Through The Full English Extra learning programme, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, museum and folk educators have worked together over the past year to create powerful new learning experiences shedding light on Britain’s rural, mining and maritime heritage.
The programme led by EFDSS took place during the 2015-16 academic year working in partnership with three national museums: the Museum of English Rural Life at the University of Reading; the National Coal Mining Museum for England, with Wakefield Music Education Hub; and the National Maritime Museum.
EFDSS is delighted to share the learning developed through this project via a number of freely downloadable resources.
How folk music, dance and drama inspired learning with museums, written by Dr Alison Daubney, the project’s external evaluator.
Eighteen new learning resources were created by museum and folk educators, reflecting the projects’ rural, maritime and coal mining themes. They include contextual information, class room activities and creative exercises, song lyrics, music notation, scores for choirs and instrumentalists, instructions for rapper sword dancing and audio files.
One of the packs, Songs of Rural Life, was developed in partnership with The Makaton Charity and Folk Arts Oxford, and contains Makaton symbols which increases its accessibility for participants with learning and communication difficulties.
All the below packs, and accompanying audio files, are available to download from the EFDSS Resource Bank.
Introduction to playing folk music: working with intermediate and advance players new to folk music by Rob Harbron
Threshing Machine: a musical interpretation of a heritage resource by Rob Harbron
Songs of Rural Life: accessibility and adaptability in SEN settingsby Cat Kelly (this resource was created in partnership with Folk Arts Oxford and The Makaton Charity)
In our own words: exploring coal mining through folk song by Bryony Griffith
Blue Scars by Bryony Griffith
Tools of the Trade by Bryony Griffith
A Collier Lad by Bryony Griffith
Pony Driver by Bryony Griffith
The Miner’s Dream by Bryony Griffith
Shots Fired by Bryony Griffith
(The above resources were created in partnership with Wakefield Music Education Hub)
Collier Lads – choral arrangement by Bryony Griffith
Rapper Set for KS2 Instruments – Yorkshire Tune by Bryony Griffith
Rapper Set for KS2 Instruments – a dance for 1811 by Bryony Griffith
Rapper Set for Brass Band – Oatlands House by Stephen D Wood
Rapper Set for Brass Band - Tekely by Stephen D Wood
Swords and Stars: Rapper Dance for Primary Schools by Bryony Griffith and Lucy Huzzard, with diagrams by Will Hampson
Four short films documenting different aspects of the project are available to view on the EFDSS YouTube channel:
The Full English Extra learning programmereached around 1400 people through creative learning projects in the 2015 – 2016 academic year, working with young people from eight schools and two music education hubs in Berkshire, London and Yorkshire.
Material used in the learning programme came from The Full English digital archive and other archival sources, including the museums’ own collections.