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.
Our events and activities include (Covid-permitting):
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.
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.
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.
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.
Newspaper cutting of a recent birthday celebration for a Springfield Care Home centenarian
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.
Each year the residents hold an Easter parade and a prize goes to the best bonnet.
Springfield Care Home regularly hold coffee mornings, birthday and anniversary celebrations.
Residents and their families have loved watching chicks hatching from their eggs.
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.