Events and Activities

Our Activities Co-ordinator organises a regular programme of activities and entertainment, such as film afternoons, sing-songs, drama classes, flower arranging, light exercise, bingo and board games. There is a weekly church service at the home. Seasonal events include our Christmas party and the Easter bonnets parade. We arrange regular outings throughout the year, for example cream tea at Sandringham and lunch at a restaurant at the sea-front in Hunstanton. We hold four coffee mornings a year at the home. We have iPads and laptops for residents to use and communicate with their families as required. Daycare visitors are invited to take part in all our activities including outings.

Obviously we had to restrict activities, especially outside ones, due to Covid but we are resuming as and when we can.


Activities at the home

Our events and activities include (Covid-permitting):

  • Regular friendly bingo game for residents and their families with a variety of prizes.
  • Film afternoons in the main lounge, e.g., "Oh, What a Lovely War" with Dick Bogarde and Laurence Olivier.
  • Board games such as "Pastime" which help residents remember and talk about historical events, e.g., what they were doing when the Queen's coronation took place.
  • A gentle exercise programme for residents organised by our Activities Co-Ordinator.
  • Singers, such as Tom Kennedy, who sings all the old time and music hall songs with a soft Irish voice like Daniel O'Donnell.
  • Drama productions including by the Facet group (adults with learning disabilities).
  • Intergenerational “messy play”.
  • Visits by trained “Yopey Befrienders”, local sixth-formers who have spent over 100 hours chatting with and befriending our residents. See article in the Cambs Times
  • "Living Eggs". For three years, residents and their families have loved watching chicks hatching from their eggs.
  • Visits by Basil the Donkey who is trained to come into the home so that our residents can enjoy stroking him!

Church services

The pastor of our local church, Jonathan, conducts a weekly service at the home with the assistance of some residents' relatives. Jonathan plays his guitar and encourages residents to join in their favourite hymns.

Seasonal events

Each year we arrange a number of seasonal activities. For example, at Easter we make Easter bonnets and do flower arrangements with the residents. The residents hold an Easter parade and a prize goes to the best bonnet.

At Christmas we hold a Christmas party in the week before Christmas. All residents are encouraged to attend. Santa comes too, with personal presents tailored to each resident. There is also a bus trip to see the Christmas lights. We usually start the day with a mid morning brunch, a full cooked breakfast, followed by a singalong with singer Tom Kennedy. Then we have a break for our specially prepared buffet including sausage rolls, open sandwiches etc with jelly cake, fruit, ice cream and much much more. On Christmas Day, we do the traditional Christmas lunch with all the trimmings and also a Christmas tea. Of course there are Christmas crackers, coloured hats and the other Christmas extras. We provide special meals also on Boxing Day and New Years Day. Families and friends of residents are invited to all of these events.

Our team are busy arranging craft and other activities around other seasonal events such as Halloween, St Valentine’s Day and Pancake Day.

Coffee mornings

We welcome residents, families and other visitors to at least four coffee mornings throughout the year including a bric-a-brac stall, grand prize draw and a variety of home made cakes and biscuits. Proceeds go to our social fund.

Birthdays and anniversaries

We celebrate each resident's birthday. A cake is made and decorated and staff and residents sing happy birthday with the help of our happy birthday bear. For special birthdays or other occasions, we arrange an afternoon buffet with sandwiches, cakes etc in the dining room. In fact, we have a 60th wedding anniversary celebration coming up in the summer.

Below is a local newspaper cutting showing one of our residents celebrating her 100th birthday at Springfield.

Photograph showing a newspaper cutting of a recent birthday celebration for a Springfield Care Home centenarian

Newspaper cutting of a recent birthday celebration for a Springfield Care Home centenarian

Trips out

Weather permitting, we walk to town for lunch and stroll around the local market to support local businesses. Residents can meet with old friends in local cafés. We often walk to the park and visit local gardens to get ideas for Springfield summer pots and then chat about it over coffee and cakes.

We aim to organise two or more trips out each summer. We ask for volunteers to help with those residents requiring a wheelchair and just looking for an extra arm to lean on!

In previous years we have booked a day out in Hunstanton. There, residents enjoy a traditional lunch in a restaurant facing the seafront with beautiful sea views and then it is off for a walk along the front for some sea air, stopping off for an ice cream along the way of course.

We also arrange trips out at Sandringham. Weather permitting, we have a picnic while enjoying the countryside. If the weather is not so great, then we take ourselves off to the excellent café which serves a traditional cream tea and cucumber sandwiches.

Seasonal activities

Easter bonnet and basket of chocolate eggs

Each year the residents hold an Easter parade and a prize goes to the best bonnet.


Coffee mornings and more

Tea and cake

Springfield Care Home regularly hold coffee mornings, birthday and anniversary celebrations.


Living eggs

Chicks hatch

Residents and their families have loved watching chicks hatching from their eggs.


A recent trip out to Sandringham

The church of St Mary Magdalene, Sandringham

Trips out such as a recent trip to Sandringham, the much-loved country retreat of Her Majesty the Queen.

The photograph shows the church of St Mary Magdalene, regularly used as a place of worship by the Royal Family and Estate staff.