Cultural Tides – Doric Workshops at Meethill School

March 11, 2026Leave a comment

As you can see from the second photo, it was a bright and sunny day up in Peterhead yesterday for my first visit to Meethill School as part of the Cultural Tides project organised by Aberdeenshire Museums Service !

I had great fun with the first two Doric workshops – an introduction to Doric in the morning where the P5 and 6 pupils had fun showing off how much Doric they knew, miming Doric words for eachother to guess (10/10 from what I saw!) and creating a Doric vocabulary for use in the other workshops.

In the afternoon they voted (very wisely!) for their favourite of 5 traditional songs connected with Peterheid and the surrounding area, decided what the song was “missing” and added a whole new verse (and a half! Watch this space)

I also got to see the school’s Storytelling Chair for the first time. (First photo) It was made by the folks at HMP Grampian in memory of Mr Black, who was the headteacher until 2024. there are amazing images from childrens’ books all over it and… some of my favourite Doric words!

Annie Shirer – Doric Rhymes

October 5, 2025Leave a comment

I’m gey chuffed to be able to share the news that the Annie Shirer Doric Rhymes web page (https://annieshirerrhymes.co.uk/) has been updated with rhymes and illustrations from pupils at Strichen and New Deer Primary schools!

P3/4 (Strichen) and P3 (New Deer) worked with me as a class to create some new Doric rhymes about Mormond Hill, the Culsh Monument and things they did and didn’t like as well as illustrating these rhymes and some of Annie’s original collected rhymes from over 100 years ago!

The P6/7s worked with Pauline as a class to create new seasonal rhymes about coming back to school after the summer holidays, the hairst (harvest) and rhymes about farm work and the New Deer Show. They then went off on their own into groups to create new Doric rhymes based on some of Annie’s original collected rhymes. All of this came with some excellent illustrations which you can see on the web page!

Thanks must go to Ewan McVicar who has converted me to one of Annie’s No1 fans and to The Doric Board who funded this project.

If you’d like a Doric rhyme creation workshop in your school, please get in touch with me (see “contact/links” above)

Here’s some of my favourite illustrations from Strichen and New Deer!

Strichen School and the Loons an Lassikies Project

August 31, 2025Leave a comment

Auld Deer, New Deer, Strichen and the Broch
Syne we’ll hae a straucht road,
An that will gar me hough

It’s my fifth visit to a North East school as part of the Loons an Lassikies project! The P6/7s and P3/4s at Strichen School will be creating new rhymes based on those collected over 100 years ago by the wonderful Annie Shirer (who can be seen in the photo below on the right wearing a wonderful corsage ).

You can find out the rhymes created so far by going to https://annieshirerrhymes.co.uk/

The project has been funded by The Doric Board and I’m really looking forward to seeing what the pupils come up with!

Trad Time wi the TMSA – Annie Shirer!

July 9, 2025Leave a comment

Back hame from Glastonbury Festival and Tattie (i.e. KCR Trad Time host Natalie Chalmers!) had a chat wi mi about Annie Shirer and the “Loons an Lassikies” project – ye can hae a listen here!

Teaching Scots Song with SC&T Youth

January 16, 2024January 20, 2024Leave a comment

This week, and for a further four weeks, I get to do something a little different!

Rather than storytelling, I’m going to be working as a tutor with SC&T Youth (the tuition for bairns and young adults through Scottish Culture and Traditions). I’ll be teaching a different song to Primaries 3, 4 and 5 (this week it’s Ps 4, 5 and 6) and one song they’ll all sing together. Meanwhile the other wonderful tutors will be teaching them accompaniment on clasarch, guitar and whistle as well as some trad tunes.

This week we’ve been at St Peter’s Primary – and the snow hasn’t dampened the pupils enthusiasm for learning! Here’s a photo taken on Don St yesterday. A beautiful part of town affa bonny in the snaa.

The Primary 4 pupils are learning one of our old favourites –

The P4s are learning our old favourite, The Fisherman’s Lassie. Noo I wis rummaging aboot tae find a video tae show you of someone singing it – totally forgetting that I recorded a wee video of it at Fraserburgh Lighthouse Museum back in… 2016! Which seems an eternity ago