Pam, our Registered Manager, joined our residents for coffee last week and presented some highlights of her recent holiday in the Cairngorms. The photos gave a real flavour of the beautiful landscape, the panoramic views from the peaks and the dramatic lochs. Everyone enjoyed Pam’s descriptions of her holiday. Colin told us about his trip up Ben Nevis whilst wearing a pair of cycling shoes (!) and remarked “it’s good for the soul to see these views”. Muriel knows the area very well and had a great chat about her favourite spots, reminiscing about the best places for hiking and shorter walks.
Our residents are making the most of the sunshine and have enjoyed a coffee morning on the decking outside, with home made treats from our kitchen team, whilst still being well wrapped up against the slight nip in the air. It was wonderful to chat away, and admire the daffodils and other spring plants flowering in our gardens, and to listen to the bird calls in the trees. Richard, a long time supporter of Charlotte Straker, visited for an alfresco cup of tea, and enjoyed chatting to Colin about their shared interest in engineering. Sally, our Marketing Coordinator, is also a Wordle fan, and has been explaining the daily quiz with coffee morning attendees. We managed to work out most of the solutions within three or four tries – with many wild guesses along the way. It’s a brilliant way to keep your brain active – we definitely recommend it!
On Thursday 26th May at 7pm our friends at The Angel of Corbridge are holding a charity quiz night, with proceeds donated towards our charity.
There will be 100 questions, table teams from 2 (minimum) to 8 (maximum), fish and chip supper and a prize for the winning table (The Angel will pick up your table’s bar tab!). The evening also includes a raffle and an auction of three items.
Cost is £10 per person entry fee, with £5 going towards the Charlotte Straker Project.
There will be an online option at only £5 (which will be added to our donations) – the Angel will send out a weblink so that you can sign up and play live at home. The on-line winners’ prize is a 2-night stay in The Angel’s apartment including breakfast.
To book a table for the quiz please call 01434 632119 and let them know if you have any dietary requirements.
This is going to be both popular and competitive so book early. Only room for 22 table teams so don’t miss out!
You may have seen the sticker in our lounge window announcing that we are a recommended care home on Carehome.co.uk – the leading care home review website in the UK.
We are proud of our beautiful building, wonderful staff, excellent facilities and high quality care and we want to make sure that prospective users and visitors to the Carehome website know how much we are valued by our local “family” of supporters.
Reviews from past/present residents and their families are key in helping others feel confident about their care home choice, so we are asking if you would take 60 seconds to click on the link below, or scan the QR code and leave a review on our nursing, residential or respite care?
(Please note: Carehome.co.uk will only accept reviews from past/present residents or members of their families).
https://www.carehome.co.uk/carehome.cfm/searchazref/20004525CHAA#submit-review
Thank you very much!
(If you have any queries about how to submit a review or information about carehome.co.uk please email our Marketing Officer sally.urwin@charlottestraker.org.uk)
We are in the middle of installing a brand new integrated IT system in Charlotte Straker House to coordinate all our processes including resident care, administration, HR, rota and payroll.
“Care Control” is an innovative Care Management System and will eliminate the need for traditional paperwork – everything from resident care plans, audits, timesheets, task lists, rotas and payroll services will be accessed via a digital app. The system is fully compliant with all CQC systems and can be used on phones, tablets or desktop computer, so we can access essential data wherever we are in the building.
Our staff team are currently undergoing training to use the new app and our admin staff are busily moving data to the new system. A new tablet and laptop will be installed so that everyone can use these on a day to day basis. Transferring over to the new system is time consuming but will definitely streamline all our processes and improve efficiency when we go live at the end of March.
We’re delighted to announce that we will be part of this year’s Northumberland County Show, and have been chosen (as the only charity) to have a trade stall in the Show’s prestigious Indoor Shopping Marquee.
The much loved agricultural event is returning on Friday 3rd June at Bywell Hall, near Stocksfield. After Covid caused the cancellation of the 2020 and 2021 shows, this year’s event will be bigger and better than ever.
The Crafty Women of Corbridge will be manning the Charlotte Straker stall and selling their unique, hand crafted items and homeware to raise money for our charity. They will be offering a 10% off voucher in the official County Show Catalogue – make sure you buy your catalogue on the day to receive this special offer.
Please visit the County Show website to buy your e-tickets before the event – more details and information can be found here https://www.northcountyshow.co.uk/
Our residents loved playing one of their favourite games last week – using an inflatable football. This is a brilliant way to both exercise and have lots of fun! Everyone loved getting involved throwing, catching and kicking the ball. Our volunteer Avril helped us out and everyone just had fun; it was a great way to get our arms and legs moving. We encourage our residents to do mild exercise as it releases endorphins, lifts mood and makes everyone more positive and alert. Pam Crawley, our Registered Manager said “at the end of the exercise our residents go away laughing, joking, chatting with each other, and feeling a lot more confident in themselves.” 
We had a busy couple of days recently with a crafting afternoon and a game of “tossing the pancake” to celebrate Pancake Day.
On Monday our residents had a happy afternoon making a wonderful selection of cards and paintings, using lots of different stickers, paint and crafting materials. The photos show Jessie and John holding their beautiful cards and Margaret carefully painting a trinket box.
Shrove Tuesday certainly didn’t fall flat, with residents and staff getting involved with a pancake tossing tournament. Residents got together with volunteers and staff in our dining room to enjoy a flipping contest.
We all spent an afternoon flipping the pancakes as many times as we could, using a lightweight badminton racket in place of a frying pan, and handing it over to the next challenger once we’d dropped their pancake on the floor.
As well as the competitive tossing tournament, our residents tucked into some tasty pancakes (not those that they had been flipping, of course) with some traditional tasty toppings of lemon, sugar and golden syrup. After all, they had built up quite an appetite during their challenge!
Jayne Purvis, our Activities Coordinator commented: “The residents had a great time tossing the pancakes, and also enjoyed eating some pancakes today too, they particularly enjoyed them topped with the traditional lemon and sugar, just as they had them in their younger days.”
Recruiting staff into the care sector is currently extremely challenging so after brainstorming different ideas, we decided to hold a drop in Recruitment morning at the Corbridge Parish Hall to show how rewarding working for our care home can be, and demonstrate the welcome that new staff would receive if they joined our Charlotte Straker family.
Our Trustees, Registered Manager and Charlotte Straker staff met with people from the local community to discuss our available posts. It was a great opportunity to meet individuals interested in our care and domestic positions as well as to chat to others about apprenticeships and work experience at Charlotte Straker House.
Nick Oliver, the Corbridge Parish Councillor, dropped in to lend his support to the event.
A huge thanks to the staff who gave up their spare time to support conversations with the interested attendees, this undoubtedly makes a huge difference in the decision making on applying for a role. For those who couldn’t make the date, we will be holding further recruitment sessions in Hexham and Prudhoe or please drop us a line at office@charlottestraker.org.uk and we will forward you details of our recruitment pack and available roles.
The Charlotte Straker Project
Charlotte Straker, Cookson Close
Corbridge, NE45 5HB
01434 633999
office@charlottestraker.org.uk
