School of punk rock

Somerhill School, in Hove, is a junior school which for the past few years has been holding a ‘Don’t Dis My Ability’ day. We’ve been asked in to take classes to share our stories of life on the road with Heavy Load, being in a movie, and the wider work we do around promoting people with learning disabilities as positive role models.

I thought it would be a bit of a laugh to turn parts of these lessons in to punk song writing workshops where we get the kids to write, practice and perform a punk song from scratch. So far it’s worked and they’ve come up with some amazing lyrics.

The only thing they need encouragement around is that they all sing like little angels so there’s lots of direction such as ‘stop smiling’, ‘look angry’ ‘SHOUT’ – and by the end of the lesson we’ve hyped all the kids up in to pogoing punks. That’s always my cue to leave and get lunch!

Here’s some of the kids previous songs that they’ve written. Can’t wait to see what they come up with in a couple of weeks.

‘Don’t dis my ability’

Born this way baby, born to be wild.

Who in their right mind would treat us this way?

Everybody’s different

Don’t dis my ability

I’ve got the power

My abilities are cool.

‘Everyone is equal’

 

Just because we’re different

Doesn’t mean we can’t have fun

Everyone in human

How would you feel if it happened to you?

Live with disability

Everyone’s the same

Everyone is equal

Why can’t the kids stay up late?

Everyone is equal

Don’t treat them badly

The next Somerhill Don’t Dis My Ability day is 6th March. What a wonderful school!

Paul