EFDSS Education Department |
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Education Review The retirement of the National Education Manager in April 2007, together with the Society’s new education strategy, created an opportunity for the Society to review its education programme. Accordingly, Sue Coe was appointed in November 2006 to write a detailed education business plan. This report was aimed at ensuring that the Society has a strong and sustainable education programme which would work in conjunction with key partners and draw on folk animateur support nationally. Education Director One of the key recommendations in Sue’s report was that appointment of an Education Director is essential in order to ensure that the Society develops a significant national education programme which, whilst sitting at the centre of the folk education market place, will also aim to attract significant numbers of non-folk users. The programme must be dynamic, responsive to current needs and on an equal footing with other education programmes run by national organisations, so it is essential that the Education Director is able to work at a strategic level with key agencies and government departments, as well as with regional and local agencies. The Society is therefore delighted to announce that an application to the Paul Hamlyn Foundation to provide core funding to enable the Society to establish the post of Education Director has been successful and is now subject to contract. Further details will be announced once the contract has been signed. The Society is very grateful to the Paul Hamlyn Foundation for their support. The Education Director will be appointed by the new EFDSS Chief Executive, and should be in post in the second quarter of 2008. The Society is fortunate that Carolyn Robson is working as a part time education consultant, to bridge the gap until appointment of the Education Director. Education programme In keeping with the Society’s education policy, the education programme, overseen by the Education Director, will consist of various strands. Some of these are: VWML
Related Education Programmes Take 6: The Society is delighted that The Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded us a grant of £155,000 to fund Take 6, an eighteen months long pilot project, which will result in six important heritage folk collections (Janet Blunt, George Butterworth, Frances Collinson, George Gardiner, Anne G. Gilchrist and the Hammond Brothers) being archived, conserved and then disseminated. This dissemination will
take the form of school-based and community-based activities. The
Society will employ a Heritage Education Officer, who will develop
and implement educational projects in partnership with eight primary
schools. He or she will commission locally based folk agencies, musicians
and animateurs to bring the source materials to life for young people
and hold showcase events in each school - “Folk Song Alive”
– based on the Take 6 collections. The Heritage Education Officer
will also develop learning resources in conjunction with all participating
schools and, with the Take 6 Archivist, make the educational material
available online. For more information about this programme, please visit www.efdss.org/library.htm and www.efdss.org/news.htm#HLF London Links The Society believes that it is essential to create partnerships which will encourage a larger and more diverse range of people to discover and use the VWML, both nationally and within London. The London Links objective is to not only create partnerships but to instigate a reciprocal dialogue between local organisation specifically in the London Boroughs of Camden, Islington, and Southwark but also within other boroughs and districts. The purpose of these relationships is to encourage the diversity and modes of usage with in Cecil Sharp House and to instigate an EFDSS lead program of activities and events that bring the wider London Community into contact with the facilities of the house and more specifically the VWML. In order to ensure that
the London element of that work forms a coherent programme, in August
2007 Patrick Kingwell was commissioned to carry out a study investigating
the range of links and suggesting a coherent three year programme.
This study, based on MLA standards regarding access and aims, proposes
a menu of activities for and projects with primary and secondary schools;
young people with learning disabilities or special needs; adult community
and tertiary education; disability organisations; black and other
ethnic minority community organisations; organisations working with
older people; youth services and regeneration programmes. It also
suggests links with organisations currently using the House and with
cultural organisations, including black and other minority archives. Cecil Sharp House Based Educational Activities Community Evening Classes These classes are run under
the EFDSS education umbrella by volunteers: C Sharp Minors: This class takes place from 4.15-5.30pm most Tuesdays during the school term. It is aimed at 5-7 year olds and teaches song and dance (including Morris, longsword and maypole), as well as clapping, singing and dance games. The cost is£17.50 for five sessions (payable in advance) or £6 per individual session. Jane Pfaff is the teacher/leader/folk animateur and the regular musician is Jeremy Monson. Jane can be contacted on 020 8346 9986 or 07981 866 143. Workshops: Carolyn organised a series of dance and song workshops in local primary schools which culminated in a dance/song sharing event in CSH on 17 July 2007. She has also organised two Days of Folk Arts for children, incorporating different folk arts including dance, song, drama, stories, craft. The first of these was held at Cecil Sharp House on 22 September 2007; the next will be held 1 December 2007 (from 2 – 4 p.m). Please contact Carolyn for details at carolyn.robson@efdss.org. The Big Sing: CSH Adult Community Choir A pilot meeting of an adult community choir took place at CSH on Wednesday, 3 October 2007 from 7.30 – 9.30 pm. As with other community choirs, all were welcome without auditions and with no need to read music. The choir sang songs from the British tradition and from round the world. The evening was such a success that we are currently planning to make it a regular event. National programmes Youth/School Bulletins/Newletters Carolyn is producing two A3 colour bulletins especially aimed at children under 12. These will be sent to members for children and grandchildren on request (electronically or in hard copy) and to any schools with whom the Society works. Please contact Carolyn for details at carolyn.robson@efdss.org. EFDSS Education Web Site. Carolyn and Johnny Adams are working together to develop the EFDSS education web site. Two initial projects will be used as blueprints for provision of on-line ‘free to air’ worksheets. One involves developing a series of ‘free to air’ worksheets adapted from the activity book ‘Midwinter’, supported by copyright free audio visual; the other involves producing ‘free to air’ worksheet material based on the two ‘Root and Branch’ education packs which will be made available for purchase via the EFDSS webshop. Open Dance Project: EFDSS is the British representative in a pan-European consortium which is half way through a three year European funded project to build a web resource for the teaching of traditional dance. Stage One developed WebDance materials (which can be edited through an on-line open editing platform); Stage Two is OpenDance which is aimed at assisting learning of traditional dance through interactive technologies. Regional Project Partnerships. EFDSS is providing partnership funding for two regional pilot projects. Rootz, Folk Band for young
people The project involves formation
of a folk group for young people aged 10 - 18 in Stoke-on-Trent. Young
people, many from classical backgrounds will have weekly workshops
with the opportunity to play for a barn dance in November 2007. Young
people will learn traditional English tunes and dances, bringing folk
music to new audiences. City Music and Performing Arts Service works with 8000 young people in Stoke-on-Trent aged between 2 and 18 every week delivering instrumental, vocal and curriculum music, dance and drama. For further information about this project, please contact Caroline Hollingshurst, Music and Arts Liaison Office on 01782 237664 or e-mail: caroline.hollingshurst@stoke.gov.uk Binbrook and Brookenby
- Past, Present and Future Arts This community education project will be delivered in partnership with The Firebird Trust, a Lincolnshire based arts organization, which aims to develop innovation in the field of collaborative music making, art form development and artistic excellence, through the development and support of creative and dynamic relationships between artists and communities of interest - www.firebirdtrust.org.uk. The project will engage two communities in music and dance activities in order to create social integration, community partnerships and access to participatory arts activities which have a direct relevance to the location and the problems faced by the communities there. Both communities face problems associated with rural isolation, both social and economic. As a new community, Brookenby also faces problems associated with integration into the existing community. The project will enable the communities to explore the traditional folk song, music and dance indigenous to the area as a conduit to exploring other cultures and creating new work based on indigenous and imported cultural themes. Through this work the communities can explore the old working alongside the new. The project will involve EFDSS working in partnership with the Firebird Trust. The EFDSS funding available will be used in Stage 1 of the project, which explores the traditional folk culture indigenous to the area (specifically, the repertoire of traditional singer, musician and dancer Luke Stanley, who was brought up in Binbrook). This stage of the project will involve six half day or evening workshops, aimed at introducing the various community groups to the material in Luke’s repertoire and engaging them in participatory singing, music and dance activities based on this material. The workshops will be targeted at existing groups within the community and will be tailored to their needs and abilities. The workshops will be an even proportion of song and dance based activities and will engage groups across the entire age range of the community, from Key Stage 1 school children to pensioners’ groups. One of the eventual aims of the project is to create a piece of devised music and dance performance for community choir and Indonesian Gamelan, using traditional and newly made material. The project will be delivered in the winter of 07/08 and be completed by spring 08. If you are interested in this project, please contact Liam Robinson www.minimorris.co.uk Other Resources: Check out the Education and Workshops Page for details of currently running and potentially available workshops. Please look at the Education Section of the EFDSS Shop for details of educational items available. For details of Maypole Teachers, please look at this list.
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