually appealing and, coupled with the aroma of essential oils and music, help to create a relaxed and calm environment. Pamper sessions are also available.

To prepare for St Patrick's day, we coloured in some themed pictures to make into bunting to decorate the home! It was great fun and showed off everyone's different tastes, and they looked fantastic when they were up!

St Patrick's Day Perperations!

Several members of staff at Ashmead Care Centre took time from their busy schedule to remember those lost during recent times to the Covid 19 virus.

We celebrated Mothers Day with lots of flowers, chocolates and afternoon tea here at Troutbeck.

Mother's Day at Troutbeck

We celebrated St Patrick's Day with Irish Cream Liquor, Guinness and lots of Irish music.

St Patrick's Day Celebrations

Mary celebrated her 100th birthday, she had a lovely day with a long awaited visit from her sister.

Mary's 100th Birthday

We love our games activities in the home and we get competitive quick. As well as the usual domino's, bingo and exercise to music we love a game of bowling. We thought this was a great shot of one of our residents just before she got a strike.

Games Activities

Home baking at our home is such an important part of our activities and our residents love getting involved. Every week we have a different recipes to try and residents on both floors have a go at making them. This week our residents in the Blossom unit make bis

We have celebrated Mothers/Mams/Mums with lots of conversations, some brought laughter and others tears, but it was so lovely to be able to provoke such good memories of our mums, those special ladies who made our childhood great.

Mother's Day at Astor Court

One of our residents has a journal of her life and we talked about the places she has visited and the experiences she has had. She said that she has had a wonderful and exciting life when she was a young girl. She loved to dress up and enjoyed eating out with friend and traveling.

Journey of Life

As part of our preparation for Mothering Sunday we held a morning of Decoupage which everyone really enjoyed. Preparation was key as we had to press and store our flowers four weeks prior to using them but the wait was worth it, our jars and vases looking stunning.

Craft Sessions for Mothering Sunday