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.

Enjoying a takeaway is such a treat for us all and the people living at Kings Manor really missed a Chinese, so we had a special evening just for them.
We decorate our bistro complete with chopsticks and place names for the people joining us. Everyone really enjoyed the evening.

Chinese Evening

There is nothing better then being outside in the good weather and the people living at Kings Manor really wanted to play some games in the garden. So we got out some of our games like hook a duck and had a little competition.

Games in the Garden

Residents individual scrap books are a hit. Taking a trip through their time here and seeing all the wonderful activities and things we have done together, have sparked so many wonderful memories for us all to chat about.

Our scrap books are a real talking point !

What a great day we had on one of the hottest days of the year celebrating national picnic month. Residents enjoyed a picnic party in the garden with games, music, food and refreshments! Fresh strawberries and cream were enjoyed and washed down with a prosecco.

Picnic at Manorhey

Our residents last week took a quiz on Wimbledon tennis match to test their knowledge.

On our Emergency Service Appreciation day the Lord Mayor popped in for a cuppa and chat .

Beverley insisted on a picture with the Lord Mayors car.

District nurses grabbed a water on the go. A lovely day had with our local services , Happy and surprised by our appreciation

Visit From The Lord Mayor

Birch Heath Lodge threw the care home open on Friday with a wonderful outdoors seaside themed BBQ on Friday. Invitations went out to all our friends, families and neighbours.

Birch Heath Lodge Community BBQ

We spent the day remembering the folks we have lost, we started the day with a memorial service. Following we hung our first pictures on our new memorial wall.

Remembering Our Friends

Gentleman's club brought a rather competitive game of domino's today.

Our Gents requested a re-match.

Beers and friendly banter flowed ,the best man still won.

Game Of Dominoes

During this week our lovely residents had a morning of pampering.

They choose their favourite nail polish, some to match their eye colour, others to match the clothing for the rock concert that they are attending.

Pamper at Manorhey

In the morning for our activity session some of our residents painted a few stones, using the vibrant colours of summer.

They enjoyed the activity, some of them shared that painting relaxes them.

We loved our virtual trip to the seaside

Virtual Trip To The Seaside

This week one of our residents celebrated her birthday with a party in the garden.

It was a lovely afternoon in the garden. She delighted herself with one of her favourite treats, the Marshmallow cone.

Residents Birthday

We celebrated the fantastic weather in Swindon with our Hawaiian day.

Tropical sunshine at Kings Court with an amazing Hawaiian Day

We honoured fatherhood and all the amazing fathers living with us at Knights Court by indulging in a special afternoon tea, along with some chocolate treats. Here's to all those male role models in our lives.

Fathers Day at Knights Court

We had a truly relaxing Sunday morning at Kings Court as some of the ladies living with use enjoyed a hand massage and manicure session.

Relaxing Sunday

July is Good Care Hertfordshire month and to celebrate this we had the pleasure in welcoming Bugsy MaGnome from Hertfordshire Care Providers Association who joined in with several of our activities around Monread Lodge.

Bugsy MaGnome at Monread

Last week we enjoyed a performance from one of our regular Entertainers, Musical Delights with Deborah. The show was based on the 40s and 50s. We clapped and danced whilst some of us even sang a song or two.

Last week we welcomed our Thera pet Taffy back into the home. Taffy and his owner Kirsten come weekly to visit Taffy always gets fussed over and always makes everyone smile

Visit From Taffy

Happy Friday1st July indeed. The Kitchen is in full swing. Chef Cecelia is leading out her team today seen preparing cupcakes for this afternoons tea. Chef Juvenal is frying the fish, and kitchen assistants Anjana and Scott are supporting their team.

We all love it when

Did you know that this week is

National Theatre Week

Congratulations DAMMI. River View is really proud to announce that Dammi has won the 'Hospitality Hero' award in this year’s MMCG Annual Care Awards. She joined the company in 2017 and moved to River View 2019. She has made her presence known to all and strives to continually achieve.

Congratulations Dammi

Betty, Frank and Ruth really enjoyed getting out in the fresh air and doing some rock painting that our new Lifestyle Coordinator Becky, brought back from the seaside.

Our staff summer party was a great success and enjoyed by all. As well as bouncy castles, we had lots of delicious food, along with a visit from the ice cream van.

Last Wednesday the people living with us enjoyed a lovely afternoon outside in the sun. We had a singer called Alan come and sing live for our residents outside in the car park.

Singing Outside

This week the people living with us enjoyed a parachute game in the lounge. A group of us got together and sat in a circle and enjoyed playing the parachute game, we made the game more fun by putting balls on the parachute.

The people living with us love being around animals and nature, so we spent an afternoon at Thrift Farm. Everyone had some quality time walking around the farm and petting all the animals. What a lovely afternoon it was!

Trip to Thift Farm

In Amber Court we don’t need a gardener. Our Staff and residents take good care of our lovely garden and making sure that it is well groomed. In line with our Gardening Club, we have a weekly activities to plant and maintained our garden as beautiful as much as possible.

WHO NEEDS GARDENER?

These lovely ladies really enjoyed their lunch for today. We decided to take residents out from time to time so they don’t miss the normal lives they had before.

LUNCH OUT IN MCDONALDS

Last week as part of pride parade our residents created paintings with colours that make them happy.

Having an American as Lifestyle Coordinator creates lots of interest in American holidays and traditions. Our residents celebrated 4th of July just like true blue Americans. We watched fireworks, had sparklers and enjoyed mocktails.

Last week our residents created medals for the Wimbledon Tennis match.

Everyone enjoyed creating their own medal

Wimbledon Medals

We had the wonderful Deborah from musical delights visit us last week.

There was a party atmosphere. Lots of dancing, arm waving and clapping along.

We have been using the new bowling equipment the residents love this activity and it gets very competitive.

We’ve had not one but two furry friends visit us this month, as well as Chip who is now a regular visitor we also had Ernie come to visit. Ernie is a guide dog in training and as well as getting to give lots of fusses the residents asked lots of questions about him and his training.

For this week’s men’s club we visited our in home sweet shop, resident’s were delighted by the selection and picked out some of their favourite sweets and chocolate bars, choosing extras to take back and share with friends.

In Home Sweet Shop

The summer sunshine has brought us all a lot of joy this week. Especially on Friday when we spent the morning and afternoon soaking up the rays. It was nice to have families join us for a nice chat with their loved ones whilst drinking a cup of tea.

As part of this week activities our lovely ladies created artificial centrepieces.

They had a good time showing their creativity skills.

Artificial Centrepieces

The people living with us enjoyed strolling about in the grounds of Gateford Hill Care home. They loved the peaceful surroundings. Afterwards they sat and enjoyed refreshments and snacks. There were lots of conversations, smiles and laughter.

The Gardens at Gateford Hill

We are taking a full advantage of the lovely weather we have here!
We have visited Willen Lake this morning and thoroughly enjoyed some beautiful views of our lake from the nearby café.

Visit to Willen Lake

We had an 80th Birthday to celebrate today at Buckingham House. It was important to the person living us that they got to spend time and celebrate the day with their loved ones.

80th Birthday Celebrations

The people living with us and team joined St. James’ community for their monthly lunch gathering. The people living with us really enjoy the opportunity to get out and socialise with other people. As always the food and service was 5* and was really enjoyed by all.

Local Church Friendship Group

Providing the people living with us an opportunity to have input into their menu at Buckingham House is so important to us.

At least once each week the people living us love to spend the morning baking. Whatever is baked is then served for afternoon tea to everyone living at the home. Today, we are all going to enjoy a Victoria Sponge!

Afternoon Tea baked by the people living with us

A room full of concentration and competitive minds. Scrabble on one table, dominoes on the other, and plenty of residents having a pleasant afternoon together.

Table Top Games

For this afternoon our residents were delighted with a chocolate tasting, from a chocolate fountain to a variety of different chocolate flavours.

They enjoyed some fruits and marshmallow skews dipped in chocolate.

Chocolate Tasting

Earlier in the year several of the people living with us here at Kingsbury Court planted some sunflower seeds indoors.

Sunflower Success

We celebrated Appreciation Day at Allingham House, a special occasion to say thank you to all the staff that works in our home. They give the best of themselves to deliver the best caring and professional experience to our residents everyday.

Appreciation Day

We enjoyed an afternoon of trying different types of chocolate and trying different fruits in the chocolate fountain.

World Chocolate Day At Acorn House