Song Stories: You And Me Attached

In June and July 2016 I was asked by Tracey Yates, the Community Learning Manager at Wakefield Cathedral to prepare workshops and a song on the theme of “friendship”, for their Community Cohesion Days for Year 3 students at some of the city’s Church of England Primary Schools. Here’s the result of that request:

Approximately 170 children and their supporting teachers and other school staff attended the three days in the cathedral, meeting new Year 3 friends from the other schools, and mixing up into 16 different groups to rotate around arts activities centred around the theme of “friendship”. Rachel Richardson made some prints which are to be collated together into a massive art work and then shared across the five participating schools, Rebecca Maries encouraged new creative ways of greeting each other through drama, movement and speech, and Gillian Bunn from the Cathedral’s Learning Team facilitated the making of two friendship bracelets each – one to keep and one to share.

wakefield cathedral june (7b)Following on from my composing of the “Peering Through The Rood Screen” song from last year’s workshops, (You can hear that song here!) I had been asked to compose another song especially for this year’s participants, then my role on the day was to share and explain this new song down in the Chapter House, and then to lead the singing of it in the quire at the end of each day’s workshops, as part of the sharing of what we’d all been up to. The recording on the video is an amalgam of seven different performances, each with live piano accompaniment, either in the quire or down in the Chapter House – a few timing discrepancies therefore are present! However, every child is represented, which is the main thing, right?!

The song tells the story of the day with all the other activities mentioned, and also goes through the possible process of making new friends on such a day:

You and Me Attachedwakefield cathedral june (22)
When I first met you, I gave you my smile
You sent yours right back with a name attached.
When I first met you, you gave me a wave,
I offered my hand, and you shook it right back.
Meet me on the labyrinth, greeting, greeting!
Meet me in the nave, we’ll go printing!
Meet me in the Chapter House,
Singing songs and making friends.

When I next met you, my stories I told,
You told me yours back, but with me attached.
When I next met you, we shared our lunch,
We promised to text, to keep in touch.
Meet me by the Lady Chapel, friendship bracelet!
Meet me in the quire, sharing, sharing!
Underneath a gold-blue sky,
Singing songs and making friends.

When I next meet you, our memories we’ll share
As we look back: you and me attached.
When I next meet you, to our futures we’ll gaze,
We’ll live our dreams, you and me attached,
you and me attached,
you and me attached.

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One Response to “Song Stories: You And Me Attached”

  1. Tracey July 13, 2016 at 9:53 pm #

    Awesome, thank you Cheryl. It is a real pleasure working with you.

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