Education Projects – morris & sword dance

Grant awarded for teaching morris in schools

In May 2023, the Morris Federation was awarded its very first grant from Arts Council England!

Some of our members asked what we are doing to promote the teaching of morris and related activities in schools. So we applied for a grant from Arts Council England.

Arts Council England grant for teaching morris in schools: “Old dances, new people, new age” aka ‘Buzzing Britain’

Barry Goodman Dancing for Fun British Schools Museum 2The aims of the £27k grant were to create exciting new videos introducing morris and sword dancing, a schools topic called ‘Buzzing Britain’, kit bags for classes of 30, and to teach morris and sword dancing in 18 primary schools across 3 regions.  The regions chosen are ‘levelling up for culture’ areas with a diverse cultural community – NE Derbyshire, Kirklees, and Preston – and the teaching took place in late Spring and early Summer terms 2024.  The teaching culminated in 3 regional showcases where all the schools in that region got together to display their dances.

Funding was made available from Arts Council England, Lancashire Encounter, and Preston City Council.

Buzzing Britain logoA new schools resource pack called ‘Buzzing Britain’ was created by educator Sally Smith.  It is designed for KS2, to be used in a number of different ways, including: A scheme of cross curricular topic work for a year group; A themed topic week for one or more classes including creating a show at the end with a mummers play, Morris Dancing performance and costumes; A themed topic day for one or more classes; Show what you have done in a class assembly or a show for family and friends.

Warwick Hashu Mohammed interviews The Outside Capering Crew 2023New short (1-2 minute) videos introducing morris and sword dancing were created by Hashu Mohammed (aka SMASHBengali from the BBC Asian Network) by interviews with performers at Warwick Folk Festival in July 2023 and by Soham Nathani at Bromyard Folk Festival in September 2023. These videos are on our YouTube ‘Buzzing Britain’ video playlist showcasing different styles of morris and sword dancing.

Breaking Tradition LogoAs tutors for Preston and Kirklees we engaged ‘Breaking Tradition’ with Damien Barber and their hip hop dancers.  The teaching and the showcases have all concluded.

For NE Derbyshire we engaged Folk 3D logo‘Folk 3D’ with Sarah Matthews and Sara Rose.  The teaching and the showcases have all concluded.

Morris sticks for the schools Kit Bags provided by: Creativity Design and Production (Lincoln).

We partnered with EFDSS and One Dance UK to share our videos and teaching experience more widely.

We plan to build on the experience gained, by submitting a follow-on bid to Arts Council England.  If you have skills to help us with future Educational or Youth projects, please contact us (use dropdown for ‘Education’).

The project team was: Esther Ferry-Kennington, Sally Smith, Barry Goodman, Jenny Everett, and Pauline Woods-Wilson, see us on meet our Committee.


Donate morris equipment

Goathland childrenIf you have any usable equipment suitable for primary school children, such as bells, smaller Cotswold/Border sticks, North West sticks, rapper swords, or longswords, that you would be happy to donate to the kit bags, please contact us (use dropdown for ‘education’).

 


Supported by:

Arts Council England logo

Preston City Council logo

Encounter Festival logo 2024

 
 
 
 
Breaking Tradition Logo
Folk 3D logo

Feedback.  We welcome feedback on the Education resources. We also welcome suggestions for other Education-related topics which could be included.  Please send a message using the Contact Us form (select ‘Education’ in the Enquiry Type drop-down).

Who Can Use These Resources?  The resources are freely available for use by all; access is not restricted to members of the Morris Federation or, indeed, just to the morris community.


Last updated: September 2024

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