Poem About British Identity, Written by Year 7 Girls

I currently work as Spoken Word Educator at Plashet School, a girls' comprehensive school in East Ham, London. Last Friday Year 7 had a PSHE day, where the focus was 'British Identity'. The day kicked off with an hour-long assembly, which I curated and hosted. As well as fantastic performances by Kat Francois and Malika Booker, whom the girls found extremely inspiring, I wanted to perform a poem or two myself. However, I was much more interested in discovering the girls' perceptions of their own Britishness (or lack thereof) than I was in pontificating upon my own. In the days leading up to the assembly I asked a selection of girls to complete the sentence 'Britain is...', and collated the lines into a poem, which I performed during assembly. The vast majority of girls at the school are of Asian heritage. It was therefore interesting for me to gain an insight into their identity and views surrounding the notion of Britain. Here is their fantastic poem.

 

Britain Is

 

Britain is a world full of different people with different skills.

Britain is a new planet that everyone wants to be on.

Britain is a whole bunch of colours,

an enormous party.

Britain is a universe of people from different countries,

a jungle trying to escape the busy streets.

Britain is the smell of coffee all over the place,

and the smell of bunched flowers.

Britain is 2000 days of rain.

Britain is when you go out with your family,

and your little siblings ruin your day.

Britain is a scary place for new people from abroad,

a tough place forcing you to work more hours to earn a living.

Britain is a traffic light never stopping,

leaving everyone always crazy.

Britain is lights flashing everywhere.

Britain is all about school.

Britain is applications for jobs.

Britain is when David Cameron

makes his decisions towards Newham.

Britain is a place full of people with dogs.

Britain is a farm house, mooing, woofing, meowing.

Britain is a three course meal.

Britain is diversity.