NEWS IN DETAIL...
Student Help Keep Cornish Language Going
A CD and booklet of Cornish language songs for preschool aged children was launched recently by Cornwall College students.
The CD and booklet was produced by the Children & Young People's Workforce students as part of their foundation degree studies at the College and were set with the challenge of producing a high quality Cornish language resource with a strict £300 budget. The money for the CD/booklet was provided by a range of different organisations, with the agreement that the proceeds from the sale of the resource would go to a Cornish language community group.
During the launch the students presented their project to a panel, comprising of the project funders and other invited guests. The students then had to answer questions about how they put the project together and how successful they were at managing their budget. As part of the project the students worked closely with the local community including preschools, primary schools, children's centres and local businesses in the production of the resource. A competition was held involving children from the local community producing illustrations for the booklet and local businesses provided the prizes. Other groups and individuals as diverse as Cornwall College, dBs Music, Maga, Plymouth University, visiting researchers from the USA and staff from Vienna University were all involved in different aspects of the project making the production of the resource a truly unique collaboration.
The students even wrote some of the 45 songs for the CD and recorded children singing the tracks in their schools, with all of the songs being tried and tested by parents and children in Cornwall's only Cornish language Saturday school. Cornwall College course manager Rhisiart Tal-e-bot, said: "The project has attracted a lot of attention already, especially in the lesser used language community and ITV news even featured a segment about it on the WestCountry news about the activity earlier this year. The students have done a fantastic job and showed amazing versatility and have developed invaluable employability skills along the way. It just shows what a small amount of money and a bucket-load of determination can achieve when people come together for the benefit of the community."
Student Sharon Crossley, who was one of the students who presented the project to the panel said: "The project was a huge undertaking, because none of the group had done anything like this before, but we rose to the challenge and produced fantastic results. We not only produced a valuable resource for children and learned new skills along the way; we all passed our assignments too!"
All proceeds from the sale of the CD/booklet will go to Movyans Skolyow Meythrin to pay for one of the volunteers at their Cornish language pre-school to gain a level 3 qualification in Childcare & Education. The funder's of the project included Redruth Town Council, Gorsedh Kernow, Plymouth University, Cornwall College and a number of private donors.
The CD/booklet can be ordered for £5 plus postage and packing by contacting emilie.champliaud@movyans-skolyow-meythrin.net or phoning 0778731866.
