News from around the region

The WEA and The Open University sign a Statement of Intent
The End of an Era
In the Footsteps of Oliver Twist
The Star Awards:for people making a difference in learning and skills
Weaver's Knot book launch
Visit an Essex Art Group's virtual art gallery
Remembering our Roots: A Latin revival in Cambridge
Outward Bound to the Planets: Space, the Final Frontier!

On March 5th 2008 David Vincent, Vice-Chancellor of the Open University, and Richard Bolsin, General Secretary of the WEA, signed a Statement of Intent which set out the commitment of these two national education providers to work in collaboration to extend opportunities available to adult and lifelong learners. Witnesses to the signing included people from the national and regional offices of the OU and the WEA as well as from partner organisations. The OU is interested in providing wider access channels to its courses and awards whilst the WEA's complementary commitment is to enabling learners who have missed out ni the past to progress to higher levels of achievement.

Richard Bolsin, General Secretary of the WEA and David Vincent, Vice-Chancellor of the Open University shake hands after signing the Statement of Intent.

The event also was a celebration of the co-location of Eastern Region WEA with the Open University of the Eastern Region at Cintra House, its regional headquarters. Both Helen Wildman, OU Regional Director and Carolyn Daines, WEA Regional Director spoke of the actual and potential benefits of having these 2 organsations with a common ethos sharing premises.

Carolyn Daines, WEA Regional Director

Helen Wildman, OU Regional Director

After fifty six years, Chorleywood and Rickmansworth Branch is to lose its Joint programme with London University at the end of the academic year. This is due to changes in funding and other policies which have precipitated significant changes in the future direction of Birkbeck strategy. The Joint programme started in 1952, the year the branch (then known as Chorleywood Branch) was founded, with a Literature course, a History course and a Music Appreciation course and has continued non-stop ever since.

In recent years several of the students on these courses have been awarded diplomas, and two students have won the William Henry Hudson Prize for an outstanding essay. In this, the final year, the branch has run a Literature course, an Art History course and an Industrial Heritage course and is very sad to be losing this very important element to the programme.

But there is one good piece of news to round off the association with the University – Madeline Edmead, the branch’s Art History tutor, has been awarded a Distinguished Tutors Award by Birkbeck College.

Madeline Edmead, (seated) has been awarded a Distinguished Tutors Award by Birkbeck College. She is seen here with some of her students in Chorleywood

The Silver End Branch and guests enjoyed a field trip In the Footsteps of Oliver Twist. It was led by Mervyn Francis who was the tutor of the Spring course Victorian London.
During the walk Mervyn pointed out and explained the areas called the Rookeries, where Oliver, Fagin and Bill Sykes would have lived. The building Dickens used as the bookshop, where Oliver stole the wallet and the court where he would have been tried. Mervyn also pointed out other historical places including Charterhouse, the well that gave Clerkenwell it's name and Farringdon Station, which was the terminal of London's first underground.
After a pub lunch some of the group visited The Dickens House Museum to round off the day.

Adrian McRitchie and Carrol Russell from OCS receive their Star Award for Outstanding Achievement in Workforce Development

In May 2006 Diane Sawyer, EETUP Course Programme Worker for Suffolk and Norfolk was invited to meeting at Ipswich Hospital by Richard Crook, Suffolk Learning Link. He was bringing together areas of the hospital that required training with local training providers and UNISON. Diane remembers the day as ‘cold, damp and miserable’. As a result of that meeting the WEA and OCS at Ipswich Hospital developed a training partnership that has led to OCS being awarded a Quality Improvement Agency Star Award for Outstanding Achievement in Workforce Development.

The awards were held in London at the end of November 2007. Richard Crook also gained the Star Award for Engaging Employees.

Adrian McRitchie and Carrol Russell from OCS receive their Star Award for Outstanding Achievement in Workforce Development

The OCS employs cleaners, hostesses, caterers etc. The WEA have been providing Literacy and IT training to OCS employees since August 2006. For some employees English is not their first their language. The OCS management have noticed a marked development in those employees who have undertaken a course with the WEA. Some are now considering supervisory posts with OCS. As part of the course all learners are given the opportunity to have a guidance interview. Suffolk IAG has a contract with WEA EETUP in Suffolk.

Diane Sawyer and Richard Crook at the Star Awards

In September 2007 OCS, nationally, entered into a contract with Asset Skills, part of the Sector Skills Council, to deliver Infection Control to its employees. OCS at Ipswich Hospital asked the WEA to deliver this to 50 employees.

This is a real ‘feelgood’ story and shows what can be achieved when partners truly work together.

For more pictures and stories visit the Star Awards website

The SWANS creative writing class, in Maldon, celebrated the publication of their first book, entitled Weaver's Knot, with a book launch.

Proud members of the group read their poetry to 40 invited guests before signing copies.

The launch was held in a local Military Museum where the writers and their guests enjoyed a buffet with wine and nibbles whilst looking at the museum exhibits. Local MP John Wittingdale attended briefly on his way to the House of Commons and donated a bottle of House of Commons Sherry as a raffle prize.

The WEA was represented by Sarah Moore, who’s daughter, eight years old Katie, won the hearts of all when she too read from the collection.

The book is available directly from the lulu.com website at £4.99, with all proceeds going to the charity. Read more about the writers on page nine of Broadening Horizons.

Visit the Farthing Centre Art Group's virtual gallery collection of twenty paintings on photobox. Read the full story on page 12 of Broadening Horizons.

Congratulations to eight members of a Cambridge Branch Latin course who, guided by their tutor, Gill Mead, have completed the five books of the Cambridge Latin Course. They began six years ago and completed Book V in March. They are now working on a sixth book that has them translating from original Roman writings.



Read their comments on the Cambridge Latin Course website.

Four learners on the course 'Missions to the Planets', run by the Sharnbrook branch, have joined the NASA Dawn Mission. The Dawn Mission will investigate two of the largest protoplanets in the main asteroid belt, Vesta and Ceres, reaching Vesta in 2011 and Ceres in 2015.

Our four virtual voyagers had their names added to the mission by encoding them on a silicon chip. The silicon chip, about the size of an American five-cent coin, holds the names of more than 360,000 space enthusiasts worldwide who signed up during a 'Send Your Name to the Asteroid Belt' campaign to participate in a virtual voyage to the asteroid belt. To find out where Vesta and Ceres are, go direct to their orbit diagram in the Solar System Dynamics section.