This week we’re running one of our Chippendale school introductory courses, which are designed to give students an opportunity to try their hand at woodworking.

Students on the one-week course are given an introduction to some basic techniques and skills, as well as learning how to make a small wooden upholstered stool and a lathe-turned bowl – which they can take home at the end of the week.

It’s also an opportunity for some of the students to decide whether signing up for a professional course is the right choice for them.

For those that do go onto our professional course, it’s money well spent as the introductory course fees are deducted in full from the 30-week course.

The introductory course therefore gives students some valuable DIY skills that they can use at home or, if they wish, can further develop on one of our one-month intermediate courses – which were only launched this year and are already proving popular.

But for some students, having been given a real taste of what the learning environment is like at the school and having decided that they really do have sawdust in their blood, it’s a stepping stone to a new and fulfilling career in fine furniture design and woodworking.

We take a maximum of ten students on each Introductory course, which are taught by the school’s principal, Anselm Fraser.

There are still places on other five-day courses this year, which will take place on:

25th to 29th June 2018
17th to 21st September 2018
17th to 21st December 2018