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Recent events:
February was a busy month considering that it is the shortest month of the year. 2020 was also a leap year!
We kicked off the month in style celebrating Jean Winfield’s 100th birthday. Jean had a lovely afternoon with her family present including her grand- daughter Elaine and daughter Valerie.
We had a wonderful party with lots of relatives and friends of Elmfield present.
Entertainment was provided by a gentleman called Steve.
Niccii and Dawn created a delicious spread of party food to feed the crowds.
We were joined by Norman Holden who is on the committee of the ‘Bisley residents association’ and he included a small article in their most recent newsletter.
We were honored that the Mayor of Woking, Councillor Beryl Hunwicks, was our Guest of Honor. The Mayor very kindly joined us to read a speech, detailing aspects of Jean’s life before she was presented with a hand-written card from Queen Elizabeth II, also known s ‘Lisbet’ to Jean who spent years of her life growing up in the grounds of Windsor Castle as Jean’s Father was head Royal gardener.
Jean enjoyed her day although she still does not believe that she is a century old!
On 7th February it was ‘Send a card to a friend’ day and staff spent time with residents supporting them to send cards to friends if they wished to do so.
Of course, February is the month of love and we had Valentine’s Day on the 14th. Within the home, we conducted some reminiscing with residents about their loved ones, memories, wedding days and it was extremely interesting to hear the real- life love stories from years gone by. It is amazing how some of our residents met in shops, at work and in dance halls and hearing how quickly relationships progressed. It is certainly very different nowadays…..
We also had Valentine’s themed quizzes, word searches and crosswords.
Roger Dodd has his birthday on Valentine’s Day so we finished off the day with a buffet and a lovely Valentine’s inspired birthday cake.
Jasmine from G-Fitness did her monthly exercise class on 17th February. This included some beautiful colored silk scarfs as well as sand- filled water bottles to get the blood flowing! This is a very popular class and nearly everyone joined in which is wonderful.
We discussed our pets from the pst and current pets in respect of ‘Love your pet’ day on 20th February. Again, this brought some entertaining stories of the antics from our furry friends.
Tina from ‘High kicks & Heels’ joined us on 25th February with her wonderful cabaret. Everyone was up singing and some residents had a dance which is fantastic. Tina’s show is always a highly anticipated occasion and once again it was thoroughly enjoyed.
The 25th February was Shrove Tuesday, better known as Pancake day! We were lucky to have pancakes with a filling or topping of our choice which included the traditional lemon and sugar, honey or syrup for the sweet toothed residents and chopped banana with cream.
Shrove Tuesday is followed by Ash Wednesday and we challenged residents to give something up for Lent……
On 26th February, we welcomed back the school children from Bisley COE primary school who are back with us for the term doing their ‘Learning beyond the classroom’ project.
We have certainly missed the children; they really do liven up our home and we are delighted to have them back with us on Wednesday afternoons.
The group of children were split into smaller groups to do focused activities with our residents.
We have had our fortnightly visits to the Hen & Chicks for our pub lunches. This remains as popular as ever and as usual, we are made to feel welcome.
On 27th February, our pub lunch concided with Brenda Donaghey’s birthday. Brenda had asurprise when the staff sang “Happy Birthday” whilst presenting her with a birthday cake! We also had some bubbles too to raise a toast to Brenda.
Caroline has visited us with Bailey the PAT dog. He enjoyed his usual strokes and our residents enjoyed having an animal around.
Upcoming events:
The first week of March is ‘National Pie week’ therefore every day for a week we will have a different pie and vote for your favourite! This may be a sweet or a savoury pie so there will be plenty of choices!
It is ‘World book day’ on 5th March so activities will be themed around favourite books, characters and books made into films.
It is also St Patrick’ day on 17th March, International day of happiness on 20th March, World Poetry day on 21st March and of course it is Mother’s Day on 22nd March.
We will no doubt have related activities to reflect these days.
We also have a new show ‘Viva Las Vegas’ celebrating the sounds of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Judy Garland, Cher, Elton John and Celine Dion on 13th March from 2-3pm, everyone is welcome. We will have afternoon tea afterwards.
Our regular events of the Church service, High Kicks, G-Fitness, pub lunches, Bailey the PAT dog and the school children’s visits will all continues
Rikki, our chiropodist will next be at Elmfield on 23rd March and Nicky the hairdresser will continue with her fortnightly visits.
We may also be welcoming the Rainbows into Elmfield with little goody bags for their ‘kindness’ badges. Last year they brought us little pots of kindness which we decorated potted plants which we put in our garden area.
Staff and resident changes:
We welcomed Phyllis Colclough to Elmfield on 3rd February. Phyllis moved from another local care home to Elmfield. She has settled in very well and made some new friends at Elmfield.
We also have a new house-keeper, Jade Hawerty who joined us on the same time. Welcome to the team!
Sadly, Roland Jefferies has left our team to progress in his career at another care home as senior night staff. We wish him luck in his journey.
From March, Lauren who has been bank staff at Elmfield for five years will be working permanent shifts, mainly day shifts with one night a week.
Natalie Goodchild from the night team will also be moving onto days working one night shift per week.
Samita Thapa Ale is also moving from bank staff to working Sunday shifts permanently.
Birthdays:
We have had a busy month for birthdays with three birthday celebrations!
Jean Winfield celebrated her 100th birthday on 1st February with a party, her friends and family.
Roger Dodd turned 67 on 14th February. He went out for lunch with his brother, sister and sister-in-law which he thoroughly enjoyed.
Brenda Donaghey turned 92 years old on 27th February. She had lunch at her son and daughter- in- law’s house a couple of days before her birthday and then had pub lunches out on her actual birthday with her friends.
Other news:
Thank- you to relatives who took the time to complete the Carehome.uk review cards. Our rating is currently 9.8/10 as a result of reviews. This is much appreciated. Anyone yet to complete a review, please take a few minutes to do so, we really are thankful.
Our annual Quality Control questionnaires will be distributed in March. As usual, feedback is appreciated as it helps us to assess how we are doing in providing a quality service and looks at areas we can improve as well as maintain.
Niccii has revised the questionnaires to focus on some of the areas which we are inspected against, known as KLOEs (Key Lines Of Enquiries.) Residents, relatives and staff will be asked to complete them to give us a holistic perspective.
Also, in March, we will be drafting the new menus to commence from April. Particular focus will be on the vegetarian menu. Any ideas and suggestions are most welcome!
Niccii will be on a much deserved two week’s holiday from beginning of March and will be back in work the afternoon of 16th March. In her absence, senior carer, Chris will be on hand to answer any questions or queries.
Employee of the month:
Employee of the month for February has been awarded to Chris Peterson for doing extra jobs to support Niccii without having to be asked and with a positive attitude. She has regularly gone above and beyond expectations/ job role in recent weeks. Keep it up!