JULY 2019

The Council of Gorsedh Kernow has announced the winners of their annual awards for young people after careful consideration and review of this year’s entries.

An award for Ilow Kernewek / Cornish Music has been awarded to Roche School Year 5 (aged 10) for their choir project “Wheal Martyn and WW1”.  The class were led by their teacher, Charlotte Goatman.

Gorsedh Kernow Young People’s Awards seek to encourage learning, understanding and promotion of Cornish culture and offer an exciting opportunity for school communities to explore a sense of place and celebrate Cornwall and its special history and culture.

Roche School participated in a WW1 Commemoration Project with Wheal Martyn, along with Fowey School and St Column Minor School.  The children unearthed museum artefacts and facts dating from the war as they explored Wheal Martyn, stumbling upon vignettes from some of the characters from Wheal Martyn’s War Stories.  These inspirations were transformed into fantastic pieces of creative writing and choreographed into a class song.  The three participating schools, some 140 children, came together on 29th November 2018 and performed their songs to an audience of friends and family at Wheal Martyn.

Grand Bard of Cornwall Elizabeth Carne, Melennek, said, “We are keen to give awards to entries that highlight the Celtic spirit of Cornwall and express strong Cornish identity, and this year’s entries demonstrate creativity in such a variety of ways”.

Gemma Martin, Education Officer at Wheal Martyn, commented, “I am so pleased that Roche School were so successful!  The children really captured some of the stories of local clay workers during WW1, and produced a truly brilliant song that sent tingles down your spine. Their song was really wonderful – in fact, we asked the class to perform it for us when the Countess of Wessex visited in February.

“We were delighted to be working with KEAP (Kernow Education Arts Partnership) and CMEH (Cornwall Music Education Hub) on this WW1 Schools Project.  As a partnership, we have worked together for several years, striving to celebrate our local part of Cornwall with schools.  This award for Roche School is a lovely way to recognize and celebrate our success”.

For more information, please contact Gemma Martin be email or call 01726 850362