London Region N e w s l e t t e r October 2012
Issue 2
Introduction I’m delighted to introduce the latest edition of the regional Newsletter which is packed with interesting news and ideas. I wanted to take the opportunity, at the start of the new academic year, both to look back, and reflect, and to look ahead. Last year 2011/12 was a busy transitional year in which we made good progress as a region and experienced a lot of changes in the WEA as a whole. Firstly, I wanted to mention two key staff members who are experiencing serious health issues this year; Audrey Stewart and Rowenna Mortimer. We all wish them both the very best and look forward to seeing them with us and fully recovered. The Association has agreed that we can make cover arrangements and I hope very soon to be announcing two short term appointments (to run until Christmas). As a recently appointed Director for the region, I’ve found it an encouraging year in London WEA; the atmosphere is positive and forward looking with lots of good team working and discussion. The resources and efforts put into getting the regional centre on a sound footing are paying dividends. It’s a safer and more pleasant place in which to work, study or meet. I’d like to welcome staff members who’ve joined us during the year: Paul (Centre Manager), Renee (Reception/Administrator), and Christine Foster (Finance Strategic Support Manager). On the educational side, our two new tutor organisers, Elaine and Viola, have had a reinvigorating effect and it’s good to see the Foundation team’s strength maintained with the appointment of Atika as a consolidated tutor. Going to the termly staff meetings gave me an insight into the excellent and imaginative work done by so many of our course tutors; this is increasingly being publicised on our website thanks to Andy’s work in improving its appeal and coverage. We’ve also had some inspiring public events such as the showing of Ken Loach’s film, The Navigators, and the Molly Morgan lecture; both events celebrated our longstanding partnership with the trade union movement. Overall during the year we met our ‘learner hours’ target (that is we taught enough
students to ‘earn’ our part if the Skills Funding Agency contract); that was an important achievement and tribute to the work of staff and branches. This year Looking at the region’s course brochure (which does come over as a really professional product) I was struck by the wide and exciting range of courses we are able to offer across London. It’s a good reminder of the WEA’s distinctive and invaluable contribution to the capital. There will of course be challenges in ensuring the sustainability of our region. The priority will be increasing income through projects, additional contracts, course fees (such as via the planned Saturday programme) and increased letting for the regional centre. We will also have to manage our resources extremely carefully. Obviously it’s going to be hard but I’m confident that it’s doable. As part of the ambition to develop the region, and most importantly greatly increase our impact in London, I’ve put forward a set of proposals to improve management and staffing arrangements. These are currently subject to consultation with staff. I feel there is huge potential for the WEA to really make a difference in London but to do that we’ll have to use everything we’ve got in the most effective possible way. So, thank you again for what you’ve done in 2012/13 and I look forward to working with you again in the coming year. Pete Caldwell, Regional Director
Contents WEA & St Mungo’s
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Interview with Anne Stott
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TU Film Event
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Venue Hire
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ESOL Nexus Project
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Branch Courses
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Poplar HARCA Learners
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Writing London Update In our last Newsletter we ran an article about ‘Writing London’, a creative writing course run in partnership with the Museum of London and taught by WEA tutor Elizabeth Sarkany. In the article we said that we'd be producing a booklet of learners' work from the course, together with images from the museum to view online. We have now produced the booklet and you can view the excellent work online here: http://www.online.wea.org.uk/galleryonline and here: http://tinyurl.com/writinglondon
Here’s the introduction to the work by Elizabeth: 'One of the learners on the Writing London course noticed very early on that there were always excited groups of schoolchildren in the galleries at the museum. She liked this, she said, because it made things feel so alive. To do with now and the future as well as with the past. It’s this energy, running through the place like a heartbeat, that makes the Museum of London such a unique setting for creativity. We worked together in various ways: sometimes, our group of nine allowed their imaginations to take flight in direct response to the exhibits. They very quickly began to make stories out of, say, the poignancy of a shoe lost during the scuffle of an arrest, a chilling newspaper account of an execution, or the possibilities represented by the bag of a wartime bus conductress. Objects could be the starting point for linking in to personal experience too: an immigrant’s suitcase the focus for a powerful description of traumatic dislocation, wartime tins of food for a quirky account of life under rationing. And sometimes we used the exhibits to facilitate the seeing of the world in a new way, as a writer sometimes does: a watchman’s box, for example, becoming a beautifully drawn metaphor for loneliness. Inspiration was often to be found in surprising places: overheard conversations in the café, a chance meeting in a lift, found fragments of willow pattern china under glass in the floor beneath our feet. Nine adults from completely different places experience the same thing in nine completely different ways. That’s the other thing that gave this course its special texture. The generosity and curiosity within our increasingly cohesive group allowed nine very distinctive voices to emerge. These can be heard in the following pages.' Elizabeth Sarkany
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Radio Play @ St Mungo’s
The WEA course ‘Create a Radio Play’, is delivered in partnership with St Mungo’s and taught by Rowenna Mortimer from WEA London. The course is held at the Endell Street Recording Studio and supported by professional recording studio engineer, Matt Catlow from St Mungo's. The main aims of the course are: to engage learners in creating and recording original drama pieces in a professional recording studio, to give learners an opportunity to gain experience in using industry standard recording & audio editing equipment and for learners to work collaboratively to produce radio plays.
Learners also participate in creative writing, voice acting, improvisation and in creating sound effects for their scenes as well as writing the scripts and planning and timetabling the rehearsals.
Learners in the studio
Learners planning their recording schedules
The resulting work from this innovative course includes pieces of comedy, drama and soap opera and the finished results will be broadcast on Camden’s “Locked On” internet radio station, later this year.
Established in 1969 the St Mungo's charity provides shelter and support for homeless people. In 2010/11 it helped more than 370 people off the street and provided accommodation for more than 1,700 homeless people every night. Its Skills and Employment team supported over 2,000 people to find work, training, further education or engagement in other activities.
Links St Mungo’s: http://www.mungos.org Locked on Radio: http:// camdenlockedon.blogspot.co.uk/
Studio Engineer, Matt Catlow
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Interview with Anne Stott On hearing of Anne Stott’s recent book 'Wilberforce: Family and Friends', we took the opportunity to have a chat with Anne about her fascinating work. WEA Tutor Anne Stott
Anne has taught at the WEA, the Open University and Birkbeck, University of London, as well as various other adult education institutions for more than 35 years. She has published extensively on women and Evangelicalism, and her book, Hannah More: The First Victorian (Oxford University Press, 2003) won the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize in 2004. Anne is a participant in the Dissenting Academies Project run by the Dr Williams Centre and the administrator of the Long Eighteenth-Century Seminar, University of London. Anne began teaching classes for the WEA some years ago, as she describes; ‘out of a love for adult education’. ‘Teaching adults is different from teaching younger people, as adults are more able to relate information to their own life experiences in a way that younger learners can’t, this makes the WEA classes that much more interesting for me as a tutor.’ Anne’s most recent work, a biography entitled: Wilberforce: Family and Friends about William Wilberforce (1759 – 1833) the politician, philanthropist, campaigner and leader in the movement for the abolition of the slave trade, was inspired by her extensive PhD research on his friend, the evangelical philanthropist, Hannah More. ‘Because of my experience in adult education, I wanted to re-present the academic information I had discovered during my research and make it as accessible as possible and to appeal to a wider audience than the academic text would allow. One of the most significant sources I used was the collection of Wilberforce family papers, letters and diaries in the Bodleian library at Oxford University. There was a similarly rich
collection of the family papers of his friend Henry Thornton in Cambridge University Library. The papers took great deal of work to decipher and put in to context for use in the book. Although it was a lot of hard work it was also exhilarating. Technology has greatly improved academic research and can be empowering, as much research material has now been digitised and made available electronically. At the same time one shouldn’t rely solely on an electronic approach, as there will inevitably be something that hasn’t been seen for a long time and there is no substitute for the feeling that I experienced of untying the ribbon on a dusty box to discover invaluable papers that hadn’t been seen for years! For anyone considering writing a book I would offer the following advice: • Choose the topic carefully and investigate what material is available on the subject (for the historian, the National Archives website is indispensable). • Be prepared to travel, I made two trips to Los Angeles and many trips to Oxford and Cambridge libraries while doing the research for my book. • Read out loud, if a sentence is hard to say it will be equally hard to read. • Balance longer and shorter sentences and choose the simplest words, i.e. ‘begin’ instead of ‘commence’. • Don’t rush! The Biography took me nine years to write and was a mixture of pleasure and pain.' Continued on next page...
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Anne Stott (ctd)
Anne’s Blogs As well as writing books, Anne regularly contributes to Blogs (web logs) to provide information about her books and to offer additional resources relating to her courses for learners. Wilberforce: Resources for Anne’s book Online updates & additional resources http://claphamsect.wordpress.com/ Nineteenth-Century Britain A blog for WEA students at Bromley, Petts Wood and Orpington http://nineteenthcenturybritain.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/suffragettes.html Book Review Wilberforce: Family and Friends was recently reviewed by the Independent and can be viewed online here: http://goo.gl/66287 You can also follow Anne on Twitter @annemstott
Volunteering Gold Eileen Moore, the regional accountant from WEA London was one of the 70,000 people who volunteered to help make the London 2012 Olympic Games the overwhelming success that it was. Known as Games Makers the Volunteers took on a wide variety of roles across the venues: from welcoming visitors; to transporting athletes; to helping out behind the scenes.
Eileen with the Iranian Greco-Roman Wrestling Team
The Games Makers were from a diverse range of communities and backgrounds, from across the UK and abroad. The vast majority giving up at least 15 days to volunteer during the Games. Eileen was tasked with looking after the Iranian wrestling team at the training venue.
Three of the wrestlers pictured above: Omid Haji Norouzi (bottom left); Ghasem Rezaei (3rd from top right) and Hamid Sourian (4th from top left); won gold medals in their events. These were the first gold medals that Iran has won in Greco-Roman Wrestling in over 40 years! This team success is perhaps testament to how well the athletes were looked after throughout the 2012 Games.
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Bob Crow Introduces The Navigators
TU Film Event a Great Success! In July this year WEA London’s TU Studies team, in partnership with the RMT, organised a free showing of The Navigators, a film written by the late former rail worker and RMT member Rob Dawber. Directed by Ken Loach, the film depicts the impact of privatisation on a group of former British Rail workers. The event was held at the WEA London Region Learning Centre and was packed with trade unionists from RMT, PCS, UNISON, UNITE, UCU, NAPO, GMB, NUT, CWU, and RCN, as well as WEA branch members, staff and trustees. There were many former WEA learners in attendance as well as people that were completely new to us. The evening began with a series of short speeches from speakers: Bob Crow, General Secretary RMT, Janine Booth, RMT Council of Executives London Transport member, Monica Gort, WEA TU Studies Organiser and Pete Caldwell, WEA London’s Regional Director. Bob Crow, who himself is a former WEA learner, introduced the film by remembering Rob Dawber and explaining how he had died from being exposed to asbestos whilst working on the railways. Bob talked about the destructive impact of rail privatisation on workers and how the film, so effectively portrays the negative impact of the privatisation process. Janine Booth spoke about Rob as her friend and fellow trade unionist, she told attendees that Rob would have wanted people to
galvanise themselves to take action as a result of seeing the film. She encouraged everyone to take away ‘Action for Rail, People Before Profit’ postcards to send to their M.Ps. All 250 postcards were taken as a result! Monica Gort highlighted the importance of Trade Union Education and that over 400 Union Representatives had been trained at WEA London over the last year. Pete Caldwell, spoke enthusiastically about his admiration of Ken Loach and his work, and his ability to tackle important social issues in an engaging way. The evening was supported by Thompsons Solicitors, London Hazards Centre, and Justice for the Shrewsbury Pickets Campaign, who all ran stalls at the event. Workers Liberty, of whom Rob Dawber was a member, brought along copies of his pamphlet, ‘An Injury to One is an Injury to All’, which all sold out. There was also lots of information on hand about Trade Union and other WEA courses running in 2012-2013. Attendee Dave Putson, Chair, PCS London Courts branch and WEA student said; "What an absolutely superb, yet poignant film. So apt for our times and such a clear message of how privatisation is a blight for working people. WEA must do more of these events. This evening, and last year’s film showing of Made in Dagenham, have both been excellent! "
We’d like to thank all who contributed in whatever way to making the evening such a huge success!
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Venue Hire at WEA London Close to Liverpool Street, Moorgate and Old Street stations, we have a variety of competitively priced rooms for hire at our Clifton Street premises. All of our rooms are air conditioned and can be configured to your specific requirements, ideal for meetings, training and for conferences. Our conference suite can accommodate up to seventy five people and we have smaller rooms that can comfortably seat between four and thirty people, these can be hired individually.
The Barbican Room
All the rooms come with Broadband internet connections, data projectors and screens; we can also provide catering and photocopying services. For further details please contact Paul Blackwell or Renee Rowe on 020 7426 1962 pblackwell@wea.org.uk.
Ruth Spellman Visits London Region As part of her induction to the WEA, Ruth Spellman, the WEA’s new Chief Executive Officer visited London Region in August this year. At an informal meeting, Staff had an opportunity to introduce themselves and to talk about their work with WEA London and the wide range of partnerships that we have. During the discussion Ruth mentioned that she
Ruth Spellman (left) with Audrey Stewart
was very pleased to find a WEA leaflet at her local library in Muswell Hill when she went there to register as a new reader.
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ESOL Nexus Project WEA London’s Foundation Team are assisting the British Council in developing their ESOL Nexus Project, an online portal of learning materials aimed at helping recent migrants with language and literacy skills. Together with a group of learners from one of our partners, Kalayaan, a migrant domestic workers charity, foundation team staff have been contributing to a series of short films that will be used to create online resources for the Nexus Project. Kayayaan learners were filmed participating in a language lesson with tutor Richard Bell and in the IT suite at our Clifton Street Learning Centre. Margaret Joojo-Richards, foundation organiser, gave an interview for one of the short films entitled Learning. During the interview Margaret talked about: the Sunday courses that the WEA provides for domestic workers, the importance of gaining language skills and ESOL qualifications, how language skills can help with employability & employment rights, and the value of socialising with others to help with practising and developing language skills. ESOL Nexus is a high profile project and an excellent opportunity for WEA London to showcase the expertise that it has in ESOL teaching. Later this year the WEA and Kayayaan learners will be trialling the Nexus resources and feeding back to the British Council about the usability and effectiveness of the materials. Developed with funding from the European Integration Fund, ESOL Nexus will provide a national resource for English language learning across the United Kingdom. The focus of the project will be to develop English language and literacy skills, communication and work skills, and an understanding of UK society and culture.
Contact: For more information about our ESOL Programme, please contact: Margaret mjoojorichards@wea.org.uk, Sue snicholas@wea.org.uk, Benedikte bmorley@wea.org.uk or call 020 7426 1950 Links: WEA Literacy Numeracy & ESOL: http://www.london.wea.org.uk/literacy-numeracy-a-esol More about ESOL Nexus: http://esol.britishcouncil.org/
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WEA Branch Courses As well as running courses in partnership with a variety of organisations across London we also run hundreds of short courses through our Branch Programme. These courses are typically 10 or 20 weeks long and are organised by our Volunteers. The courses are taught by professional tutors and are open to all adults. Here’s a small selection of the many courses that we run across London:
Enfield & Southgate Local History: The City of London as a Financial Centre 28/09/2012 - 14/12/2012 How did London become a financial centre? An introductory course to London for people new to history study, and those with more experience.
Pinner & Hatch End ICT : Beginners' Word Processing 06/11/2012 - 18/12/2012 Learn how to create and edit documents, format text and save files check documents for errors, find and replace text and manage files and folders. Course code: C2416196
Course code: C2416388
Barnet Art History : Art & Social Change in the 20th & 21st Centuries 04/10/2012 - 21/03/2013 From Sickert to Anish Kapoor, from music hall to Strictly, discover how British art has reflected life in 20th and 21st century Britain. Beginners and those with some knowledge alike will be stimulated to learn more....
Richmond Music Studies : An Introduction to Opera 20/09/2012 - 29/11/2012 Study several operas - both well-known and rarer works - being performed at ENO, or Covent Garden or shown in cinemas. After looking at the background, we will study each in detail including 'Maria Stuarda'. Course code: C2416217
Course code: C2416174
Ruislip & Uxbridge Photography : Photoshop and Desktop Publishing 21/09/2012 - 22/03/2013 Use your camera more effectively to take better photos. Edit, restore, improve and retouch photos; remove unwanted details. Create graphic effects, greetings cards, newsletters, calendars, collages in Photoshop and Microsoft Word. Suitable for all abilities although basic I.T. skills are required.
Wanstead & Woodford English Literature: Catching Life Itself 26/09/2012 - 05/12/2012 How do writers turn the stuff of reality - both personal and social - into art? We will seek answers to this challenging question by exploring how a range of modern novelists and poets have used form and language in innovative and engaging ways. Course code: C2416365
Course code: C2416221
If you are interested in taking a WEA course call: 0800 328 1060 or E-mail: csteam@wea.org.uk to request a brochure. You can also try our online Course Search at: www.wea.org.uk or if you are viewing this on a computer connected to the Internet click here. These WEA courses cost £3.50 per hour. A ten session long two hour per session course would typically cost £75.00. Learners may be able to claim fee remission if in receipt of income based benefits. For more information about fee remission see here: http://www.wea.org.uk/courses/financialhelp
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Justice 4 Domestic Workers Celebrate Learning On a sunny Sunday afternoon at the end of August, domestic workers belonging to the Justice 4 Domestic Workers (J4DW) campaign and Unite gathered in Holborn to enjoy a Celebration of Learning. There was art, poetry and photography workshops which everyone got involved and loads of delicious food provided by the J4DW Master Chefs. Marissa Begonia, Chair of J4DW, opened the event by welcoming everyone and reminding us all of the importance of continuing to campaign around the rights of domestic workers. Justice for Domestic Workers (J4DW) was established on March 15, 2009. It is an organisation of migrant domestic workers who work in private houses in the UK.
Attendees at the Celebration Event
In 1998, in response to a hard fought 10 year long campaign, the new Labour Government at the time introduced the Overseas Domestic Workers (ODW) visa system and later formalised this policy into the Immigration Rules. This system granted migrant domestic workers some fundamental protection and formally recognised them as workers with rights under UK employment law, including the right to take legal action against their employers. It also, very importantly, allowed migrant domestic workers to change their employer within the domestic work category without impacting on their immigration status. Despite overwhelming evidence that the ODW visa system was protecting migrant domestic workers, in April 2012 the current UK Government removed it. This has meant that domestic workers will once again be tied to the one employer, thereby reintroducing a system of modern slavery for migrant domestic workers in the UK. The UK was also one of only seven governments to abstain (only one voted against) in the vote on the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Convention 189 – Decent Work for Domestic Workers. NOCN certificates for successfully completing a TUC Introductory Union Reps course were then presented to members of J4DW/UNITE by Marissa Begonia and Jake Lagnado, WEA tutor. This course was adapted by the WEA in partnership with J4DW and Unite to ensure it met the needs of domestic workers and proved to be very popular with all 18 learners fully achieving. Marissa said; “Providing migrant domestic workers with the education we need enables us to develop knowledge and skills and feel more confident in fighting to eradicate the vulnerability and isolation of migrant workers in society and defending our Learners receive their certificates rights both as individuals and as a union. Unite’s UMWEP (United Migrant Workers Education Project) has shown us the way that education is there whenever we need it and is accessible for everybody regardless who we are and what we are. We thank Unite, WEA and TUC for bringing this course to us, we are one Big Family. We can’t wait for the next one!” Jake Lagnado said it had been a privilege to work with this group and commended their enthusiasm and commitment to get involved in all the course activities. He pointed out that by working together as they had done on the course they could all contribute in different ways to supporting their members. Monica Gort, WEA TUC Course Co-ordinator, highlighted the value of TUC courses in providing a learning environment where learners can work collectively to share experience and knowledge, and through this develop their own skills and confidence. The celebration included Noani Mukromin reading a truly moving poem she had written, which expressed what it was like to be a domestic worker in the UK, as well as a performance of a song, including guitar, that Realizza Ottara had written. There were also performances by Khadija(Moroccan), Noani (Indonesian) and Foulera (Nigerian) of international dances that they had put together, and the walls were covered in art work produced by the domestic workers, much of it for use in their campaigning with slogans such as ‘no worker is illegal’ and ‘domestic work is work – not slavery.’ The amount of artistic talent in the room was truly amazing! Many thanks to all, especially J4DW, for organising such a brilliant celebration of learning!
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1839 - The Chartist Insurrection Chris Ford, Trade Union Studies tutor at WEA London co-authors book with David Black entitled: 1839 - The Chartist Insurrection. Chris Ford Around fifty people attended the lively book launch at our Learning Centre in May this year with guest speakers Ben Watson of Unkant Press and co-author David Black.
The book highlights a chain of events that took place in 1839, the year after Queen Victoria’s coronation, and argues that these events brought Britain closer to revolution than at any time since the English Civil War. The issue was the unjust and corrupt electoral system, in which only seven hundred thousand people were entitled to vote in a country of twenty-five million. ‘Drawing on the accounts of the participants themselves - agitators, conspirators, idealists, journalists, informers, soldiers and politicians – 1839 shows how Parliament's rejection of the first Chartist petition for Universal Suffrage led to mass rioting, and insurrections in south Wales and northern England. The events of 1839 are presented not just as a battle of wills between the Chartists and the Government, but also as a battle of ideas between the radicals themselves on questions of democracy, social justice, and the 'limits' of peaceful protest. This book assists us greatly in understanding the potential for future challenges to the system’ -- John McDonnell MP. “In retrieving the suppressed history of the Chartist Insurrection, David Black and Chris Ford have produced a revolutionary handbook” -- Ben Watson. Chris’ other works include ‘The Crossroads of the European Revolution: Ukrainian Social-Democrats and Communists 1917-1920’ (Critique, 2010), and Introduction to ‘Borotbism: A Chapter in the History of the Ukrainian Revolution’ by Ivan Maistrenko.
Competition Win a Copy of the Book If you are a WEA member and would like to enter our draw to win a copy of Chris’ book; E-mail membership@wea.org.uk with the subject heading ‘WEA Member Competition’, include the title of the book, your full name and postal address in the body of the e-mail. The closing date for entries is 5.00pm Wednesday 31st October 2012. Good luck!
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Poplar Learners Celebrate Achievement
Lawrencia Ikoli ‘I enrolled on this course after buying two pairs of curtains that were not lined and after trying a number of shops to have them done found the cost to be more than ready lined curtains. I found the course very inspiring and everyone was at different levels. The teacher used her expertise and knowledge to cater for us all. As a class we shared knowledge, socialised and laughed together. There was also an extended part of the course that dealt with the business side which maths played a big part. If you want your curtains to fit, knowing some maths makes lot of sense. We also made a business plan and looked at costings.
WEA Learners at the Awards Ceremony at Gayton House Community Rooms
The awards ceremony at Gayton House in East London was attended by WEA learners, with introductions from speakers including representatives from Poplar HARCA (Housing and Regeneration Community Association) and Elaine Taylor from WEA London Region. Taught by Mona Nashed, the Dressmaking and Soft Furnishings course at the Burdett Neighbourhood Centre, in partnership with Poplar HARCA, gives learners an opportunity to create professional quality garments and soft furnishings. The course content covers a wide range of topics including sessions on how to use a sewing machine, prepare fabrics, make a cutting plan, stitching by hand and machine and techniques of seams, hems, fastening, appliqué, piping, frill, pleating, basic quilting and decorative techniques. As part of the course, learners are taught how to accurately measure and estimate fabric and how to work out costings. Learners from this course are also encouraged to join another of Mona’s courses ‘How to set up a Business’.
I made a complete pair of curtains and a lampshade to match. I lined my curtains which I enjoyed doing. I would recommend this course to anyone as it teaches you from learning to use a sewing machine, to starting your own business.’
Fateha Begum
Examples of learners’ work from the course
Together with the awards ceremony there was an exhibition of learners’ work with clothing, curtains lampshades and learners’ workbooks on display as you can see all of the work was made to a professional standard.
Suhela Hussain
Mona Nashed & Halima Chowdhury
View this article online at: http://www.london.wea.org.uk/news/34-news/170-poplar-harca
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Social Media
Social Media has many definitions, essentially it enables people to connect, interact and share information online and it encourages conversations to take place.
For WEA London, Social Media is an important communication and marketing tool as it enables us to broadcast information about our courses, news & events and it lets people talk to us about the things that we’re doing. Almost anything in electronic format can be shared via Social Media and best of all it’s free!. The main Social Media tools that we use are Facebook and Twitter:
www.facebook.com/wealondon
Facebook is similar to a webpage. It lets us share news, pictures and information about our events and courses. If you have a Facebook account, connect with us by clicking the ‘Like’ button on our page to receive regular updates.
Like our Facebook page
www.twitter.com/wealondon
Twitter is similar to text messaging, it allows short messages to be sent called ‘Tweets’ the messages appear online for everyone to see. If you want to receive updates from WEA London using Twitter, click the ‘Follow’ link on our Twitter page. Follow us on Twitter
Anyone over the age of 13 can create a Twitter and Facebook account for free.
An exhibition space for WEA courses, learners and workers Galleryonline is an online exhibition space designed to showcase the work of WEA learners, tutors and workers.
Submit your work We’re always interested in new work for our gallery and would welcome submissions from tutors or anyone who works or studies with the WEA. To enquire about getting work online, contact Andrew Perrin aperrin@wea.org.uk
OPEN TO ALL There is a broad range of work on display from a broad range of people including WEA learners and staff with an equally broad range of skills and interests.
The work on display from across the UK includes: drawing, painting, video, poetry, photography, pottery and animation. We aim to update the gallery regularly and we are always open to receiving new work.
Website address:
www.online.wea.org.uk/galleryonline 13
Adult Learners’ Week 2012 Each May, Adult Learners’ Week encourages adults to find out how rewarding learning can be through free events and amazing learning journeys of award winners. Pat Howard 78, received an ALW Friendship Award and has studied for many years with the WEA. ALW 2012 Awards Ceremony at the Redbridge Institute
The award was presented at the Redbridge Institute Awards Ceremony by the Deputy Mayor of Redbridge, Cllr Elaine Norman. Pat was nominated by Christine Poutney and Lorrie Yeates from WEA Ilford Branch where she regularly attends courses. Pat also attends courses at Wanstead branch, which is also in the borough of Redbridge. Pat Howard with Cllr Elaine Norman
For more information about how to get involved with Adult Learners’ Week 2013, take a look at the ALW website: http://www.alw.org.uk/
Contribute to the Newsletter If you have any news, events or announcements that you would like to have included in the next edition of the newsletter, please contact Andrew Perrin aperrin@wea.org.uk
The Workers’ Educational Association is a charity registered in England and Wales, number 1112775, and in Scotland, number SC039239, and a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales, number 2806910.
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