Youth Events
December 2025
The Selkirk childrens class participated in the Christmas Fayre held in the Victoria Hall. They took to the stage to perform 4 dances which were well received by the audience.
November 2025 The usual extremely busy month saw Margaret & Maureen driving all around the borders to various schools to teach the dances for the St Andrews day ceilidh and to support the band of volunteers who went into the various schools. Tesco supplied the refreshments - a much appreciated gesture which added to the party atmosphere in Galashiels and Hawick. What has become a tradition - a ceilidh in both Galashiels and Hawick - was this year expanded to include a ceilidh in Philiphaugh school Selkirk. Enthusiastic participation and smiling faces illustrated the fun had by all the children - approx 400!
October 2025 The Selkirk childrens class visited Priorwood Court in Melrose in order to entertain the residents with a Halloween display. They danced The Witches Chaser, Halloween Jig and Witches Den - much to the amusement of the audience who were very complimentary about the childrens dancing. It was a fun filled afternoon culminating with Halloween snacks for the dancers and tea and bannock for the adults.
September 2025
Youth weekend in Moffat. The weekend was well attended by young dancers and parents under the leadership of Margaret and Maureen. It gave the children an opportunity to dance with children from other areas as well as providing the parents with the opportunity to try Scottish Country dancing. The emphasis was on fun and friendship.
June 2025
Nine young members of the Selkirk Childrens class have signed up for the Family Week- end organised by RSCDS Youth Services Committee to be held in September in Moffat. The youth co-ordinators, Margaret and Maureen are currently organising fund raising for this event - Saturday 7th June they had a stall manned by the Mums at the farmers market while the children danced at a coffee morning in St Joseph church hall. A variety of raffles were held and prizes included a food hamper , a sweetie hamper and tickets are still available for the bespoke afternoon tea which will be drawn later this month.
During the summer term, Margaret and Maureen regularily visited St Boswells Primary School to teach dances to enable the children to play a huge part in the "Beat the Retreat" event. The happy smiling faces illustrate how much the children enjoyed dancing.
May2025
Following on from Selkirk children country dancers visiting the twin town of Plattling in 2024, a group of Plattling youngsters visited Selkirk and were invited to a ceilidh where they danced along side the Selkirk youngsters. Great night was had by all - with superb music and a wonderful buffet.
April 2025 The first week of April was a very busy week for Margaret & Maureen, the youth coordinators for RS&P Branch. Wednesday 2nd April the awards night was held for the Selkirk primary childrens class, a class for 24 children held weekly from September to March. For the invited audience of parents and friends the children performed the dances they had learned during the term and certainly deserved the various age groups awards presented by branch chair Olive Stillie. The fun filled evening was tinged with sadness as goodbye was said to the primary 7 girls moving up to High School but hopefully we will see them again in future events such as Border Schools Dance Festival.
2025 Border Schools Dance Festival was held in Galashiels Academy on Thursday 3rd April. 8 primaryschools entered a total of 25 teams and 2 secondary schools entered 5 teams. Adjudicators were very encouraging and complementary in their remarks before presenting the trophies. The festival took place thanks to the efforts of the youth coordinators as unfortunately, apart from some ceilidh dancing before Christmas, Scottish country dancing is not part of the normal curiculum in Border region. The coordinators and 2 other volunteers went to teach the dances in schools where the class teachers needed help. We must all continue in our efforts to involve and encourage schools to find a place in the curiculum to include Scottish country dancing which is after all part of our culture.Roxburgh,Selkirk & Peebles branch youth coordinators are certainly working hard in this respect. Results Primary 3/4 Charlestown Chaser Winner Knowepark - Haining Primary 5 A Reel for Jeannie " Burgh - Belles Primary 6/7 Girls Galloway House " Tweedbank Red Primary 6/7 Mixed A Jig for Mrs Dunn " Yarrow A Happiest Primary " Langlee Secondary 1/2 The Brudenell Jig " Peebles A Secondary 3/6 The Edinburgh Toyshop " Peebles, Runner Up Selkirk Creative Scottish " Jedburgh
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.