The Resource Bank contains over 500 freely downloadable folk music and dance resources for use by educators at all key stages in schools, as well as in informal music-making settings. It is designed so that teachers, music educators, community choir leaders, community musicians, young musicians and adult learners have inspiring and easy-to-access folk material at their finger-tips.
Resources include teachers’ notes, song words, dance instructions, music notation, orchestral scores, choral arrangements, audio files and video clips – all created by leading folk artist-educators in close collaboration with teachers, music education hubs and other cultural organisations.
Since its launch in June 2014 the Resource Bank has received over 84,000 views by people from across England, the wider British Isles and beyond – including North America, Asia and Australia.
Award host Margherita Taylor (Classic FM) announced the Resource Bank as the winner at the awards ceremony on Thursday 25 February 2016, stating:
This award will be presented to a digital resource that is in use by a large number of people, and which is making a difference to the way people learn.
The judges were impressed with the “deep-rooted and unglitzy usefulness” of the winning resource, which they praised for “making use of appropriate music, applicable across many levels, and with great potential for development.
The Resource Bank was originally created as part of EFDSS’ national project The Full English in 2014, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. It is updated regularly with new materials from our learning programmes.
“We would like to thank everyone - artists, teachers, EFDSS staff and partner organisations - who has contributed to the success of our growing Resource Bank. It has been a massive team effort involving over 100 people who have played different roles in its creation – from those who designed it, to those who have created materials for it, and those who have promoted it. And, very importantly, we want to thank everyone who has used it!” Rachel Elliott, EFDSS Education Director
Explore the Resource Bank at www.efdss.org/resourcebank
