Je m'appelle Safa

What a great day I've just had at St Stephen's C of E Primary school in Bradford. I was invited in to work with them as part of the Arts Partnership scheme at Tong High School. I worked with lower KS2 in the morning, and then upper KS2 in the afternoon, teaching them how to perform poetry. What I hadn't bargained for, was that they would end up writing a poem each and performing that at the end of the day! As they barged in to the library after break, they were all chatting away saying 'Je m'appelle...'. I explained that it would be helpful to say their name after that, seeing as how it's the French for 'My name is...'. One girl piped up 'Je m'appelle Safa.' It wasn't long before that had turned into...

Je m’appelle…

Je m’appelle Safa

Je m’appelle Safa

Je m’appelle Safa

And I like to have a laugha

With a smile on my face

In such a cool place

It’s called School

Cool School

School’s cool

It’s called School!

Je m’appelle Imama

Je m’appelle Imama

Je m’appelle Imama

And I like to read with mama

With a smile on my face

In such a cool place

It’s called School

Cool School

School’s cool!

It’s called School!

Je m’appelle Keith

Je m’appelle Keith

Je m’appelle Keith

With a set of gleaming teeth

With a smile on my face

In such a cool place

It’s called School

Cool School

School’s cool

It’s called School!

Je m’appelle Con

Je m’appelle Con

Je m’appelle Con

And I like to sing this song

With a smile on my face

In such a cool place

It’s called School

Cool School

School’s cool

It’s called School!

What a great poem, and, as is often the case with poems, even better when you see it performed. The chorus with the Cool School bit was directly influenced by the wonderful Mrs Borscherd (try and pronounce that - I couldn't!), who is a bit of a poetry genius, it turns out. 

The older group wanted to make up their own poem, using a spoonerism. As we'd spoonerised Mr Timms that morning, turning him into Tister Mimms, we used that as a starting point. I wasn't sure we were going to manage to get a poem out of it, but the children made sure we did. Here it is...

Poor Old Tister Mimms

Tister Mimms, Tister Mimms

Eating food from all the bins

Sandwich crusts and mouldy cakes

Goodness how his tummy aches

Tister Mimms, Tister Mimms

Eating food from all the bins

Rotten grapefruit, teacher’s socks

Dried up bits of chicken pox

Tister Mimms, Tister Mimms

Eating food from all the bins

Mouldy old banana peel

How’d you think that made him feel?

SERY VICK!

Blaaaarrrgghhhh!!!

 

Fantastic! And the children's enthusiasm for pretending to be violently ill at the end of the poem drew a large round of applause from their peers who were watching all this. 

Well done to everyone who took part today - you certainly put a smile on MY face!