First ever attempt at a website – constructive feedback needed

Ouch, use better quality or larger images for your slider.
The grey text with white shadow on purple background is also difficult to read.

yes i agree the image on the slider seems pixelated, thank you, the writing also is a very good point. thank you andrew. please feel free to comment more.

The slider navigation buttons look out of place, should they be further up? [Example screenshot].

Your button colours are inconsistent, some are pink, some a purple. There should be consistency to help users recognise interaction points. Also it’ll be a good idea to carry this convention through to textual links. At the moment some plain text is grey and some hyperlinks are grey.