WEA courses

Welcome to the Beginners Creative Writing Course! This course is designed for absolute beginners with no prior writing experience. Start with the very basics of creative writing, including understanding different genres, brainstorming ideas, and writing simple sentences. Participate in fun, guided exercises to ignite your creativity and build your writing confidence. Learn how to express your thoughts clearly and creatively. By the end of the course, you'll have written your first short piece and gained the foundational skills to continue exploring creative writing. Join us and discover the joy of writing! This course is running on a Thursday 10am until 11:30am.

In these lectures Stephen Wilkinson will introduce students to the history of the detective genre and discuss its relationship to the development of capitalism, urbanisation and consumerist commodity culture. Students will be encouraged to read detective fiction as a prism through which societies, their anxieties and underlying psycho-political natures can be understood. Using the examples from the UK, US and Cuba students will gain an insight into the ways in which popular literature gives shape and form to our lives.

It is sometimes said that Lenin drove the Russian revolution into a cul-de-sac and Stalin then accelerated into the wall at the far end. The course will examine the economic, political and social changes undertaken by Stalin and enforced by the Great Terror. We will then consider how far this modernisation of the economy enabled the USSR to withstand the Nazi onslaught from 1941 and why the Soviet Union seemed unreformable under Stalin’s successors. We will conclude by looking at Gorbachev’s almost total failure to achieve the objectives he identified and why, despite that, he was one of the most laudable leaders of a troubled century in European affairs

Have you learnt Modern Greek in the past for about a year? Would you like to expand your existing skills and increase your confidence in using them? This post-beginners’ course will provide you with some basic everyday language you need to get by on a visit to Greece or Cyprus, as well as an insight into the Greek lifestyle and culture. The course is taught by a well-qualified and experienced native speaker with many years’ teaching experience. Learning a foreign language for holiday or leisure is a great way to keep your brain active, explore a different culture, meet people with a common interest, increase your confidence and enhance your wellbeing. Take advantage of this unique opportunity today.

Welcome to the world of creativity! This beginners' course in arts and crafts is designed to introduce you to various artistic techniques and mediums, providing you with a solid foundation to explore your creativity. Whether you're a complete novice or someone looking to refresh their skills, this course will guide you through the fundamentals of different art forms, encouraging you to express yourself through hands-on projects.

During Victorian times Nottingham was transformed from an elegant market town into a major industrial City. Industries like hosiery and Lace needed grand warehouses and offices, streets filled up the central parishes and countless houses soon spread beyond the traditional town boundary. This course will explore this evolution from town to City, discover why and how the urban landscape began to change, consider contrasting communities, including Narrow Marsh and the Park Estate and will pause to highlight characters like the ‘firebrand orator’ Feargus O’Connor who could be assured to rouse the crowds over justice and the right to vote.

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.

All our Care2 courses are completely free for unpaid carers (or those who have previously been carers). You do not need to receive a carer's allowance to qualify. If you are unsure, please contact our call centre advisors who will be able to assist you. Modern society is often fast - paced causing many of us to feel overwhelmed and stressed, learning to relax is an effective tool to support stress management. This course is suitable for anyone - if you want to learn how to really relax, this course is ideal for you, and you are encouraged to join. You will learn to recognise how simple relaxation techniques can help you to relieve your own symptoms of stress. You will be guided through the practice of calming breathing techniques and gentle movements that ease tension in the body. Each session will end with a guided Yoga Nidra (deep relaxation practice) that will encourage deep rest of both mind and body.

Regency society rakish, raffish but with a fondness for wonderful architecture, or was there more to it than that?

This practical and engaging art course gives you the opportunity to explore different painting approaches, techniques and subjects, and begin to find your own style. Learn in a supportive environment where you can learn at your own pace, with an experience tutor who is ready to inspire you and help you reach your potential.