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Scots Language Centre Centre for the Scots Leid

A Sang for Oyne

2nd May 2013

An Aberdeenshire school recently hit the headlines for its promotion of the Scots language and traditional song. Drama teacher Margaret Hearne, together with Sharon Hassan, wrote the script for a drama based on the song Johnnie Sangster, which had been drawn from the Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection. The teachers and children at Oyne Primary School worked with singer Frieda Morrison who is the artist in residence for the Scots language at the School of Celtic and Scottish Studies in the University of Edinburgh. Morrison has been keen to promote the Greig-Duncan Collection and open the riches of the language to communities throughout Scotland. Based on the new script, the children at Oyne put together a musical drama and learned much about the Scots language, particularly in its North East variety known as Doric. The drama was filmed as part of a cross-curricular project for P4-7 and is available on a CD. Morrison and the teachers at Oyne hope that the project can be used as a model for schools across Scotland, bringing together drama, language, music and song skills.