Married couples rooms to open
We are very excited to be getting closer to the opening of the new married couples rooms. This unique unit is one of a kind and will be able to accommodate married couples. This means they will be able to stay together in an aged care facility even when they require hospital level care.

Three of the five rooms have been booked already.

The Board of Trustees have agreed upon the name for the new married couples area - the “Don and Moira Rennie wing” .

Don Rennie has been on the Board of trustees since 1996 and has been president of the board since 2002. Moira Rennie has a long association in many areas of Sprott especially in our exercise programme. We are delighted that they have accepted this recognition.

New Front Entrance
We have began to reconfigure our new front entrance and once apologise for the inconvenient that this may cause you when visiting.

The new entrance will incorporate our new reception area, a small coffee shop/snacks area and a stunning paved outside area that our visitors can enjoy with residents on a sunny day. We're really looking forward to seeing this finished - the final touch!

This year, our 112th year, we are celebrating not only our long history but also the completion of our building projects at the end of May, beginning June.

So we'll have a lot to celebrate and plan a big celebration in July.

It's all been quite intensive and we'd really like to thank our staff, residents and visitors for their patience, including putting up with the lack of parking spaces at times during this building over the last few years.

Compliments and Complaints
We are receiving lots of compliments for the care of our residents from families and medical practitioners. We do strive to continue to be the leaders in aged care which sometimes can bring us many challenges along the way.

We would like to re-introduce family evenings which give us an opportunity to meet with families and share a drink and a few nibbles and talk about any issues.

Our first family evening will be on Friday May 7 for the Childs wing. Our second family evening will be for the North Wing on Friday May 14. In both cases all of our families concerned will be contacted directly

Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday to the following Residents for April from all the Staff at Sprott House:

Gardening Club

We have a fantastic gardening club that is run in conjunction with our Gardener “Jim” and lots of keen willing green hands.

The courtyards and grounds are blooming.

If you have any ideas or suggestions please feel free to let us know.

Wellington City Chorus
A group of our residents attended the performance of the Wellington City Chorus in the Little Theatre Lower Hutt on Sunday 18th April and really enjoyed the afternoon’s event.

They watched the contest level performance in preparation to wow the rest of the country!! Thank you to Angela in activities for making this happen.


Keeping up that exercise
Last month we talked about looking after your feet, so this month it’s the turn of your upper body and your hands!

Here are some simple chair exercises to help keep your upper body pliable.

• Raise both arms horizontally, out to your sides, shoulder height as if you were doing an impression of a plane. Push out your arms in both directions, as far out as physically possible, feeling the stretch across your back and chest. • Relax but keep your arms out straight and start to move them very slowly in small circles as if running your finger around the outside rim of a coin.

Do ten small circles forward, then ten small circles backwards.

• Relax the arms and shake them off.

• Put both hands together as if you have just clapped, hold them out in front of you, elbows raised and push your hands together as hard as you can, tensing your arms, chest, shoulders and back for 10 seconds.

• Raise first one arm in the air and stretch it up, then roll round in circles 5 times, then do the same with the other

• Relax the arms and shake them off.

• Put both hands together behind your back, palms together, and again push to your maximum effort, tensing your arms, chest, shoulders and back for 10 seconds.

Carole Hazelman