WEA courses

Discover the wonderful technique of patchwork. This course will help to develop your craft in measuring, marking and creating your own patterns for quilts and cushions.

Over the 10-week period, you’ll pay close attention to 10 different poetic forms such as , including the nocturne, haibun, prose poem, villanelle, golden shovel, pantoum, epistle, elegy, acrostic, couplet, ekphrastic, through close readings of selected verses, you’ll explore formal context and development in relation to your own work. You’ll also participate in lively discussions regarding formal aspects and question the use of techniques and experimentation. Prompts will be provided to support you with drafting your formal piece and you’ll be encouraged to continue your work at home in between sessions. Openness is encouraged but you won’t be asked to share more than you are comfortable with. Connect to and support a writing community.

This course will focus on a geographical area that may be intriguing for many of us: the North of Europe. Lately, in films and TV series, novels, and design, the Nordic touch has been quite popular. What about the visual arts? If you would like to know more about the history of Nordic art, this course is for you! In this course, you will learn about artists from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. We will cover Viking objects, Norwegian stave churches, Danish and Swedish medieval church frescoes, Finish national romantic painting and the Skagen painters. We will also study the art and craft of the Sami people.

This class will teach you how to make a range of small projects: cushions, bags, zip purses, peg bag/tea cosy, hanging hearts or birds or you can choose patterns of your own. Weekly skills will also be covered including buttonholes, ways to insert zips, piping, darts and more. Basic knowledge of the sewing machine is needed.

Put a Spring in your step and a smile on your face. A great way to start your day with a fun and friendly dance exercise class. Get a full body workout, have fun and get your mind and body set for the day ahead.

Join me for a seated yoga session, designed to stretch every muscle in the body. We will includce a yoga strap and bring some tin cans to add a weight bearing aspect to your session. During the meditation section of this class your tutor will focus on each of the Yamas. Yamas: the moral, ethical and societal guidelines for those who love yoga. These guidelines are all expressed in the emphatic descriptions of how we understand and relate to the world around us when we are truly immersed in seated yoga. There are five Yamas in total in Patanjali's Sutras: • Ahimsa (non-harming or non-violence in thought, word and deed) • Satya (truthfulness) • Asteya (non-stealing) • Brahmacharya (the 'right use of energy', we will include some self massage and reflexology) • Aparigraha (non-greed or non-hoarding, we will include some focus around space clearing your homes linked with Feng Shui)

Have you learnt the basics of painting in watercolours and are looking for fresh ideas? Do you want to learn and develop the use of watercolours alongside different art media? Why not join this course to explore your own creativity, find inspiration and receive support and encouragement? This ten-week course aims to provide ideas and techniques for working spontaneously and expressively as well finding sources of inspiration and methods for using a variety of drawing and painting media with watercolours. You will also have the opportunity to share ideas and take part in weekly discussions about your artworks with the tutor and other students on the course. This online course also follows on from Q00019810 but you can also attend if you haven't attended that course.

This course has two main objectives. It will enable you to work on a series of individual mosaics to display or sell at a local public event. Secondly it will equip you in the planning of a collaborative group mosaic designed for installation in a community space. Teamwork will be encouraged where you will be contributing in several ways, from the planning, making, advertising, curation, and event participation.

Are there really only 7 different plots? A fun, friendly and structured approach to gain fiction writing knowledge and written word skills and, importantly, aid you in finding inspiration, putting pen paper and getting writing. Mystery, thriller, noir, hardboiled crime, a touch of the ghostly and gothic or something far more salacious – find inspiration as we consider the kind of words, characters and styles which suit a tale exploring one or more of the seven different plots, will it be Rags to Riches or Voyage and Return – which might yield your future best seller or lead you down the wrong path to the bargain bin?

This course is designed for individuals who already have a basic understanding of word processing and wish to enhance their skills. "Word Processing Skills for Improvers" will take you beyond the fundamentals, helping you master more advanced features of popular word processing software, such as Microsoft Word. You will learn how to create professional documents with advanced formatting, style management, and document layout techniques.