To remember this primary school song?

My uncle was a primary school head. At his funeral, “When a Knight won his spurs in the stories of old” was played. As soon as I saw it in the order of service, all the words came straight back to me.

Really?! Thank you, I did not know that 😳

“Morning has Broken” was a hymn long before Cat Stevens recorded his arrangement.

I love all these old songs. So much better than the gloomy fascism of “We will get along much better when we can obey the rules.” Shudder.

I remember singing “He’s got the whole world in his hands” and “Morning has broken.” Oh and there was a little boy in my primary school who always sang “to be a penguin” (instead of pilgrim). 🐧 😀

Oh, the dillied and dallied one was "My old man said "Follow the van, but don't dilly dally on the way"; Off went the van with my home packed in it, I walked on with my old cock linnet; but I dillied and dallied, dallied and dillied..." I think it was originally an old music hall tune from maybe around WW1 days? Our school choir used to sing it, together with other vintage numbers, at local old people's homes.

Do your ears hang low
do they wobble to and fro?
can you tie them in a knot?
can you tie them in a bow?

can you throw them over your shoulder
like a regimental soldier?
do your ears hang low?

We sang this one too at primary school and I was born in the early 70s!

... What's the use of worrying?
It never was worthwhile
So, pack up your troubles in your old kitbag
And smile, smile, smile.

We all used to love the 'Quartermaster stores behind the doors' song too.

We sang Cat Steven's Morning Has Broken in assembly as if it were a hymn, and I remember number 66 in our hymnbook was Fight The Good Fight... With all thy might, Christ is thy joy and Christ thy right. It was great, you could really put some welly into it!

My favourite hymn was always Jerusalem.

Ours did too!

Bloody hell, I'm feeling old with all of these!

I was singing this the other day - I'm 52...😁😁

I knew someone who thought as a child that it was 'Who built the ark? No one, no one!'

Remember this own too.

If I had a hammer… I’d hammer all over this land

also

who built the ark?
noah noah
who built
the ark?
BrotherNoah built the ark
Now Noah said ‘GO SHUT THAT DOOR’… (we all were allowed to shout that line)

such fond memories! Great thread :)

Remember both of these as an 80s/early 90s primary school kid

I remember the ‘half past three’ song vividly. I’m sure it went:

’At half past three we go home for tea
Or Maybe at quarter to four
And ten pairs of feet go running down the street
And in at their own front door
And it’s rough and tumble
Clatter and noise
Brothers and sisters
Girls and boys
Baby in the carrycot
Cat by the stove.
A little bit of quarrelling
But much more love’

I didn’t learn the chick song until I was working in a school but I’ve used it with children since:

One Mother Hen sat on 5 little eggs
Keeping them warm in her little egg nest
Then one day she heard a crack
And a little voice said as a head popped out
I’m a spring chicken
I’m yellow and small
My feathers are fluffy
And they’re keeping me warm
My legs are not long
So I’ll never be tall
But I’m a real spring chicken
And I’m having a ball
Chicken, I’m a chicken
And I’m having a ball!’
(and so on until all the eggs are hatched)

We never did songs for assembly, CofE primary school so we always recited the Lords Prayer. I do remember a small group of us doing Kumbaya once in a random room with a random teacher and I remember a couple songs from school plays; Skip to my loo, and one about dillying and dallying (so I dillied and dallied, dallied and dillied , lost my way and don't know where to roam .... when you can't find your way home), oh and Soldier Soldier (will you marry me).

Oh really? That makes sense that they'd need to practise. I expect they mainly do it in Autumn, too.

Thanks for this, I remember this one! Haven't thought about it in over 30 years and still remember the tune. That's made me smile.

Sounds like the teacher was misquoting Ella Wheeler Cox's poem "Solitude",

Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air;
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.

There's two other stanzas but I only recall that first one as it was in a book I had as a child that also had From a Railway Carriage and I wandered Lonely as a Cloud

I'm late 50s and I think we sang a variety of songs then.
I remember learning Streets Of London and Matchstalk Men. Also Rolf Harris' Two Little Boys.

Believe it or not, I have a very vivid memory of singing Whiskey in the jar, in year 7 and 8 with a very enthusiastic music teacher for assembly!!

'Hes got the whole world in his hands' was one we always sang in assembly!

I remember the inkeepers song at nativity plays at primary . I call it the Nigel Farage/Suella Braverman carol:

rat a tat tat
rat a tat tat
no no no!
there isn't any room and you can't stay here
there isn't any room for strangers

I learned this as a folk song sung by the Spinners, and I think earlier by Pete Seeger. 'The ink is black, the page is white/ Together we learn to read and write/
To read and write/And now a child can understand/ This is the law of all the land.
All the land...The child is black, the child is white./ The whole world looks upon the sight/ Beautiful sight!'. I assume that the song originated as a celebration of school integration in the USA.

I remember that first hymn - it's called "Colours of Day". I always used to like it, too.

The mention of colours reminds me of another assembly song that started, "The ink is black, the page is white" and something about how we learn to read and write and the law of the land.

TotHappy - I visited a primary school in years gone by, for a meeting with their music co- ordinator. As we walked past the hall, the kids were belting out with great joy and gusto “Sing Lasagne, Sing Lasagne, SIIING Lasagne to the king OF KINGS!!” It was a wonderful moment!