This poem humorously mentions the typical incidents that children may experience while in school which allows them to relate to the poem more. For example, I have used 'Scissors' to indicate that it was time to clear up in an Art lesson and 'Picking Teams' to begin a difficult PSHE lesson dealing with bullying. The reader is made to empathise with the persona, hopefully in turn engraining in a child the moral message behind this poem. The poems are very well written and introduce a variety of poetry techniques to children and can be enjoyed by all ages. This poem is about sitting the General Studies A-Level exam, and how the young speaker’s thoughts become side-tracked by thoughts of girls and the desire to lose his virginity.

Reading each poem made me chuckle, or sigh, and each and everyone made me think back to my own school experience. He associates the chalk and the board and the classroom with his own mortality, with each September bringing him closer to the grave – and this feeling is only made more piquant by gazing out upon all the ‘April faces’ of the young schoolchildren, who have their whole lives ahead of them. The book can be used to provide children with short poems read aloud when there is spare time within the school day and as an introduction into reading and writing poetry. I had such incredibly fond memories of this collection of poems from my childhood, I was almost nervous to read it with my daughter.

This is no doubt meant as a term of endearment, but it also comes across as patronizing and dismissive. 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.

Reading it is like a trip down memory lane, and for children it is entertaining whilst effective in making them reflect upon rituals such as "picking teams" and "Swops". I like the way it is easy to read as a verse and by adding a touch of humour to a subject all children can relate to gives added interest to the listener. It wasn’t until the late 1940s that Larkin (1922-85) really began to find his own voice as a poet, but of the poems he wrote in his early years, ‘The School in August’ (1943) is one of the best, written when he was still in his early twenties. A fun lesson that I have taught is reading for performance which seems to always go down really well with the children as they really enjoy bringing the poem to life with their own expression and twist on the poems. Another way of developing this is to suggest the concept of times and places where we say particular things, e.

Rather than helping, the teacher expresses her irritation and frustration with having to always be the one to fix these relatively insignificant issues. Hiding in in your clothes is not that unusual but swallowing it could actually kill you, so why are we not reacting to a teacher suggesting THAT?

The teacher offers strange and clearly hyperbolic solutions, like the student locking themselves in the cupboard or joining a ship and sailing away. Children use their information retrieval skills to locate answers and are encouraged to explain if they like or dislike the poem. Ask children to note what is going on in each section, and to discuss how they think the story of the poem is moved on in each part. A simple verse that would be useful in the classroom to either read to a class or to have on the class bookshelf for independent reading. A lovely reading comprehension resource which explores the popular performance poem Please Mrs Butler by Allan Ahlberg and includes a differentiated version.Please Mrs Butler is a fabulous collection of funny little poems centering on the school experience. The italics used to emphasise the "our" and "other" make the verse very effective for reading aloud to a class, and the children can have great fun joining in with this. These are likely incidents all children have experienced while in school which makes it relevant to them.

According to a list I saw the other day, Please Mrs Butler is one of the top ten favourite children's poems in the UK. Duffy paints a fond picture of her time at primary school and on the brink of adolescence, powerfully suggested by the poem’s final image of the sky breaking into a thunderstorm. 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.I read this when I was in school so was keen to read it again and to get some inspiration when teaching poetry with KS2.