In house Activities:
In the first half of this year we have had a wide range of activities happening in house at woodlarks from performers putting on a show to having farm animals visit.
Currently our biggest ongoing project is our clay totem pole that we started back in early May. We are working with Katie Netley to complete our project and have currently completed ¾ stages needed before the revel the project on August the 7th where the Mayor of Farnham will be coming in to unveil the project. The residents have all enjoyed decorating, carving and glazing the all the different sections of the totem pole and we look forward to seeing it all put together.
Once again this year we are doing our themed parties which so far this year we have celebrated valentines day. Our residents always like when we have special events days such as this one as we always set a theme/dress code of which everyone follows (including staff). For valentines the DJ played may of the classics that the residents could all sing and dance along to with their friends/families. Other themed activities we have been able to do is have reggae parties on our patio and coming up in July we have a Nepali day planned.
We also celebrated Nepali culture doing a themed day in July where staff cooked Nepalese dishes and in the afternoon gave facts about their culture, danced various types of traditional customs while wearing saris and played videos showing the beautiful sight of Nepal.
During the beginning of spring we always like to base activities around having different animals come in. This year in April was no different with both Millers Ark and Birds of Prey coming to Woodlarks. Residents got to pet, hold and ask questions about various farm animals, which our particularly animal loving residents loved.
Speaking of spring this year we have been able to bring back the Woodlarks easter egg hunt for everyone to participate in. We had many eager residents and a few groups trying to find the most eggs they could within the hour given. Residents each got their own basket and wore bunny masks they made in the activities centre earlier that week.
Other activities we have been regularly doing across the first 6 months of the year including baking, gardening, paining and sewing. We also host weekly yoga session and focus on motor skills once a week to get everybody moving while having fun. Lastly we have been doing music sessions with the residents where they all get to play different instruments to many different genres of music.
Outings:
So far this year we have been able to plan and take almost of our residents out on various day trips and outings. With 100% of the residents now having access and opportunity to go out and about on adventures.
To start off the year we focused on more inside activities such as going to the cinema or even bowling. This worked out lovely for us as it still gave the residents a chance to go out while avoiding the cold winter air. Films such as Bob Marly and Wonka were especially great hits with the residents.
Our current goal for outings is that each week we try and do an outing every Wednesday taking different residents every time so that everyone gets the chance to go out with our day centre team. While it was harder in the beginning of the year to find activities to do outside as spring came around and the weather started warming up we had many more opportunities to go out.
One of the spring outing we went on was to wisely gardens. After going there to see the light show for Christmas last year we decided to take a group of residents in the spring to go see the flowers as they begin to bloom. The residents took their time going around the garden as we were blessed to have a full day of sunshine following the week of rain leading up to the outing.
We have also started to take walks around the local area around Woodlarks whether that’s going to the local pub or taking a walk around the nearby forest. By doing these smaller outing we are able to get more residents out each month allowing not only a change in scenery but a chance to give some residents some more one to ones.
Following these smaller outings we are also focused on taking the residents to near by parks/ nature walks such as freshman ponds, Farnham park or just going to town for the morning. We aim to do smaller outing like these in between our large-scale outings so that those who prefer a quiet afternoon with friends can enjoy themselves.
In April we once again held a stall at the annual duck race taking place in Gostery’s meadows. This year we held a tombola stall which we brought a couple of our residents down to see, not only that but one of our residents got the chance the throw the ducks into the river with help from one of our staff, as a reward one of the rotary members gave out gingerbread duck cookies.
For summer we have had more targeted outings for our residents such as taking a small group of residents to go bike riding as it is one of their hobbies, or going on a river cruise down a canal in Dartmouth. Our activities manager has been regularly planning weekly summer trips for all residents to enjoy such as at the start of the month with help from one of our volunteer drivers we took our residents down to the beach to enjoy a day by the seaside.
Our activities team has many more outings planned for the rest of the year whether that’s another day at the beach for a different group of residents to enjoy or looking into the hobbies/interests of the residents and planning an outing based on them.
In house updates:
Firstly after a successful interview we welcome our new activities manager Hunter Delves to Woodlarks. Hunter joined us earlier this year in April and has already used his 20years of Leasure & Wellness experience to make an impact to the running of our day centre, planning regular trips out and creating a team of staff & volunteers. We look forward to whatever plans Hunter has for the residents in the future as we know he includes them in his planning process to ensure our activities are person centred with a Holistic approach.
We recently also updated our call bell system at woodlarks allowing for bells to be easier to push for residents in the case of assistance or emergency as the bells are no longer flat rather they have a large red button or a string to pull both will activate the emergency button. The new system also improved the screens we have around woodlarks to give names when bells are called rather than only a room number so that staff know who needs assistance. We can also now be more specific with the bells such as if it is a watch bell, room bell or a bell on their wheelchair.
Also towards the end of last year we had new doors installed just past the reception area towards the residential side of the building that requires a keycard to get through. The system is the same as what residents already had on their doors so we just needed to update staff and residents key so they could get through. These doors have been a great addition to woodlarks making sure that residents are safe. The doors have also been tested to make sure that in the case of a fire the doors will be released and can easily get through.
We are still fundraising for our new charity Woodlarks Empowering the Less Abled (WELA) which we have set up to raise funds for extension for the home. We have an estimate of 6,000,000 being the target sum to raise. As we stated in the 2023 newsletter the plans are available for viewing so if you are interested, please do ask. If you can help in any way with the fundraising, please get in touch.
Residents Holidays:
So far this year we took the residents on a holiday to Weymouth.
The residents spent 4 days by the coast doing a wide range of activities each day whether that was going to Longleat zoo, Weymouth aquarium, on a boat ride or spending the day at the beach the residents got to have many different experiences which they enjoyed.
Throughout the holiday the staff made sure the residents were having fun even when they were at the hotel by having film/game nights or doing karaoke.
We are planning to do more holidays such as this in the future as it really gives the residents a chance to have new experiences and have some