Blog

This article was published in ACE Aotearoa’s quarterly newsletter, and references ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) courses provided by Selwyn Community Education, and our English programme coordinator, Kirsty Cantley. Kirsty Cantley (second left) with students enjoying a shared meal. ESOL – Changing Lives  Stats NZ’s provisional estimates for 2023 show a net migrationRead more

Each year, about August or September, we begin the monumental task of preparing our programme for the following year. Regular tutors let us know their availability, we tweak and overhaul courses, assess suggestions for new courses, find new tutors and topics to build into the course programme, and load courses onto our computer system. ItRead more

The annual Festival of Adult Learning Ahurei Ākonga ran 2 – 8 September 2024. As part of this, Selwyn Community Education hosted Mindscapes: Exploring Art for Mental Wellbeing on 8 September. Visitors enjoyed the taster art and craft courses facilitated by talented tutors. Our refugee learner cohort prepared delicious foods from their home countries –Read more

In today’s world, we can find answers to almost anything with just a few clicks. Need the latest news?  Looking for health advice? Researching a history essay? Craving that perfect pasta recipe? A quick internet search can provide answers in seconds. But with this convenience comes a big challenge: not everything you find online isRead more

The value of creativity and artistic pursuits has been getting press lately for its mental health and therapeutic benefits. Whether it’s just engaging in a mindful pastime such as mosaicking or zentangle, or learning a new skill (think Italian language, cooking Korean or playing the ukulele), or overcoming creative blocks (“I don’t have a creativeRead more

Join us 6 – 7 April for a full weekend programme of art, language, craft, cooking, home, DIY & garden, and digital literacy courses. Find out more here: 6 – 7 April 2024 Weekend Courses #AdultEducationAuckland #ArtClassesAdultsRead more

Kia ora koutou katoa to our learning community. Our office closes at 1pm on Friday 22 December 2023 and reopens 9am – 3pm starting Wednesday 17 January 2024. Please email us (info@selwyncomed.school.nz) or leave a phone message (09 5219623) and we will attend to your message when we are next in the office. Our 2024Read more

As a result of the upgraded warnings about the potential impact of Cyclone Gabrielle, Selwyn College and Selwyn Community Education will be closed for onsite teaching and learning tomorrow, Monday 13 February 2023.  Please attend your next scheduled class instead. Over the next week, we will schedule classes to replace those missed on 13 February.Read more

Click through here to see our latest newsletter of 9 September 2022, about weekend courses 24 – 25 September 2022. We’ve got lots of courses on offer including cooking, art, craft, gardening, home care, self care, photography, social media, writing and a walking tour. See the weekend category on our website here. And for aRead more

Click here to read our latest newsletter.Read more

Covid-19 precautions (last updated 13 September 2022). All evening and weekend courses will continue in the classroom unless advised otherwise. With the removal of the Covid-19 Traffic Light system on 12 September, masks are no longer required in the school. However, if you do prefer to wear your mask, we hope you will. We remindRead more

We’re open for courses. 4 – 5 December and 11 – 12 December 2021 we are offering a small number of courses including writing, pottery, cooking, art and crafts. As we work within a secondary school, the Ministry of Education require all adults to wear masks onsite. We will be checking vaccination passports upon entry.Read more

Tena koutou katoa The community-based Covid-19 Vaccination Bus will be operating at Selwyn College in the front carpark from 9.00am – 3.00pm next Wednesday 13th October.  All welcome. The following website provides useful information about the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness as well as NZ vaccine facts:  https://covid19.govt.nz/covid-19-vaccines/Read more

Remember to check your spam folder and promotions folder regularly in case any emails are directed there. Wednesday 24 November 2021. Good news finally. Selwyn Community Education can start running courses again, at weekends, from 4 December. As we are part of a school, all tutors and community education students must be vaccinated and wearRead more

6am Sunday 7 March 2021 As Auckland is now is Alert Level 2, classes will now resume at Selwyn Community Education with some exceptions. We are emailing most course groups to confirm their classes will restart in the classroom this week. For the small number of courses that cannot resume this week, we are alsoRead more

Before the invention of photography, botanical illustration was the only way of visually recording plant life. We depended on artists to share the details of botany with the public. Nowadays, botanical illustration is enjoyed as way of observing and appreciating the beauty and variety of the plant world. Artist and illustrator Sandra Morris recently taughtRead more

3 September 2020 update Welcome back to our students. We are enjoying seeing most of our courses up and running again and we have had positive responses from people attending. Most of you are glad to be in a learning environment again. If you missed your class we just want to reassure you that weRead more

Black_Lives_Matter___Parents_GuideDownload We thought this was a great resource and wanted to share it with you. Not only will it help explain what children are seeing in the media, it contains activities to help families and children with racial equity.Read more

Pastry chef Oscar demonstrates various techniques in the Making Chocolates courses. Later, students practised the techniques and produced a cornucopia of delicious treats to take home. Tempering chocolate: Oscar expertly demonstrates the art of keeping the chocolate in motion. Creating White Chocolate Casings: Oscar shows us how it’s done. Oscar demonstrating piping. If this courseRead more

A whirlwind tour of our Soft Stone Sculpture class last weekend busy carving their artworks. Want to join? Find out more here Students happily at work creating their masterpieces.Read more

With the onset of Covid level 4, Sergio stepped up and delivered the rest of his Spanish courses via Zoom for the remainder of Term 1 (late March – early April). These were successful, and all Term 2 courses will now be delivered using Zoom. The ever-resourceful Sergio has created this video to give youRead more

Spanish (beginners and higher levels)Te Reo Beginners and ContinuationYoga with Lynn (Yoga @ Remuera)How to Make More Money and Think Like An EntrepreneurYoga Continuation with LizaSome Italian classesMost ESOL coursesUkulele Please enrol via the website or contact the office if you would like to join any of these classes.Read more

Update 6 May 2020 – English Courses ESOL courses start next week 11 May. These will be offered via Zoom first, then classes will return to the classroom when it is safe. You can see a list of our courses here. Email us on info@selwyncomed.school.nz to find out more. Update 29 April 2020 Again, thanksRead more

[Show thumbnails] Some student work from the November 2019 Creating and Understanding Russian Icons workshop taught by Elizabeth Brookbanks. Course participant Helen explained the course to us: “Our Saturday started with an introduction to Russian iconography. It was a fascinating potted history. Libby provided a sample of icon images to get us started planning ourRead more

We’re pleased to announce that our 2020 programme is now loaded to our website. So, look and enjoy. Registration is open for most courses. Just a few course dates are not visible on the website for another week or two as we finalise details. Our programme booklet will be printed during the week 16 DecemberRead more

Work is well under way for our 2020 programme with 400 courses loaded to the website already. New courses are added daily and we expect all courses will be visible on the website by mid-December. Our course booklets will be sent to the print house in mid-December. We expect delivery early January and will distributeRead more

Clear goal. Check. Committed action. Check. Daily exercise, careful eating, discipline and focus.  Check. One kilo goes, then another and then another. Success! But one month later, it’s all back and I feel like a failure.  Time to start my healthy eating plan again. But not till Monday. Sound familiar? Jade Osborne knows this pattern.Read more

We were delighted to host Dr Cathy Stinear on Tuesday 19 March for the first of our 2019 Think Talks. Cathy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Auckland, developing tools to predict and promote recovery after stroke. She’s also part of the University’s Creative Thinking Project, where sheRead more

Weekend workshops 6 – 7 April and Understanding Islam course. Read the newsletter online hereRead more

Tuesday 19 March 2019 7:30 – 8:30 PM Discover everything from how to keep your marbles as you age (spoiler alert – it’s not Suduko!), to why your teenager is such a disaster sometimes (there’s a reason they can’t hire a car until they reach 25, yet we let them drink and vote!) Find outRead more

30th March – 6th April at the Selwyn Theatre. ‘Hair’ – the American Tribal Love-Rock Musical follows a young group of hippies fighting the establishment, dodging the drafts, getting high, living and loving in New York City. It’s 1967: the Vietnam War is raging and the Age of Aquarius is dawning. Claude, his best friend Berger,Read more

Selwyn Community Education drawing tutor, Shelley Simpson, is exhibiting in the 2019 Sculpture on the Gulf at Waiheke Island. Her exhibit, Hoax, and other works can be seen 1 – 24 March. More about Shelley hereRead more

Announcing our first Selwyn Community Arts Theatre production for 2019. Crazy For You is a high energy comedy set in the 1930’s Wild West.  The show contains plot twists, mistaken identity, fabulous dance numbers and classic Gershwin tunes that include “I Got Rhythm”, “Embraceable You”, “Someone to Watch over Me”, “Nice work if you can get it”, “Slap thatRead more

The Venice Biennale is one of the most important international arts events in the world. It is held every two years in Venice, Italy and is regarded as the Olympics of the art-world. We’re delighted that Dr Libby Brookbanks is joining our programme this year to educate and entertain us about the Venice Biennale. FromRead more

Selwyn Community Education is delighted to announce that Wei Hun La is joining our team of talented tutors in 2019. In Zen Brush Painting Landscapes for Beginners (starting 25 February) you’ll learn how to use Chinese ink calligraphy techniques to paint landscapes and understand the ideas of Zen and meditation in the art form. WeiRead more

New to 2019, in this series of one-off evening courses, you’ll not only get to sample some of our exciting range of diverse ethnic cooking courses and fabulous tutors, but you’ll get to learn new recipes and enjoy a delicious meal at the end of each workshop. Bring your appetite! From Korean, to Indochine, BrazilianRead more

On Saturday 1 April 2017, Programme Director Anne Cave was interviewed by Trudi Nelson of RadioLive. They discussed community education trends in New Zealand and how Selwyn Community Education’s programme is responding to the needs of our local community.  Hear the interview here.Read more