Do primary school children in the UK still dance around the maypole on May Day? --Is this a practice that does/has ever taken place in any other country(ies)?
My mother once told me that she did it as a child at school here in Sydney. That would have been in the 1940s.
The city I grew up in still does (New Westminter, British Columbia, Canada) starting in 1870.
Occassionally you’ll come across it. Most often it’ll either be in a small town or village which has a big May Day celebration, or put on by groups of shudder Morris dancers.
If you do a Google News search for “maypole dancing”, you’ll find a few local newspapers with their “what’s on this week”-type articles.
I remember maypole dancing as a kid in the eighties - it was at a small country village school in Hampshire. Oddly enough, they never taught us about the phallic/fertility symbol aspects of the towering erection we were dancing around.
Our CofE primary school used to have maypole dancing at the summer fete, although usualyl in June rather than May - this was mis-late 80s.
I think it’s been stopped in our village now after pressure from some sections of the local church - but we were not taught any pagan symbolism when we took part.
More of a village fete thing yer may pole, particularly if there is a gathering of satanic Morris Dancers. Anyone unconvinced of the intrinsic evils of such prancings should watch the excellent Wicker Man.
I’ve never heard anyone doing it from where I come from.
Feh, I’m an American and I had to do this Gawd awfull thing back in the 4th or 5th grade.
That was in Jenks (A suburb of Tulsa) Oklahoma.
My thanks to the OP for bringing back those nightmares… 
Yes.
I did maypole dancing at infant school (early 90’s) and am used to seeing Morris and maypole dancers et al at village fetes.
This is my first year both in a city and in Scotland where I have noticed the distinct lack of lambs, fetes, daffs, dancing and spring food (especially cream teas) growing up in the English countryside taught me to expect.
ahhh, i think a visit to my family may be in order
Here in Massachusetts some of the earliest (non-Puritan – the ones you don’t hear about) settlers put up a Maypole at the provocatively-named Merrymount. Miles tandish headed up a company that cut it down and deported the leader:
http://www.macthoy.org/history/merrymount2.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Wollaston
Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a story about it:
http://www.saumag.edu/edavis/AmLit/2004/Maypole.2000.html
http://www.eldritchpress.org/nh/mmm.html
Nowadays they revived it (this is just down the road from me):
I live just up the road from a French Immersion public school, they do this every May.
They practice on the front lawn for a few days, it’s adorable to watch and they all look like they’re having fun. It’s very colourful, and hilariously muddled up but they seem to all laugh and laugh.
In fact, I will be attending next Friday for the full day of events, they’ve invited the whole neighbourhood and I’m borrowing a friend’s five year old. I’m actually quite looking forward to it. Maybe I’ll get some pictures.
I danced around a maypole when I was a kid and I lived in a London suburb. No small town for me.
And don’t knock Morris dancing. 
They do a maypole in Amherst and Montague as well. Along with various folk and Morris dancing.
We did it here in the US, in South Carolina, as well. Of course, this was at a private school that had delusions of Scottishness, so maybe that’s why.
I am sure they would ban this practice in South Carolina if those in power realized that the maypole is a phallic symbol. Information here
Ah, you were a Morris Minor, then?
Yes, I’ll get my coat. 
My Dad’s Welsh, so I was sometimes accused of being a Morris miner.
And Rochester, at the Sweeps Folk Festival:
In Hawaii, we did maypole dances, but then again this was also the day we did hula pageants. Unfortunately as the little pageants became big productions, they ceased to be on May 1st and occurred anywhere from two weeks before or after. Hence the maypole was eventually dropped.