Please Mrs Butler: The timeless school poetry collection

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Please Mrs. Butler’by Allan Ahlberg is a six-stanza poem that is divided into sets of four lines, known as quatrains. These quatrains follow a simple rhyme scheme of ABCB; changing end sounds from stanza to stanza. It’s also worth noting that all the odd-numbered stanzas and even-numbered stanzas follow a simple line structure. This helps keep up a steady rhythm and makes sure that the three parts of the poem are very easily distinguished from one another. Whether it’s Wordsworth recalling his schooldays in The Prelude, or Shakespeare’s Jaques describing the schoolboy ‘creeping like snail / Unwillingly to school’, poets have often written about school, whether fondly or critically, from the teacher’s or the pupil’s perspective. Here are ten of the finest poems about school and schooldays, teachers and pupils, classrooms and chalkboards.

Please Mrs Butler is a fabulous collection of funny little poems centering on the school experience. They cover all the relevant issues including doing projects, lost scissors, making excuses, and empty fish tanks. If you like Shel Silverstein, you will enjoy this little book. Allan Ahlberg's collection of witty and comical poems about the trials and tribulations of being at school is superb. Although some of the content is pretty dated, having been written in 1983, the comedy contained within still manages to produce laughter in the classroom. Children of all ages can relate to the various aspects of school life such as friendship, breaking up and making up, misbehaving and getting into trouble, and mean and unsympathetic teachers. discussed the way the poet has organised the poem into sections which develop or move on the 'story' of the poem; I used the questions as prompts for discussion of the poem with a small group of year 4 students. Many thanks.

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Goldsmith’s depiction of a genial village schoolteacher, who is viewed by the locals as a kind of demigod, is not one that has lasted, alas, into the modern age. But when Goldsmith was writing, learning and literacy were looked up to, and the man who possessed their gifts was revered: The poem is divided into three parts. The first contains a young student’s plea for her teacher to stop one of their fellow students from copying their work. Rather than provide a solution, the teacher dismisses the issue and tries to get the student to solve it themselves. Throughout, the poet uses amusing and outrageous language that is meant to entertain, especially in the teacher’s rather outlandish suggestions. Differentiated group activities Using the technique of text marking the children are to find and mark the different sections of the poem, identifying any patterns that they notice. This begins with noting the rhymes in individual stanzas; and could lead on to how the six stanzas are divided up into 3 'sections'.

After this, the teacher refers to the student as “my lamb.” This is no doubt meant as a term of endearment, but it also comes across as patronizing and dismissive. It’s clear the teacher doesn’t want to spend any time on this issue. The first time I read Please Mrs. Butler was as a year 6 pupil. .it is a journey through the school day - School time, Play time, Dinner time, School time again and Home time - all from the prospective of the children. I remember how my primary school teacher would read this to the class during story time. We loved the rhyme and being able to relate to the poems so much that we kept reciting the "Please Mrs Butler" poem for weeks.

Allan Ahlberg

The bestselling and much-loved children's poetry classic, Please Mrs Butler by Allan Ahlberg is celebrating its 30th anniversary! With a fresh new look for a brand new generation of school children to take to its heart, every teacher, parent and child should have a copy.