From jewellery design to map reading, a Northumberland school is offering the chance to learn a lesson with a difference.

Hexham's Queen Elizabeth High School has launched its new community leisure programme for spring/summer 2009, featuring a range of courses to allow the community to experience something a little out of the ordinary.

The school's community walled garden will be the venue for the beginners' gardening course.

The lives and times of our Tudor ancestors are to be brought back to life at a festive event.

People are invited to Hexham's Old Gaol to learn more about life in Tudor times between December 29 and January 3 from 10am-3pm, last entry 2.30pm.

A pilot who defied death for the third time when his plane dropped from the sky after the tail fell off says he wants to get back in the air again.

It is almost a year since Great North Air Ambulance pilot Jim Martin suffered horrific injuries when his microlight plunged into woods in Northumberland at about 115mph.

His friend and co-pilot Jon Ker, of Rothbury, also an air ambulance pilot, suffered serious head injuries and both were in hospital for weeks.

Green-fingered Hexham schoolchildren have been taking part in National Tree Week.

The Shaftoe Trust First School pupils helped the Highways Agency to plant trees and shrubs along the route of the new A69 Haydon Bridge bypass.

Head teacher, Audrey Cox, said: "We decided to make trees the theme of the whole school day. Class groups went up to the site in relays so that every child had the chance to get involved and when back in the classroom we looked at the different species of trees being planted and how trees and wood are used to make other things."

An award-winning author is to meet with her fans in Hexham.

Kate Summerscale, author of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher and the best-selling Queen of Whale Cay, will be at Hexham Library on Thursday December 4 at 7pm.

The event is free and places can be booked by calling 01434 652477.

Children in Northumberland have been learning how to become more energy efficient.

Northumberland County Council teamed up with npower to work with almost 30 schools in the county in an initiative to create the next generation of 'climate cops'.

Seghill First School was one of the latest to take part in one of the project's academies, which form part of npower's Greener Schools Programme.

Tynedale Accordion Club is to host its last evening of music this year.

International accordionist and vocalist Steve Roxton will be performing on Thursday November 20 in the club's final event until March 2009.

The Hexham and District Flower Club is hosting its open night this week.

The event will be held at the Queen's Hall in Hexham where international demonstrator Janet James will take the audience through a professional flower demonstration in readiness for the festive season.

Tickets for the show, which takes place on Wednesday November 20 at 7.30pm, cost £8 and can be purchased by calling the venue on 01434 652477.

A Hexham church will play host to a series of debates featuring nationally-recognised speakers.

Bruce Kent, veteran peace campaigner, will give the opening talk in the second series of The Hexham Debates on Saturday November 22 at 11am in St Mary's Church centre in Hencotes, Hexham.

Mr Kent, vice-president of CND and of The Movement for the Abolition of War, will take discuss the theme of building a culture of peace. Admission is free.

The expansion of a garden waste recycling scheme in Tynedale has been hailed as a success.

Since April, the scheme has been available to a further 8,000 homes and an additional 1,300 tonnes of garden waste has been collected.

The scheme, which was initially launched in Hexham, Prudhoe and Wylam, was expanded to all main towns and villages in the north and south of the Tyne Valley.