It’s heartwarming for folk enthusiasts like me, of a certain age and worried about the succession, to hear about the increasing number of young people becoming involved in traditional music and dance, bringing with them a revitalising energy and new influences. National indications of this interest include the Folk and Traditional Music degree course at Newcastle University and the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award, with its opportunities for youngsters to play with their fellows from all over the UK.

Locally, the last few years have seen the setting up of Lumbawakk, the Didcot-based youth Rapper Sword and Border Morris team, and the Abingdon band, What’s Up Folk, which played to a heaving dance floor at 2009’s Oxford Folk Festival and to a packed church at Towersey Village Festival. WUF’s next gig is on February 13, playing for one of Oxfolk’s monthly ceilidhs. Initiated four years ago by a PGCE student, Clara Jefferies, at John Mason School, WUF has been developed by the school’s head of performing arts, Rachel Williams, a melodeon player and Morris dancer, with help from Oxford fiddle player, singer and dance caller Cat Kelly. The 18 musicians are drawn from every year of the school – there’s a strong contingent of year nine girls on whistle and melodica, several fiddle and guitar players, including a couple of staff members, and a brass section.

“The folk band doesn’t work the same way as our other music groups” said Rachel. “Anybody can be in it who wants.”

The students, who all have classical music training, find some of the conventions of folk music a challenge. Playing without ‘the dots’, for instance, is customary, since traditional music was rarely written down.

“That was scary for me as well” said Rachel. “Until two years ago I’d never played without music either. Some students have found it easier than others.”

“It’s really good for developing your aural skills” said Henry Webster, a fiddle player and one of the founder members of the group, currently on a gap year and playing in a local folk band, the Reverenzas.

“As soon as you take the sheet music away, you have to listen hard to everyone else. You can’t just count.” “The stuff we’re learning now we’re learning by ear” explained Paul Bruce, who plays double-bass, one of several instruments in a rhythm section which includes the cahon, an unusual type of drum. Percussionist Jake Morter, who also plays the familiar Irish bodhran, introduced it to the band.

“It’s a wooden box with snares at the back. You sit on it and play the front. It has all the sounds of a drum kit, but in a more subtle way.”

The rhythm instrument players will shortly be participating in a workshop with Dave Delarre (whom folk aficionados will know from the band Mawkin:Causley) – one of several sessions with professional folk musicians from which WUF has benefited since its inception.

As a specialist Visual and Performing Arts school, John Mason has been able to fund a number of these itself. Money for others has come from the Folk Camps Society and from Oxfolk. In the early days, band members had help from ex-John Mason student John Spiers, squeezebox half of the folk duo Spiers and Boden, and co-founder of the big band of the moment, Bellowhead. “He taught us a lot about arrangements” said Henry. “And how to dance a hop-step! It’s important to be able to dance if you’re going to play well.”

A workshop on Morris music, with melodeon player Simon Care, reinforced this message, and enabled students to find out a little about the origins of some of the twenty-plus tunes in their current repertoire.

“They get a buzz out of doing something that’s different” Rachel said. “I try to get them to make suggestions, and not to worry too much about wrong notes. I hope they like the freedom it gives them.”

n Oxfolk Ceilidh, Feb 13, 8pm, Kennington Village Hall. Adults £9, concs £6, family ticket £25. Students arriving before 8.45pm get six tickets for the price of five. Telephone: 07866 804 220 (www.oxfolk.org.uk)