Archive of Day Course | LeisureCourses.net - short courses & residential study breaks in great locations - Part 7
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Basic Chinese taster
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThis course will be taught in the context of contemporary and ancient Chinese culture. Led by the course tutor, you will focus on written and spoken Chinese, with lots of participation, a combination of traditional culture and digital media, and some creative contributions. Flexible to students’ abilities, the course will engage you in learning Chinese...
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Introduction to Classical Greek
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThis course is intended for complete beginners who wish to gain some understanding of Classical Greek language and culture. It will introduce the Greek alphabet and pronunciation, and explore the influence of the Greeks on our language and all aspects of European culture: literature, art, philosophy, politics, sport and science.
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Getting started with genetics
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThis one-day course will introduce participants to the fascinating world of genetics; from the basics of how genes code for proteins to the role that modern sequencing methods can play in personalised medicine. This course is a good taster session for those interested in taking the Certificate in Genetics.
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Margery Allingham: exploring ‘Margeland’
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesA look at the career of this classic mystery writer, whose novels have been re-issued recently. In this course we will examine together her early adventure thrillers, her serious - but often comic - detective novels and her later studies of crime such as The Tiger in the Smokeand Hide My Eyes. Learn the secrets of this...
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The building stones of Cambridge
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesIn the first part of this course you will learn how rocks are formed and how the different processes involved produce rocks with widely different appearances and properties. This variety makes different rocks suitable for different aspects of building construction. During the second part we will we a walk around Cambridge city centre looking at...
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The story of life on earth: four billion years in seven hours
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThrough talks and group discussions, we will explore the evolution of life on planet Earth: from the first replicating molecules to the evolution of 'superorganisms'. We will discuss what we mean by 'life' and the key processes that have led to such a bewildering diversity of species that share our planet. This day-school will provide...
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Astronomy days: The life and death of stars
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesWhy do we expect the Sun to keep shining for the next few billion years? What will happen after that? Are we really made of stardust? In our second astronomy day school, we will investigate the science of stars, explore how they form, why they live for so long, and what happens after they die...
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Modern physics for beginners: from Schrödinger’s cat to time travel
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesAre you intrigued by quantum weirdness or the idea of faster-than-light travel? This day course will introduce you to the ideas that revolutionised physics in the 20th century, and will explore how these ideas can be applied, from understanding volcanoes to navigating with GPS systems.
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A history of special education in England
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesIdiot, defective, educationally sub-normal, handicapped – the labels put on children with special needs have changed over the last 150 years, but is it really a story of progress? You can judge for yourself as you explore behind the walls of the forgotten schools to which these forgotten children were consigned.
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Women of the Italian Renaissance: who were they?
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesHave you ever seen a 'desco da parto' (birth tray)? What is it and what was it used for? And why is goddess Flora so often shown in paintings with a bare breast? For what special occasions were these things commissioned? All these objects are linked to the female sphere of Renaissance women. Through this...
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Reading prehistoric figurines
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesPrehistoric figurines elicit many reactions and emotions. They show the human body in a variety of fascinating ways and, in many ways, are the closest we can get to seeing prehistoric people. This visual tour of prehistoric figurines will explore their complex diversity and show how figurines played an active role in people's lives.
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Che Guevara
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesErnesto 'Che' Guevara became a mythical figure during his lifetime. This course examines his career from the famous motorcycle journeys via his role in the Cuban Revolution to his death in Bolivia in 1967. It also explores his writings on revolution and guerrilla warfare and his influence on a generation of young Latin American revolutionaries...
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Tey time: the works of Josephine Tey
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesTime to revisit the novels of Josephine Tey! You will gain from this course an overview of her life and works and come to appreciate the variety of her narrative techniques in The Man in the Queue, Miss Pym Disposes and The Franchise Affair. Lastly, we will follow Inspector Grant's investigation into the case of Richard III in The Daughter...
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Learn to code: developing simple web applications
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThis one day course will take you through the process of developing a simple web application that uses Java and HTML services. The course will consist of a number of programming lab sessions which step through the process of editing, assembling and running a simple program. By the end of the course you should be...
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One day, one novel: Middlemarch
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThis day school is part of the 'One day, one novel' series for 2015-16. Each day school focuses on one novel and through a series of lecture and class discussions, helps you to study the novel in great depth, getting to know the author and the text as closely as possible.
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Beginners’ French: Meet the French
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesWanting to improve your communication skills? This course will give you the opportunity of practising your French no matter how rusty or hesitant. Get an insight into the life and personality of a few French celebrities and also learn how to engage with people you meet in everyday situations. The course is conducted entirely in...
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One day, one novel: Tess of the d’Urbervilles
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThis day school is part of the 'One day, one novel' series for 2015-16. Each day school focuses on one novel and through a series of lecture and class discussions, helps you to study the novel in great depth, getting to know the author and the text as closely as possible.
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An introduction to coaching
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesCoaching is an increasingly popular and widely used approach to developing people in their working and personal lives. This introductory course will provide an understanding of the nature of coaching and introduce you to the key skills and techniques in both organisational and personal development settings.
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Quentin Tarantino: the good, the bad and the cult
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesControversial, provocative and endlessly quotable, the films of Quentin Tarantino are celebrated and criticised in equal measure. This day course will take a close look the director’s style, influences and central themes. What makes his work so successful but so divisive? If you’ve ever wondered what a reservoir dog is, this is the course for...
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A history of English furniture, 1500-1830
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesA history of English furniture from its beginnings in 1500 through to the beginning of the Victorian period using, as a framework, the woods principally utilised, and combining this with art and social history. The course will aim to provide an appreciation of English furniture, and there will be an opportunity to handle some items.
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Stories to live and die for: the literary prize winners
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesFiction enables us to consider some challenging, vital and creative issues and moments in life, and to imagine how things could be otherwise. We will be reading and discussing prize-winning contemporary fiction including Eimear McBride's challenging A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing (2013), which explores the life of a young Irish girl. We will also look at...
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Astronomy days: Rocky worlds and gas giants
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesHow do planets form? Is there life elsewhere in the Universe? In the first of a new series of astronomy day schools, we will explore the planets and other rocky bodies of our solar system, catch up on the rapidly advancing hunt for planets around other stars, and discuss the origins of life and the...
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The Anglo-Saxon Fenland
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThe Anglo-Saxon fenland was colourfully described by the great Clifford Darby as 'a frontier region...the resort of brigands and bandits' in whose empty wilderness saints like Æthelthryth of Ely and Guthlac of Crowland established their new monastries. The course critically examines these assumptions in the light of recent research which suggests fenland history was more...
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Peace, conflict and international society
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThe news seems dominated by war, violence and conflict, but these forces also lie at the heart of how and why the world operates as it does at the level of international politics. If you have ever wondered why peace is so elusive and conflict so prevalent, then this course will help you understand such...
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One day, one novel: Pride and Prejudice
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThis day school is part of the 'One day, one novel' series for 2015-16. Each day school focuses on one novel and through a series of lecture and class discussions, helps you to study the novel in great depth, getting to know the author and the text as closely as possible.
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One day, one novel: Wuthering Heights
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThis day school is part of the 'One day, one novel' series for 2015-16. Each day school focuses on one novel and through a series of lecture and class discussions, helps you to study the novel in great depth, getting to know the author and the text as closely as possible.
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Defending Scotland
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesFor most of its history, Scotland has been an independent state and may well be one again soon. This course traces how its peoples defended themselves down the ages through looking at Scottish fortifications: their structures and their historical context. The course is fully illustrated.
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Early 18th-century taste: when the South Sea Bubble burst into song and landscapes
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesWho wants to be a millionaire and eradicate national debt? 300 years ago people inflated the South Sea Company into a wondrous bubble. Scene-setters are Alexander Pope and John Gay, before we explore three resulting landscapes. A founder and Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Aislabie, created the sublime Studley Royal. Political winner, Robert Walpole stamped...
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Open Day – How a Traditional Book is Made
Listed on January 14, 2016 by The Grange in Featured CoursesHow a traditional book is made - our annual book skills open day
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Magnificent Masterpieces 14th Century to the Present Day – Part 2 – The 17th to 21st Century
Listed on January 11, 2016 by Missenden Abbey in Featured CoursesSuitable for everyone: newcomers to art history, as well as those with a passionate interest in particular periods. Richard will introduce you to the objective, emotional and spiritual manifestations of Western art from the 14th century to the present day, exploring many aspects of paintings and sculptures through an adventure of nearly a thousand years...
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