The U3A Summer School season is underway with the South East Forum being one of the first to host its residential learning programme in Chichester.
Around 180 members from 83 different U3As – including two U3As from Scotland - gathered at the university for a week of residential learning which included twelve subjects such as Maths, Culture, Jazz, Walking, Mah Jong and Knitting.
Summer Schools are an opportunity for U3A members to take their learning into a residential setting with the tutors – who are also members of U3As giving their time for free and bringing an impressive array of experience and knowledge.
Katrina Balmer who studied Knitting travelled down from Fife with her husband who was attending Maths.
She said “We looked at lots of Summer Schools but this one gave us a lot of courses to choose from. The knitting has been fantastic, I’ve learnt new techniques especially with colour work”.
Ukulele Tutor, Dawn Simpson, Waterlooville U3A said, “My U3A Ukulele group played at last year’s Chichester Summer School and it was so much fun I offered to come back and run a course. The members went from knowing little or nothing about the Ukulele to producing a really good standard of music”.
Helen Turner, Kingshill U3A who has run this for around 8 years said, “I keep doing this because it is deeply satisfying to see so many people learning and enjoying themselves. Chichester University is a great venue because it is close to the town. I have an amazing team behind me that helped make this happen and I am really grateful to the Chichester Community Choir who sang for us on the last night. It’s been like a U3A learning holiday!”
To see the Regional and National U3A Summer School Programme please go to u3a.org.uk/events/summer-schools