Please Mrs Butler: The timeless school poetry collection

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The final line is perfect as it breaks from the pattern of the two previous verses, but maintains the effective structure;

The young speaker uses polite and formal language, but the lines also convey the speaker’s age. It seems likely that they are around 10 or so years old. The fact that they need to ask their teacher what to do suggests that they’re quite young but old enough to know that everyone is supposed to do their own work. Anaphora: the repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of multiple lines. For example, “Go and sit” in stanza two. The third part of the poem progresses in the same way, with the final issue being raised in the fifth stanza and amusingly dismissed in the sixth.This is a brilliantly child friendly book that they can relate to due to the wording and the way the poems are written. Children will really love the poems as they are a focussed around children's everyday lives and their lives within school. The poems are also written in a way that adults can relate to, as quite often the poem is from the view point of the teacher or the adult. There are many types of poetry used throughout the book, mainly written to sound like children speaking, and also full of humour.

Haircut' depicts a common fear in many children's lives - standing out. At school consistency is key; the minute you change your appearance someone will have something to say about it. Ahlberg captures the annoyance at being told the blatantly obvious;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. 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'. A lovely reading comprehension resource which explores the popular performance poem Please Mrs Butler by Allan Ahlberg and includes a differentiated version.

Allan Ahlberg is one of the UK's most acclaimed and successful authors of children's books - including the best-selling Jolly Postman series. Born in Croydon in 1938, he was educated at Sunderland Technical College. Although he dreamed of becoming a writer since the age of twelve, his route to that goal was somewhat circuitous. Other jobs along the way included postman (not an especially jolly one, he recalls), gravedigger, plumber, and teacher. 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.

Through rhyming couplets and short punchy lines Ahlberg creates a fun yet informative read for children of all ages. Younger children can enjoy the musicality of the poems when read aloud, whilst older children can appreciate the rhymes and relatable content of the verses. The book is a collection of verse, all set in the school environment on familiar themes. Organised in to sections that follow the pattern of the school day (school time, play time, dinner time etc), there are nice poems of different sorts about things like supply teachers, telling tales, excuses for being late, notes and parents. She doesn’t have a suggestion; instead, she provides these humorous and desperate-sounding ideas. The student should do whatever they think, including, but not limited to, going to the roof with their books.