WEA courses

We will cover all forms of writing – fiction, including novels, short stories and plays, also poetry, autobiography and memoirs. The aim is to help develop and channel your writing ability, whether as a hobby or for publication. We will discuss many aspects of writing, foster the use of imagination, and read your work in a constructive and friendly setting. The emphasis is on individual development. This course is suitable for improvers and beginners. All you need is an interest in developing and enjoying your writing skills.

The "Making the Most of Your Smartphone for Life and Work" online course is designed to help you harness the full potential of your smartphone. This is suitable for those who have a smartphone but doesn’t know how to use all of the features and applications. This course covers essential features, productivity apps, camera use and practical tips for both personal and professional use. Whether you're a beginner or looking to enhance your skills, you'll learn how to use your smartphone effectively to improve communication, organisation, and productivity.

For many prospective art students, the thought of learning to draw a portrait is quite daunting, in fact some would say it is their nemesis! However, challenging yourself to confront this can be incredibly rewarding. The first time you achieve something akin to a real, convincing likeness is quite thrilling, and rest assured, it is a taught skill. This course is structured so you will learn skills of proportion, perspective, line, tone, and colour and be able to clearly analyse requirements for the task. This course is for complete beginners and those looking to improve their skills and develop their own style.

Learning about Abstract Art is fascinating and rewarding. This course covers its evolution from 19th-century pioneers like JMW Turner to movements such as Impressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Modernism, and up to the 21st century. It also highlights lesser-known female artists who have been overlooked by the art world. Each lesson starts with an interactive visual presentation featuring these examples. You’ll learn and practice using various drawing and painting materials, including inks, chalk, oil pastels, watercolour, acrylic, collage, and mixed media. This course is suitable for complete beginners and those wanting to improve their skills and develop their own style.

Learning about Abstract Landscape Art is a fascinating and rewarding topic; it tracks an evolving story looking at different ages, from 19th Century innovators such as JMW Turner, through to Impressionism, Cubism, Futurism and Modernism in general, right up to the 21st Century. This course will also introduce you to some lesser known female artists who have been formerly neglected by the art establishment. Inspired by these examples, shown at the beginning of each lesson in an interactive visual presentation, we will develop skills in a range of drawing and painting media, including drawing inks, chalk and oil pastels, watercolour, acrylic, collage and mixed media. This course is for complete beginners and those looking to improve their skills and develop their own style.

Are you bilingual? Ever thought about using your language skills to help out in the community? Did you know you can get many jobs with languages? If you speak English and another language fluently, you could make a great community interpreter. This community interpreter course gives you an introduction to the language and interpreting skills needed for this type of work. It can teach you foundational concepts to test your community interpreting skills informally with family or friends. This course can prepare you to help members of your family or community to overcome language barriers in their everyday lives. It can also help you decide if you’re interested in pursuing community interpreting jobs.

This course will help you develop further watercolour techniques interrelated with drawing skills, and in connection with inspiring examples in art history. It will help you learn classical techniques in a subtle way, by relating them to examples by various masters of drawing and watercolour (such as Dürer, Turner or Cezanne) and contemporary artists (such as David Hockney or Anselm Kiefer). If you would like to have a fresh view of watercolour painting and drawing, and learn how to achieve expressivity by carefully combining techniques such as glazing, graded wash or cross-hatching, this course will offer you an overview and will inspire personal artworks of great subtlety and sensitivity It will also encourage you to create your own original artworks based on the techniques learned and it will bring a fresh perspective on known techniques and styles, if you have already practised them in your own paintings. You will need to bring your own materials, paints and paper along for this course. The tutor will let you know what to bring

Carbon literacy is a term used to describe an awareness of climate change, and the climate impacts of humankind’s everyday actions. This course is designed specifically for charities and social enterprises working in public leisure and culture and gives you the knowledge and tools available to take impactful climate action.

The course will briefly introduce the principal ideas of a selection of philosophers and apply these to the discussion of the news headlines and the controversies that lie behind them. This course will encourage discussion and sharing of ideas about current affairs and will involve reflecting on how to make philosophy a part of this discussion. Reading material will be provided on Canvas and the tutor will introduce the key ideas of relevant articles. However, reading before class is not essential. The main activity is to share ideas on news stories.

Osteoporosis is a health condition that weakens the bones making them fragile and more likely to break. The origin of the word is from the Greek language to mean 'porous bones'. Bones naturally have some empty space in them to allow them to bend and flex. Those with low bone density or osteoporosis have larger spaces and less bone mass - predisposing them to fractures and other bone injuries, especially in the hip, spinal vertebrae and some peripheral joints such as the wrists. Each week there is a simple, step by step guided practice to build bone strength, building and extending upon the previous week where we work on a variety of postures which are modified and adapted. These practices and techniques include slow, gentle, straightforward movements; breathing and relaxation techniques.