This training covers two essential aspects: Understanding the highway Code and road safety measures to handle accidents, incidents, and breakdowns. Driver Health and Wellbeing: Understand the impact of physical and mental health on driving performance. Identify early warning signs of fatigue, stress, and other health issues. Learn effective strategies for managing work-life balance and reducing stress. Promote a healthy lifestyle to enhance overall well-being and driving safety. Drivers’ Hours and Working Time Regulations: Master the Rules of the Road Ensure compliance with complex driving and rest regulations. Understand the impact of hours worked on driver safety and well-being. Learn how to effectively manage driving and rest periods, breaks, and exemptions to avoid penalties and protect your business. Join us to enhance your knowledge of the Highway Code and road safety preparedness. Register today to ensure your drivers are well-versed in the rules of the road and equipped to handle unexpected challenges on their journeys. Please review our Terms and Conditions for more information.
Bespoke bass guitar and music theory & harmony lessons for young students and adults in a friendly environment by a professional bass player. Whether you're a Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced player, I can give you the proper tools to take your bass playing to the next level. I provide tailored lessons to the individual that are specifically designed to enhance the right skills and to help you achieve your goals as a player and a musician. Musical Subjects Being Taught: • Bass Technique and Fretboard Knowledge • Sight Reading • Music Theory & Harmony • Ear Training • Styles & Bassline Creation • Groove, Feel & Timing • Bass Gear & Tone Tips • Exam Preparation
Supporting your team - a manager's guide Facilitated by Claire Warner Charity Culture, Wellbeing & Leadership Specialist Aimed at managers | heads of | directors working in fundraising and marcomms leadership roles in UK hospices Please only sign up for this session if you have line management responsibility - - - Managing a team of fundraisers isn’t just about hitting targets - it’s about keeping your people motivated, engaged, and well-supported. Hospice fundraising comes with unique pressures, and as a manager, you play a crucial role in helping your team navigate them. This practical, interactive workshop will help you: ✅ Recognise the early signs of stress and burnout in your team ✅ Create a culture of support, resilience, and psychological safety ✅ Implement strategies to balance high performance with team wellbeing With real-life examples, discussion, and actionable takeaways, you’ll leave with the tools and confidence to be a stronger, more effective leader for your fundraisers. - - - Claire Warner (she/her) is a Charity Culture, Wellbeing & Leadership Specialist. Before developing this specialism, Claire had 19 years working in the charity sector, including 10 years in Director / Senior Leader roles. But it was a period of significant unwellbeing (breast cancer) that led Claire to the career change. And it was in conducting a large piece of research into sector wellbeing, that Claire recognised this significant gap in provision and went on to create Lift. In 2020, Claire won the Best Digital Leader Award at the Social CEO Awards for her wellbeing work during the pandemic. In 2021, she curated the first Charity Workplace Wellbeing Summit and was named as one of Charity Times Magazine’s 20 Pandemic Pioneers. Claire lives in rural Lancashire with her husband, their two daughters, Rowan the dog and horses Maddie and Bernie.
MAGIC BALKAN MUSIC ACADEMY Balkan Melody Mastery Learn great Balkan tunes and how to play them amazingly. When? Wednesday evenings, 19:00 – 20:30h GMT Where? Online on ZOOM, limited spaces in-person in Kenton, London HA3 This course will explore authentic Balkan tunes, emphasizing essential techniques for playing with precision and expression. The curriculum is taught via a mixture of by-ear learning and sheet music, allowing participants to delve into dynamic phrasing, articulation, ornamentation, tone, and speed. The course also offers exercises to enhance overall technique and flexibility. Details Wednesday evenings, 19:00 – 20:30h GMT Start on the 17th January 2024. The course will run weekly throughout the year, expect school holidays. Booking either annually on a 6-weekly direct debit or by booking 5-lesson units (more info below) Location: Online on zoom – limited in-person spaces in London HA3 Participants: players of melodic instruments from intermediate to advanced. Fee: £60/£45 concessions for 1 Unit of 5 weeks (half a term). Discounts when signing up until the end of the academic year Booking Page: Click here to read details of payment and sign up for the course. Read below for extra events, extra discounts and all-inclusive fees. Watch Information Videos and including small demonstrations. Detailed Information The Balkan region is known for its rich and diverse musical heritage, which has been influenced by various cultures and traditions over the centuries. I am launching this new course to share the finer things about Balkan music. The correct notes can be played by any musician, but how often do I find myself in tears when listening to a great musician who gets it so wrong, simply because they did not have the opportunity to travel, listen, and learn from native masters? Instead, they might have learned it third-hand or from a piece of sheet music. Western classical music notation cannot fully capture the essence of other types of music, and a metronome can stifle the authentic phrasing of asymmetric Balkan rhythms. I am not a native Balkan music master either, but I feel very privileged that I had the opportunity to learn from several of them, and engage in endless, wild jam sessions. In this course, I aim to convey not only the right musical feel but also the fervour and passion for this music. The weekly course primarily targets melodic instruments. Tunes will be taught by ear, initially using the voice (sheet music will be sent out beforehand), and then practiced on the instrument. Special attention will be devoted to phrasing, articulation, and, of course, the typical charisma of Balkan music to give it that truly magical sound. Whilst I am a violinist and will demonstrate and lead with the violin and voice, the course is suitable for any melodic instrument. The level is aimed at intermediate to advanced players, although ambitious and diligent lower-intermediate players will also do well. We will briefly cover accompaniment aspects, including chord progressions, rhythm patterns, and techniques. Dedicated workshops for chordal instruments and percussion will be offered as we progress. The course will run weekly and continuously, with no regular sessions during usual UK school holidays. Booking will be in advance in 5-session units. Each unit can be booked individually, or you can sign up for an annual booking and pay in 6 instalments distributed over the whole year, receiving a 20% discount on the total course fee. For precise dates and a detailed payment plan please visit the BOOKING page. Information Videos about the general aims and philosophy of the course how to achieve expressive ornamentation how the accompaniments relate to the tunes Additional Events Balkan Academy Jam Session: A music making session, 3 times a year (towards the end of each term), online and in person, where course participants and their friends can play the studied material with a full-on group, including rhythm section and vocals. Fee: £9 for course participants, £12 for others - sheet music downloads included Dates to be announced. Chord Progressions and Accompaniment Special: A special workshop three times a year for guitars, accordions, pianos, bass players, and similar instruments, both online and in person. This workshop delves into the details of chord progressions and accompaniment patterns, including riffs and breaks. It will be co-hosted by an experienced guitarist. Fee: £9 for course participants, £12 for others. Dates to be announced. Balkan Percussion Special: A workshop designed for percussionists to study the rhythm patterns and techniques related to the course material. This workshop will be co-hosted by an experienced Balkan percussionist. It is tailored to friends and bandmates of the Balkan Melody Mastery course participants, allowing the pieces to be performed together in your own groups and jam sessions. Fee: £9 for course participants, £12 for others. Dates to be announced.
CRRUK equips professionals with the concepts, skills and tools to build conscious, intentional relationships, and to coach relationship systems of any size.
CRRUK equips professionals with the concepts, skills and tools to build conscious, intentional relationships, and to coach relationship systems of any size.
This course aims to assist adult learners in improving their pronunciation skills and reducing their accents to enhance their overall communication in English. Through a variety of exercises and activities, participants will focus on specific sounds, stress patterns, intonation, and rhythm to develop clearer and more fluent speech. Course Duration: 10 weeks (20 sessions) Course Objectives: By the end of this course, participants will: 1. Identify and produce accurate sounds, stress patterns, and intonation in English. 2. Develop awareness of their own pronunciation challenges and strategies for improvement. 3. Reduce their native accent to improve overall intelligibility. 4. Enhance their listening skills and ability to distinguish between different sounds. 5. Increase their confidence in spoken English communication. Course Outline: Week 1: Introduction to Pronunciation and Accent Reduction - Assessing participants' pronunciation strengths and areas for improvement - Understanding the importance of pronunciation in effective communication - Introduction to key concepts: sounds, stress, intonation, and rhythm Week 2: Vowel Sounds - Identifying and producing English vowel sounds - Practice exercises and drills for accurate vowel pronunciation - Common pronunciation challenges and strategies for improvement Week 3: Consonant Sounds - Identifying and producing English consonant sounds - Focus on challenging consonant sounds and their correct articulation - Practice exercises and drills for accurate consonant pronunciation Week 4: Word Stress and Sentence Stress - Understanding the concept of stress and its role in English pronunciation - Practice exercises for placing stress on the correct syllables in words and sentences - Intonation patterns in different sentence types Week 5: Rhythm and Linking - Developing a sense of rhythm in English speech - Practice exercises for linking words together and maintaining flow - Awareness of connected speech phenomena Week 6: Intonation Patterns - Recognizing and producing different intonation patterns in English - Practice exercises for conveying meaning through intonation - Intonation in questions, statements, and emotions Week 7: Pronunciation of Commonly Mispronounced Words - Identification and correction of commonly mispronounced words - Practice exercises for improving pronunciation of specific words - Strategies for self-correction and continued improvement Week 8: Accent Reduction Techniques - Understanding the impact of native accents on English pronunciation - Techniques for reducing native accents and improving intelligibility - Practice exercises for adopting a more neutral accent Week 9: Listening Skills and Discrimination - Enhancing listening skills to better distinguish between sounds - Practice exercises for recognising and discriminating between similar sounds - Developing an ear for correct pronunciation through listening activities Week 10: Review and Fluency Practice - Reviewing course content and addressing individual needs - Fluency practice exercises and activities - Final evaluation and feedback session Note: This syllabus is a guideline and can be customised based on the specific needs and preferences of the participants. You can opt in and out of different modules.
The course covers research design principles and all main quantitative evaluation methods: randomised experiments, instrumental variables, sharp and fuzzy regression discontinuity designs, regression methods, matching methods and longitudinal methods (before-after, difference-in-differences and synthetic controls).
LOOKING FOR: ADULT FICTION, NON-FICTION Julie Gourinchas (she/they) is developing a selective list focused on upmarket and literary adult fiction across a wide variety of genres. Writers she represents have been nominated for the British Book Awards, the Hugo Awards, the BSFA Awards, and the Saltire National Book Awards, among others. In fiction, she's drawn to a uncommon voices, and striking, intelligent writing – whether vibrant and floral or tense, quick, and sparse – as well as texture in both tone and setting (particularly anything with a strong aesthetic). Above all, she is looking for hooky, high-concept work, but her taste can perhaps be best summarised as "the weird, dark, and gruesome." While literary-speculative is her sweet spot, she considers herself genre agnostic within upmarket/literary fiction, and remains open to compelling and well-executed genre overlap. These include: upmarket and literary horror: especially featuring feminist or cultural themes, body horror, mangled nature, or cosmic, Lovecraftian vibes and looking for a fresh, literary take on vampires. Think Mona Awad, Lucy Rose, Julia Armfield, Jade Song, Stephen Graham Jones. dark and spiky literary dramas with high emotional stakes - think Eliza Clark, Julia May Jonas. razor-sharp dark academia particularly with something to say about the complex and exploitative systems within academia, more The Secret History, less The Atlas Six. gothic fiction, specifically regional gothic anchored in an evocative sense of place in the vein of Alexis Henderson and Alix E. Harrow. grounded fantasy or otherwise speculative fiction with coherent, sharp worldbuilding that feels recognisable and familiar, or directly set in our world. Play with magic, faith, and technology in your story like Babel, or a more literary version like Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries, Blood Over Bright Haven, Metal From Heaven. Searing contemporary fiction centred on themes of identity and belonging: think Sally Rooney, Torrey Peters, or what Saltburn should have been. dark westerns, in particular any that play with the truth and false hopes of the American Dream. magical realism both whimsy with a touch of darkness, and darkness with a touch of whimsy. unhappy romances anything -punk: steampunk, solarpunk, silkpunk, clockpunk, dieselpunk, cyberpunk and more of these! Suffice to say: if you can successfully and smartly comp to Arcane, Julie wants to see it! character-focused historical fiction with a literary edge: think Lauren Groff, Anthony Doerr, Eleanor Catton, particularly in the 19th and 20th centuries; including and indeed encouraging alternate history. Stylistically, Julie loves uncommon, thought-provoking experimentation with both prose and form, and anything spiky, toothy, and dark. Happy endings, to her, should feel earned. In all things, compelling character development should come first. First person narration is not impossible, but hard to sell. A smart genre blend is always welcome, as is any fresh-eyed approach to a well-trodden trope. Julie is also very much looking for her first romantasy – especially one that approaches this exciting new genre from a fresh, bold perspective. She is keenly interested in hearing from authors traditionally underrepresented in the industry, including but not restricted to writers of colour; queer, trans, and nonbinary writers; working class writers; disabled writers; etc. Her enduring favourite books include All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien, The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, and Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series. More recent favourites include the masterful Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, Babel by R.F. Kuang, Detransition Baby by Torrey Peters, Matrix by Lauren Groff, Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt, Brother Alive by Zain Khalid, and Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield. In non-fiction, Julie is keen to read in the narrative and “big ideas” spaces, particularly in the realms of politics, history, and the social sciences. Please note: Julie is not looking for young adult, middle grade, and children’s books. Strictly no AI-generated content of any description. Please also bear in mind that, despite a deep and abiding love for all things Tolkien and Star Wars, she is not typically the right fit for epic or high fantasy, nor space-faring science fiction. She would also prefer to avoid pulpy crime and straightforward romance/romcoms. Julie would like you to submit a covering letter, 1 page synopsis and the first 5,000 words of your manuscript in a single word document. (In addition to the paid sessions, Julie is kindly offering one free session for low income/under-represented writers. Please email agent121@iaminprint.co.uk to apply, outlining your case for this option which is offered at the discretion of I Am In Print). By booking you understand you need to conduct an internet connection test with I Am In Print prior to the event. You also agree to email your material in one document to reach I Am In Print by the stated submission deadline and note that I Am In Print take no responsibility for the advice received during your agent meeting. The submission deadline is: Tuesday 29th April 2025
LOOKING FOR: ADULT FICTION / NON-FICTION Upon joining Curtis Brown in 2018, Ciara Finan worked with senior agents Jonny Geller and Sheila Crowley on their lists of bestselling and prize-winning authors such as Lisa Jewell, Susanna Clarke, David Nicholls, Jojo Moyes and Nigella Lawson. Now as an agent she is representing a wide range of fiction and non-fiction writers. Ciara would consider her reading tastes to be quite broad and ever-growing, but is constantly drawn to books that have a decisive voice, unforgettable characters, an unexpected story, or can subvert and reconstruct the conventional narratives of love, friendship, family, loss and coming-of-age. In particular, she is looking for Adult and YA fantasy and romantasy, rom-coms and book club romance. In the wider fantasy genre, Ciara is keen on finding romantasy, cozy fantasy, dark/light academia, and anything with political intrigue. She seeks novels that will keep her reading into the early hours of the morning. She wants to be consumed by the world, the plot and the characters. Think authors like Leigh Bardugo, Tamsyn Muir, R.F. Kuang, Sangu Mandanna, Hannah Nicole Maehrer, Deborah Harkness, Chloe Gong, Ava Reid or Sabaa Tahir. In romcoms and romance, Ciara is looking for something that explores the complicated nature of romantic relationships - think Seven Days in June by Tia Williams, The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston or anything by Taylor Jenkins Reid. She would love to find a brilliantly witty workplace romance or anything that will leave her in tears. Ciara would like you to submit a covering letter, 1 -2 page synopsis and the first 5,000 words of your completed manuscript in a single word document. (In addition to the paid sessions, Ciara is kindly offering one free session for low income/under-represented writers. Please email agent121@iaminprint.co.uk to apply, outlining your case for this option which is offered at the discretion of I Am In Print). By booking you understand you need to conduct an internet connection test with I Am In Print prior to the event. You also agree to email your material in one document to reach I Am In Print by the stated submission deadline and note that I Am In Print take no responsibility for the advice received during your agent meeting. The submission deadline is: Wednesday 30th April 2025