Love to learn with the WEA

Our languages and culture courses span the length and breadth of England and Scotland, with the option to study online or in person at a time that suits you. Whether you’re looking to learn a new language and immerse yourself in another country, or you simply wish to indulge in your love and fascination of film, we have the course for you. 

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Our creative writing courses will nourish your inner writer, providing you with a platform to develop your love of poetry, non-fiction or script development. If literature courses are more your kind of thing, then you’re in luck too, as there are a wide range of topics to choose from.  

Literary greats and great periods in history

Our language courses offer you the perfect opportunity to immerse yourself in a completely new culture, developing your skills so that you can speak confidently in countries right across the world. German, Italian and Greek are just a few examples of the language courses we have to offer, with many others taking place throughout the year.  

As you’d expect, literary greats such as Agatha Christie and Shakespeare feature regularly. There’s also the option to examine other time periods in English literature too, helping you develop your critical reading and analysis skills - perfect whether you’re a beginner or more experienced in the subject.  

If you prefer history then you’ve got a choice too, from courses on subjects you’d expect such as the first world war, or art history and studying the works of iconic painters such as Salvador Dali. 

Support and guidance

Whatever course you choose, you'll learn in a supportive environment where the class sizes are small, ensuring you get the attention you deserve, with an experienced and qualified tutor on-hand to guide you through your learning too.  

A lot of our cultural learning is delivered by our branch network: learn more here.

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Creative Writing: Write Your Life

Are you interested in your local interest? Do you have a fascinating story to share about your ancestors? Or your own life? This course will help develop your reading and research skills as well as equip you with practical tips to improve your writing. Different styles of writing will be covered and you will gain the chance to share your work with fellow local writers.

Course Information

Dates:
Wed 07/08/2024 -
Wed 16/10/2024
Times:
9:30am - 12:30pm
Duration:
11 sessions
Location:
Fleetwood Library
North Albert Street
Fleetwood
North West
FY7 6AJ
Tutor:
Sarah Taberner
Course code:
Q00018133
How you'll learn:
In venue
Availability:
10+ places remaining
Status:
Available
Fee range
Free to £138.60

Creative Writing: Write Your Life

Are you interested in your local interest? Do you have a fascinating story to share about your ancestors? Or your own life? This course will help develop your reading and research skills as well as equip you with practical tips to improve your writing. Different styles of writing will be covered and you will gain the chance to share your work with fellow local writers.

Course Information

Dates:
Wed 07/08/2024 -
Wed 16/10/2024
Times:
1:00pm - 4:00pm
Duration:
11 sessions
Location:
Fleetwood Library
North Albert Street
Fleetwood
North West
FY7 6AJ
Tutor:
Sarah Taberner
Course code:
Q00018134
How you'll learn:
In venue
Availability:
10+ places remaining
Status:
Available
Fee range
Free to £138.60

Creative writing: Stop Frame Animation

Bring your imagination to life! This stop motion animation course guides you through the exciting world of creating animated stories frame by frame. Learn practical techniques, explore storytelling elements, and discover the magic of bringing characters and objects to life on screen. We will explore a variety of content including the principles of stop motion animation, from storyboarding to character creation. We will explore how to nbring the ideas to life and look into the post-production magic too. **This interactive course features engaging video demonstrations, step-by-step tutorials, and creative prompts to spark your imagination. Whether you're a hobbyist or aiming for a career in animation, this course is your launchpad to explore the world of stop motion animation!

Course Information

Dates:
Mon 12/08/2024 -
Mon 21/10/2024
Times:
10:30am - 12:30pm
Duration:
11 sessions
Location:
Tunstall Library (Stoke-on-Trent)
Tunstall Library
The Boulevard
Stoke-on-Trent
ST6 6BD
Tutor:
Tabitha Allsop
Course code:
Q00016496
How you'll learn:
In venue
Availability:
10+ places remaining
Status:
Available
Fee range
Free to £75.60

Creative Writing: Body and Place Stories

This friendly creative writing course will invite you to enter into relationship with your bodies and surroundings. The session will be held in a supportive way and will integrate some simple meditation (adaptable to all bodies), prompts for creative and reflective expression through writing, and even some environmental science! You will be guided to a holistic understanding of person and place. This course is ideal for people who like to write and to contemplate how to live more skilfully as individuals, as a community and in relationship with their surroundings. There will be time for sharing small parts of your writing towards the end of the workshop but no pressure.

Course Information

Dates:
Wed 04/09/2024 -
Wed 23/10/2024
Times:
2:00pm - 4:00pm
Duration:
8 sessions
Location:
Shekinah Endeavour House (Torquay)
Endeavour House, 228 Union Str
Torquay
TQ2 5QS
Tutor:
Ione Harris
Course code:
Q00017151
How you'll learn:
In venue
Availability:
10+ places remaining
Status:
Available
Fee range
Free to £67.20

WEA Membership

For just £15 a year, you can:

  • Join our popular, award-winning weekly lecture series,
  • Access an archive of over 100 past lectures,
  • Get priority online and phone booking for autumn courses (England only),
  • Receive our Highway magazine and access back issues,
  • Attend our members’ annual conference.

Just add us to your basket to sign up today!

Membership Information

Duration:
12 months
Fee:
£15

Art Appreciation: Renaissance Beauty in the work of Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer

This course in art appreciation provides close attentions to particular works of art from two important artists, Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer, working in Europe in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The focus will be upon specific paintings, drawings and prints in relation to their concept of beauty. The course will present a range of work by both artists and each week will select one work for a Close View and detailed attention. Particular attentions will be given to Dürer’s painting in Venice and to his woodcuts and engravings; to Leonardo’s drawings and to his work in Milan.

Course Information

Dates:
Mon 09/09/2024 -
Mon 30/09/2024
Times:
10:30am - 12:30pm
Duration:
4 sessions
Location:
The Kindle Centre (Hereford)
ASDA
Belmont Road
Hereford
HR2 7JE
Tutor:
Allen Fisher
Course code:
Q00016513
How you'll learn:
In venue
Availability:
10+ places remaining
Status:
Available
Fee range
Free to £33.60

Literature: Victorian Literature Through the Decades - The 1830s

During this friendly course you will have the opportunity to consider a number of novels that were published in the 1830s as the start of an exploration of literature published through the decades of Victoria’s long reign. In order to get some sense of how literature was beginning to cross borders in this decade, you will look at works by English authors and also a French and an American writer. The following works will be studied: Old Man Goriot (Honoré de Balzac, 1835); The Vicar of Wrexhill (Frances Trollope, 1837); The Pickwick Papers (Charles Dickens, 1837); The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (Edgar Allan Poe, 1838).

Course Information

Dates:
Tue 10/09/2024 -
Tue 10/12/2024
Times:
2:30pm - 4:30pm
Duration:
14 sessions
Location:
Exeter Community Centre (Exeter)
17 St. Davids Hill
Exeter
EX4 3RG
Tutor:
Greta Depledge
Course code:
Q00016877
How you'll learn:
In venue
Availability:
10+ places remaining
Status:
Available
Fee range
Free to £109.20

British Literature 1980 - 2011 (Part 1)

On this course we will examine the following novels: The Stranger’s Child - Alan Hollinghurst. Last Orders - Graham Swift. A Pale View of Hills - Kazuo Ishiguro Innocence - Penelope Fitzgerald The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps - Michel Faber. These texts will take us inside contemporary British fiction, and earmark those authors who have contributed to the evolution of a distinctive voice in British fiction in the last fifty years, from the years of Thatcher, New Labour to the present. We will explore each writers’ techniques and themes, and how they address the themes of British identity. Discussions will be lively with plenty of opportunities to voice your opinions.

Course Information

Dates:
Thu 12/09/2024 -
Fri 22/11/2024
Times:
2:15pm - 4:15pm
Duration:
10 sessions
Location:
Friends Meeting House (Sutton)
10 Cedar Road
Sutton
SM2 5DA
Tutor:
Stephen Smith
Course code:
Q00017587
How you'll learn:
In venue
Availability:
10+ places remaining
Status:
Available
Fee range
Free to £100.00

Art Appreciation: Art and the Arts in 1920s

The course will explore the enriching links between stories, art and music, concentrating of works from 1920s. From the surrealistic art in France and expressionist art in Germany to the many operas, ballets and symphonies which characterise that tumultuous period. In America, it is frequently referred to as the "Roaring Twenties" or the "Jazz Age", while in Europe the period is sometimes referred to as the "Golden Twenties" because of the economic boom following World War I (1914–1918). French speakers refer to the period as the "Années folles" ("crazy years") emphasizing the era's social, artistic, and cultural dynamism.

Course Information

Dates:
Thu 12/09/2024 -
Thu 17/10/2024
Times:
10:30am - 12:30pm
Duration:
6 sessions
Location:
Enfield Baptist Church (Enfield) (Enfiel
Cecil Road
Enfield
EN2 6TG
Tutor:
Colin Lomas
Course code:
Q00017290
How you'll learn:
In venue
Availability:
9 places remaining
Status:
Available
Fee range
Free to £72.00

Literature: Dickens and the struggles of life

For Charles Dickens, writing and worrying went hand in hand. His books were knitted together out of his own anxieties and struggles. And yet, despite the weight of all these worries, his novels are never depressing. To read Dickens is to glimpse the possibilities of new life. We all probably intend to read Dickens ‘one day.’ We all know his characters from various films and TV adaptations, so perhaps the time has finally come to get stuck into a major work. On this eight-week course we will read ‘Little Dorrit.’ We will also study some of Dickens's essays, short stories, and letters. You may already be a Dickens enthusiast, or a complete newcomer to his work. Either way, I hope that you will join us to explore a writer whose books still have the power to move and enlighten us today.

Course Information

Dates:
Mon 16/09/2024 -
Mon 11/11/2024
Location:
Krowji (Redruth)
West Park
Redruth
TR15 3AJ
Course code:
Q00013086
How you'll learn:
In venue
Availability:
10+ places remaining
Status:
Available
Fee range
Free to £67.20

Literature: Crime through Time

For the last century, crime fiction has been the most popular and lucrative of literary subgenres. But this commercial success belies a formal inventiveness and experiment, a constant drive to ‘make it new’, which has long been central to the genre. In this course we will read six crime novels (and three short stories) which chart the development of crime fiction. As well as considering each of these novels in isolation from week to week, we will also use the eight week course to ask ourselves: how has crime fiction changed through the years, and how has it remained the same? No previous knowledge of crime fiction is necessary – everybody is most welcome!

Course Information

Dates:
Mon 16/09/2024 -
Mon 11/11/2024
Times:
2:00pm - 4:00pm
Duration:
8 sessions
Location:
Emmanuel Church Aylsham (Aylsham)
Cawston Road
Aylsham
NR11 6BX
Tutor:
Joseph Williams
Course code:
Q00018193
How you'll learn:
In venue
Availability:
10+ places remaining
Status:
Available
Fee range
Free to £58.80