Friday, saw Chollacott House in Tavistock transformed into a beach, complete with sand, buckets & spades, kites and crabs! Residents were able to feel that sand between their toes, and play beach games, many from the comfort of their deck chairs. Staff and residents enjoyed ice-cream and fish and chips. Such a wonderful idea!
West Exe School collaborated with the Exeter Dementia Action Alliance to enable five care homes (including The Manor in Exminster) and 16 residents to attend a morning event for Literacy Week at the school, which is part of the Ted Wragg Trust.
Claire Walker, Literacy Lead at West Exe School in Exeter said: “Oral literacy is important to develop, especially in today’s technology driven culture.
“The Y7 and Y9 students that were in involved in the morning gained such a lot from the experience. It was wonderful to see them develop their conversational skills with a much older generation, not just learning from them, but enjoying their company.
“Our students were genuinely interested in what their guests had to say and also enjoyed sharing their own stories about being a teen in 2019. It was a beautiful, heart-warming event and it will stay with me forever.”
“I really felt uplifted after talking to the older generation. I loved it.” – Callum, Y9.
“I have found how important it is to respect and listen to older people. They were just like us once.” – Lily, Y7.
“I was a little nervous about performing in front of the guests, but they were very appreciative and I actually really enjoyed playing my violin. I’d like to do it again as I now feel more confident.” – Filipe, Y9.
Gina Awad, Lead of the alliance said: “What a joy to be able to coordinate and participate in this wonderful community event enabling several care homes to come together and have meaningful conversations with the students.
“The atmosphere was superb and we were fortunate to be able to have a musical interlude by two students playing the violin and guitar respectively.
“The stand out moment for everyone was when two old friends discovered each other having lost touch over 40 years ago.
“Margaret from Alphington Lodge and Irene from Parklands House care homes lost touch with each other many years ago and recognised each other across the room. The chance meeting moved everyone to tears.”
Irene said “I’m on cloud nine I just can’t believe it and cannot wait to tell my family. We used to holiday together in Tenerife.”
“This is just the start of the community work we aspire to in Exeter with schools and care homes, we look forward to developing lasting meaningful relationships,” said Gina.
Care homes who attended included; Parklands House, Green Tree Court, Cadogan Court, The Manor and Alphingbrook House.
Hendra Farm brought an amazing selection of animals to visit staff and residents at Chollacott House in Tavistock. The residents absolutely loved the experience. I’m not sure I would have been quite so enthusiastic about having a snake on my lap!
Children from Discovery Nursery in Exeter visted the residents at Dove Tree House in their Christmas jumpers on Friday, for singing and festive fun. The nursery visits every year at Christmas time, and the residents love it!
Residents from The Manor in Exminster like nothing more than a trip out in ‘The Wanderer’ (the Stonehaven minibus), fo a lovely lunch at Exeter Golf Club.
On Thursday evening last week Stonehaven was awarded the National ‘Care Home Group of the Year’ award at the UK wide ‘Caring UK Awards’. It’s fantastic to have been recognised for the great work that we do. The nomination process for the award was rigorous. It began with a 5-page detailed nomination process. Emily and myself were then interviewed at the Support Office. This was comprehensive. It was clear that the competition was tight and that the judges were looking for those things that would make us stand out from the crowd. Following this interview judges visited a number of our Care Homes and noted what they were like, interviewed people etc.
We were finalists for National ‘Care Home Group of the Year’ as a company and National ‘End of Life Team of the Year’ for the fantastic end of life work that is carried out by the care team at Chollacott House. Over the past few years we have achieved and maintained registration in the ‘St. Lukes 6 Steps End of Life Care’ scheme – this involves a significant investment of time, effort and expertise from the Care Team at Chollacott.
To have won the Care Group of the Year Award was fantastic. Following the award one of the judging panel confided in Emily that, as a company, we really did stand out from the rest. The panel noted our commitment to ‘putting the customer at the centre of all that we do’ and recognised how we do that; by employing the right people and then providing the right training and support to them. It was clear that we prioritise people.
We were described by the judging panel as ‘A confident, customer led group with a winning formula’ – with which we fully agree.
Winning Awards is only possible because of the great work carried out every day by every member of the Stonehaven Care Team – thank you all for making this possible.
At Stonehaven, we take team training extremely seriously, to ensure we are providing the very highest standard of care to our residents. A comprehensive training package is provided for all our staff. We ask that all mandatory courses are completed within the first year of employment with us, with ad hoc and refreshers courses continuning throughout their Stonehaven career. Here are some of the Primrose House team, on a recent Safegaurding course with excellent trainer, Deborah Cox.
Westcountry based Stonehaven Care Group have announced the name change of Donnington House, on Atlantic Way in Westward Ho! to the new name: ’Bluebell House.’ Bluebell House stands immediately next door to Primrose House, which is Stonehaven’s latest new build care home with state of the art care facilities.
Explaining the change, Stephen Stone, Managing Director of Stonehaven said: ”In 2005, just before Stonehaven Care Group acquired Donnington House care home in Westward Ho!, it was a 25-bed home that was giving good, compassionate care we created 10 new en-suite bedrooms, renovated all other areas and converted the lower-ground-floor layout to provide an all-important ‘circular walk route’; a facility that is such a real aid to those living in any dedicated dementia care setting.
”Having very recently further enlarged our Westward Ho! care service with an adjacent new state-of-the-art 30-bed building (named Primrose House), we feel it’s high time for us to give Donnington House a new name that reflects the status that home has achieved… what better than to pair with Primrose House via the new name Bluebell House. So, ‘Bluebell & Primrose’ it now is.”
The group felt that the new name would bring the home into alignment with Primrose House, following the theme of wild flowers. Ildiko Varadi of Bluebell House and Stephanie Johnson Manager of Primrose House, are delighted with the new name.
Ms Varadi said: ”It is lovely to follow a similar theme of wild flowers. The blue bell flower is known for its’ humility. It is also associated with everlasting love and constancy, which is very fitting with the care we provide our residents. We all look forward to Spring and when out walking in the lanes or countryside look forward to seeing the carpets of bluebell flowers in woodlands as they are one of the most glorious sights of the British spring landscape and a popular flower with our residents.”
Both homes are always pleased to show prospective residents and their families around, which is done in a way that does not disturb their current residents.
Manager at Kent House, Julie Smith having fun at Halloween with residents!
Rat Pack Pete’s performance at Primrose this month attracted over 20 residents. One of our ladies got up and took the stage to sing Frank Sinatra’s hit ‘My Way’. The lady in question was a professional singer and has sang to huge audiences in venues as big as the Albert Hall! She definitely still has that star quality!
