Youth Events
November
Thursday 23rd November St Andrews Day events for Border primary children gave them the chance to find out about Scottish country dancing. The events were organised by Active schools in conjunction with the joint youth co-ordinators of the borders branch-Margaret Pritchard and Maureen Buckley. On Thursday 27th November over 200 primary children and their teachers attended Galashiels Academy for a morning of Scottish country Dancing. The schools involved were Balmoral, Burgh, St Margaret's, St Peters, Langlee,Glendining, Tweedbank, Caddonfoot and Stow. They danced 10 dances to the live music of Ewan Galloway, who had travelled down from Dalkeith for the morning. Tesco kindly provided a snack for all the children. Prior to the event, over a period of 6 weeks, ten volunteers from the branch had visited the schools to teach the dances to the children.
Friday 28th November saw the primary children from Hawick taking part in their St Andrews day ceilidh. This was held in the Town Hall and again approximately 200 children attended. The schools involved were Trinity, Burnfoot, Stirches, Denholm, Newcastleton, Wilton & Drumlanrig and they were taught the dances by a group of local volunteers led by Shona Morison. All the schools were presented with a certificate for taking part.
Events for primary children were also held in Kelso and Selkirk.
March 2024. Scottish country dance festival March 27th Volunteer Hall Galashiels - organisd by Margaret Pritchard & Maureen Buckley in conjunction with Active Schools. Six primary schools participated in the morning session and four secondary in the afternoon - 23 teams in total. Adjudicators were Mrs M Ballantyne and Dr L Bryce, Music provided by Dr I Shepherd. The youth coordinators supported by volunteers Mrs M Stirling, Mrs J Butler, Mrs P Murray had visited the schools to offer support to the class teachers prior to the event. The results were as follows :- Primary 5 - A Reel for Jeannie - St Peters Larch ( Galashiels ) Primary 6 / 7 Girls - Galloway House - Knowepark Coonty Clippers (Selkirk) Primary 6 /7 mixed - The Brudenell Jig - Burgh Foxes( Galashiels) Happiest Team - Knowepark Fletcher ( Selkirk)
Secondary 1 /2 Lady Catherine Bruce's Reel Peebles High 2 3 / 6 EH3 7 AF Peebles High 1 / 2 Creative Scottish Peebles High 3 /6 Creative Scottish Jedburgh Grammar
As a result of the tremendous amount of work carried out by the two youth coordinators this was a very successful event culminating in the presentation of cups.
November 2023 St Andrews Day meant that this was a very busy month for the youth co-ordinators, who organised volunteers to go into primary schools throughout the Borders to teach a programme of 5/6 dances. The Hawick Ceilidh on 24th Nov in Hawick Town hall was attended by 200+ pupils - from Denholm, Newcastleton & Hawick. The Galashiels Ceilidh on Tuesday 28th Nov. in Galashiels Academy was attended by 200+ pupils - from Stow, Tweedbank and 6 Galashiels Schools. The Galashiels Ceilidh was delighted that William Williamson, society chairman, took time out of his busy schedule to attend the ceilidh with his wife Linda and he presented participation certifcates to each school. The musician was Sam Clelland - another busy branch member who also provided the music for Kelso's Broomlands school ceilidh. The youth co-ordinators had spent several sessions in the school prior to the evening ceilidh which was attended by children & parents. Three highly successful events.
Selkirk twin town Plattling Following on from the Selkirk childrens class entertaining Plattling citizens in September, plans are afoot for some of the young dancers and our youth co-ordinators to visit Bavaria next summer as part of the twinning programme. Fund raising is underway - a Christmas raffle being the first event.
October 2023 Ruby Wilkinson taught at the Selkirk Childrens Class Day School. This was a very successful event and the children were joined by High School pupils and beginners from the Adult Selkirk Class. During the afternoon ceilidh a set of children were videoed by Frank, the regular camera man, and this dance would be submitted to HQ as part of the Festival of Dance.
September 2023 After the break of the summer holidays Sekirk was the venue for 2 events involving the youth. Selkirk Childrens Class was invited to dance at the Selkirk Farmers market on the 2nd and despite only having had one dance practice this term, the children, from primary 2 - 7, performed beautifully in glorious sunshine. The second event - on the same day, in the evening at a reception in the Victoria Hall - was a dancing display by a set of children from primary 6 & 7 and a set of High School pupils. They danced 2 new dances devised in honour of the visit by Plattling citzens - Plattling being Selkirks twin town in Bavaria.
June 2023 The Youth Coordinators were requested by St Boswells primary school to teach the children a few Scottish Country dances. After several sessions the children then participated in dancing on the village green and at the annual afternoon tea party. Margaret and Maureen found the children to be a pleasure to teach and the resulting performances were first class.
May 2023 Coronation Celebrations Following on from the successful festival, Selkirk High School dancers were invited to the Selkirk Children's Class Coronation Ball. The enthusastic teenagers danced happily with the primary children while Rowan, parents, grandparents and friends looked on. The coronation ball was a memorable event for all from start to finish thanks to Connor Campbell who piped to welcome everyone and led the children round the hall, Stuart Anderson who provided live dance music, Shirley Boylan who produced a wonderful buffet supper. The event was well supported by friends and families of the youngsters whose enthusiasm was infectious and resulted in grown up participation!
March 2023 School Dance Festival
March 2023 Schools Dance Festival
After a break of 3 years this event restarted. A funding application had been made for a festival which was cancelled due to covid. The successful funding application to Localities SBC fund was made with the help of Jenny Marr MSP ( daughter of the late Cathy Marr who was involved in the Selkirk childrens class for many years) and this money was held to enable the festival to go ahead this year. The Branch youth co-ordinators Margaret Pritchard & Maureen Buckley worked in co-operation with Live Borders to organise the event and encourage schools to participate. The categories were primary 3/4, primary5, primary 6/7 mixed, primary 6/7 girls, seniors 1/2, seniors 3 and above,- teams entered from 7 primary schools and 3 secondaries The adjudicators were Julie Grainger and Patricia Harrower from the Duns & District Branch.
January 2023 The Selkirk childrens class teachers have been busy as the class resumed and then the teachers organised a workshop for school teachers to enable them to prepare teams for the schools country dance festival planned for March. A 2nd workshop is arranged for early February in Galashiels. The last festival was cancelled at the last minute due to covid and so everyone is very excited about this event. There are classes from P3 up to S6. The festival will be held in the Queens centre Galashiels and is supported by Live Borders Active Schools.
December 2022
Santa visited the children's party in Selkirk on Saturday 10th December
Selkirk Childrens Country dance class danced a programme of six dances in Selkirk Square on Saturday 3rd Decemberjust prior to the switching on of the Christmas lights. The 21 children were a delight to watch - dressed for the occasion in tartan skirts/kilts and Christmas jumpers. They were accompanied by Lynne Kemp whose fingers over came the cold and provided jolly music
St Andrews Day Ceilidhs Mrs Margaret Pritchard, Mrs Maureen Buckley and Mrs Shona Morison , in conjunction with Active Schools part of Live Borders, organised two ceilidhs for primary school children. The last ceilidh was held in November 2019 prior to Covid restricitions. This year, one was held in Hawick Town hall where over 200 children from various local schools, participated. Their programme consisted of four set dances and one ceilidh dance, the dances having been taught by a band of volunteer dancers going into the schools for six weeks prior to the event. The event was jointly funded by Active Schools, part of Live Borders and Hawick Common Good Fund. The second took place in the Queens Centre in Galashiels - again over 200 children from nine primary schools participating and dancing a programme of six dances that had been taught by local volunteer dancers. This ceilidh was fortunate to have a live musician - Sam Clelland on his accordian. The childrens snacks were kindly sponsored by Tesco. It was heartening to see the children dancing with such enthusiasm and great gusto. The branch appreciates all the work of the volunteers and the giving up of their time to go into the schools to teach the dances to ensure that the children had a memorable and fun day.
November 2022 November is a busy month for the Selkirk children inparticular but also for primary school children throughout the borders. The Selkirk children danced a variety of dances in Tesco on the 12th - the highlight being The Flying Scotsman. This dance was videoed and then sent up to headquarters where we hope it will be used as part of a special world wide video to celebrate the centenary of the society and the train. Pudsey bear dance was enjoyed on the 16th prior to the class sending a donation to Children in Need Fund. St Andrews Day ceilidhs will be held in Hawick on the 25th and in Galashiels on the 1st December. Volunteers have been going into the schools for the last 6 weeks to put the children through their paces.
October 2022 The class visited Priorwood retirement home in Melrose, when the children entertained the residents by dancing 5 dances. Their performance was warmly received as usual and generated much applause. Primary 7 girls, Ellen and Kayla acted as comperes and the children were delighted to be accompanied by Sam on his accordian
Autumn 2022 Although Scotts Selkirk dancing event was cancelled due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the childrens class gave their own tribute to the RSCDS patron by dancing in Selkirk square, observing a minutes silence and laying flowers on the statue of Sir Walter Scott, while a lament was played by piper Kevin Turnbull, who had had occasion to play for the late Queen.
After two years break due to Covid the children's class started again on Wednesday 23rd February in Selkirk Parish Church Hall on a Wednesday afternoon after school. We charge £5 for 10 weeks.
There are currently 18 children attending and there may be more intending to come along. We have 3 dance teachers Margaret Pritchard, Maureen Buckley and Patricia Murray. We now have a rota for Mothers to come along and when they do we encourage them to join in the dances with the children. This in turn could actually get a beginners class started in Selkirk with some younger folk wanting to join.
After just 3 weeks the children at the class were invited to the Selkirk Open Night on Friday 18th March in the Victoria Hall. The children danced along side the adults doing their own dances and they had a great night dancing to live music. To be honest they wanted to be on the floor all night!
Have a look at the photo gallery to see the children in action.
April News
The children danced in the Bield Sheltered Housing Complex in Selkirk on Wednesday 28th April where they had a great time entertaining the residents.
May News
On Saturday 7th May Selkirk Childrens Class were involved in a Guardian of Scotland event as part of a display in Halliwell's museum. Beautifully dressed in white dresses and sashes of Guardian of Scotland tartan,(designed by Gerald Reilly) primary 2,3,&4 followed the piper round the market square before dancing the circle dance Braveheart. This was followed by primary5,6&7 dancing Guardian of Scotland 1297, 4 x 32 bar jig devised by Lina Purves. The children were accompanied by accordianist Ian lothian playing a tune he had specially composed. The piper then led the children into Halliwells museum where they repeated the dances. A large crowd both outside and inside heartly applauded the children. The weather was perfect and hopefully will be again when the children repeat the performance in September.
June News
As part of Selkirks Jubillee Celebration the childrens class took part in the festivities at the rugby club on Saturday 4th June. The dances demonstrated were A Reel for Jeannie, Waratah Weaver and the Circle Dance. The children were delighted to have their photo taken with "The Queen" !!!!!!!
