Thousands take part in Doncaster’s first Remake Learning Days Festival

The Remake Learning Days Festival brought over 220 different learning events to Doncaster over ten days including May half term.

It comes as part of the council’s new approach to education and skills in the city.

Workshops included music and dance, forensic interactive days, activity and sports camps, illustration and painting, forest schools, business start-up, pond dipping, yoga sessions, filmmaking skills workshops and teddy bear picnics.

The initiative started in America, with Doncaster’s festival bringing it to the UK for the first time.

Over 80 different event hosts took part, including voluntary and community organisations and small businesses.

Cabinet member for early help, education, skills and young people, Councillor Lani Ball, said: “We were blown away by the response to our first Doncaster Remake Learning Days Festival, both in terms of the number of organisations coming forward to host exciting learning events, and also the number of families and people who turned up in their droves to take advantage of the free and low-cost activities on offer. It really proves that there is a real appetite locally for more fun and engaging learning opportunities outside of traditional education settings.”

“Bringing the Remake Learning initiative to Doncaster is part of a much wider piece of work taking place to bring about a new approach to education and skills across the city. We are working collaboratively with our education and business partners and our goal is to ensure the education and skills offer for our city can support any person, at any stage, with any aspiration to achieve their goals right here in Doncaster.”

The festival started with a ‘Night at the Museum’ launch evening at the Danum Gallery, Library and Museum.

Guests joined taster activities including fossil digging, craft activities and circus workshops.

Rob Pearson, a small business owner specialising in music technology, ran courses teaching people DJing and music making skills.

He said: “Taking part in the Remake Learning Days Festival enabled me to offer free DJ and music tech workshops to individuals and families who would not normally be able to access making or playing electronic music. There was so much positivity from participants, with some learning new skills to express their creativity through music. I feel like we really made a positive impact and a difference to residents.”

Emma Cordon, who joined in with the festival with her family, said: “We enjoyed numerous day trips and had some fabulous experiences, all of which were free for us, including the launch event, a forensics workshop and we also managed to get free tickets to Brodsworth Hall and Conisbrough Castle.”

She continued: “My daughter and niece also went to a taster day at Doncaster Equine College that was hosted as part of the festival, and both are now considering applying to attend there after leaving school. We never knew so many things were available locally, especially for the children. It’s been great.”