Over five weeks during January and February, we worked with KS2 children at Moretonhampstead Primary School to help them write songs to celebrate the town’s 100th carnival which takes place later this year.
Our professional musicians, Paul Wilson and Jon Dyer, spent five Friday afternoons with Years 3 & 4 and their teacher, Dave Poulsom. The Wren Music project culminated in a finale performance in front of a packed school hall of students, staff, family and friends.
Guided by Paul and Jon, the children created a cycle of four songs, including one special piece reflecting their experiences and the history of Moretonhampstead Carnival, and its role in the local community. They explored local stories to put their own lyrics to the songs – one was about Moretonhampstead’s much-missed railway station, another was called the Dartmoor Ram, and, as the finale concert was on 14 February, the children also sang a song about Valentine’s Day.
While those all used traditional tunes, the fourth song was a famous Notting Hill Carnival tune that was introduced by its early director, well-known steel pan player, Selwyn Baptiste.
The children also learnt a tune which was inspired by a 40-strong steel band called Ebony, who performed many times at Moretonhampstead Carnival. Alongside Ebony, a local steel band called Real Steel, based at Estover College Sound House, also made several appearances at the Carnival. To capture the excitement of all this music, the children learnt to play both drums and steel pans!
Paul said: “The whole project was great fun and bringing it all together for the finale was fabulous. The children were amazing, and everyone who came to watch the finale thoroughly enjoyed it.”
Dave added “We have a choir here and the children are good singers. In this project, they particularly liked creating their own lines for the songs, it gave them a nice feeling of ownership. And of course, they really loved playing with the steel pans!
“I was very impressed with how quickly the children learned, and that was down to the engagement and fun that Paul and Jon brought to the sessions, as well as their knowledge.
“And at the end of it, there was a real outcome, with the performance in the finale. The music and singing were of such a high quality, it gave everyone a tremendous feeling of pride, especially to be able to achieve that in such a short amount of time.
“The children have had great fun with this project. It’s something they would really like to do again.”
We’d like to say ‘thank you’ to Dartmoor-based health and wellbeing organisation, Wellmoor, for funding this school project. It built on a successful Heritage Lottery Fund project gathering oral reminiscences and archive materials related to Moretonhampstead Carnival, through six workshops in partnership with Moretonhampstead History Society. Over 3,000 photos, two hours of archive footage and 50 hours of oral reminiscence were collected, alongside 10 multi-generational art and drama workshops facilitated by the town’s MED Theatre and Devon arts education charity, Daisi. The project directly involved 367 people with an additional 150 audience members to an exhibition and film documenting the project.
Moretonhampstead’s 100th anniversary carnival takes place on 28 in August 2025.
