Support groups and events

 

Support Groups

You may find the following groups can offer you or your family members support:

  • Yorkshire Humberside Japanese School – held at Leeds Beckett University on Saturday mornings, you can find further information on their website.
  • Japanese Playgroup – This group meets weekly in term time, if you’d like further information please contact Noriko at wajapanleeds@yahoo.co.jp.
  • Visit ForStaff for details of formal and informal staff networks, and social clubs/societies.

 

Events

Coffee Connections

Come and build your community of friends in Leeds

Coffee Connections is a chance for the partners and families of staff and students at the University to meet each other, make new friends and share ideas about how to make the most of living in Leeds. Monthly events take place in a relaxed environment over free tea, coffee and a selection of delicious cakes. Coffee Connections runs throughout the year, so you can still meet people and socialise outside term time. Children are very welcome and there are plenty of toys to keep them busy.

To keep up to date about future events, please join our mailing list or our Facebook group.

The next Coffee Connections will be held on Thursday 25th April 201912.00 – 14.00 in the Student Common Room on Level 12 of the Marjorie and Arnold Ziff Building on campus with tea, coffee and cake!

Whether you’ve been before, or are new to these events, all staff, students and family members are welcome to attend.

Be Curious

Our annual one-day festival – find out, explore and investigate!

Be Curious is normally held in March every year. It’s a free, family-friendly event with stalls, exhibitions, talks, and walks! There’s lots to see and do for all ages, and there’s no need to book.

Rooted

Roof garden and sustainable garden volunteering

Rooted is run by Leeds University Union for staff and students who’d like to learn about and get involved in growing organic food – and meeting new people of course! Tools and refreshments are provided, it’s free and you and your family can just turn up.

Get Out Get Active

See the great outdoors!

Need a break from the office, or the lab? How about a lunchtime run with likeminded colleagues? Or maybe a weekend walk? Or is climbing or kayaking more to your liking? Register with the GOGA team to find out what’s going on or check the Facebook page.

The next GOGA trip is to Saltaire, a World Heritage Site, on Sunday 28 April 2019. You’ll need to book places, and tickets are free for children under 5, £6 for ages 5-17 and £11 for adults.

Sketch club

Drop in and draw

Taking place in the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery (in the Parkinson Building) on Fridays 12.30pm-3.30pm, stay for 3 hours or 10 minutes! Sketch club is free, you don’t need to book and all materials are provided.

Staff Festival

Our ‘thank you’ to staff across campus

The Staff Festival is an annual, themed event (themes from previous years include “A festival of making”, “All the fun of the fairground” and “Country fair in the city”) and all staff and their families are invited to come along and join in. Every year we have craft and food/drink stalls, children’s activities, workshops, displays and live entertainment; it all kicks off in the afternoon and runs on into the evening.

Staff are asked to nominate, and vote for, a charity which receives the proceeds from the event. In 2018 we raised £2,888 for Pets as Therapy, which organises volunteers and their cats or dogs to visit hospitals, hospices, nursing and care homes, special needs schools and a variety of other venues all across the UK.

 

Things to see and do

Museums and archives

We’ve got some amazing places right here on campus and entry is free – if textiles is your passion, ULITA holds exhibitions and you can visit the Marks and Spencer archive to see exhibitions and attend events; we’ve also got two galleries which showcase the University’s collections.

Entertainment

There are activities and events taking place across Leeds. Why not book tickets for the theatre or a musical? Leeds PlayhouseLeeds Grand Theatre and Leeds City Varieties have some fantastic shows!  If you love opera, take a look at Opera North‘s wonderful programme.

If you prefer the cinema, we’ve got those too, both commercial and smaller independent venues like Hyde Park Picture House and Cottage Road Cinema in Headingley.

Family friendly

There are a wide range of places that host family friendly events in Leeds. Take a look at the following websites to find out more:

The Tetley
Leeds Museums and Galleries
The Conservation Volunteers Skelton Grange
The Royal Armouries
Leeds Markets
Left Bank Leeds
Leeds Film City

You can find out even more, and subscribe to email updates, from Leeds List, Leeds City CouncilLeeds Inspired and Visit Leeds.