Music Tradition

Music is a human activity and part of every culture in the world. It is a powerful social glue that brings people closer together and helps us all pull together as a community.

At our school, singing is a tradition and activity that goes back to our inception in 1962.

Our pre-primary and lower primary students still make time to get together and sing the School’s song as much as they can.

Here is their latest rehearsal:

To immortalise this tradition, we recorded the School Songs back in 2016, and they are very much still sung today. We thought you might like to hear them, so here are the songs:

Alleluia
The Straw Broom
O Sleepers Wake Up Now
Don Gatto
Oh, This Day, This Day is Great
Inanay Capuana
Au Revoir Mes Amis
The Prehistoric Animal Brigade
Marra Boonggala
Cheche Kule
Ah, Poor Bird
The Rainbow Snake
I Sing Never Quite Alone
Entendez vous Dans Le Feu
Wake up, Wake Up
The Bean Song
My Grandfather’s Clock
Shalom Haverim
I’m a Little Prairie Flower

Alleluia

Alleluia! Sing it in the morning

Sing it in the noon-time

Alleluia! Sing it when the sun goes down

The Straw Broom

The straw broom, the straw broom

What do you use it for?

You sweep with it, you sweep with it

The floor, the floor.

O Sleepers Wake Up Now

0 sleepers wake up now

The cuckoo calls to you

Wake up, now. Wake up, now.

The cuckoo calls to you.

Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo.

Don Gatto

Oh Senor Don Gatto was a cat,

On a high red roof Don Gatto sat,

He went there to read a letter, meow, meow, meow,

Where the reading light was better, meow, meow, meow,

‘Twas a love note for Don Gatto.

“I adore you”, said the lady cat,

Who was fluffy white and nice and fat

There was not a sweeter kitty, meow, meow, meow,

In the country or the city, meow, meow, meow,

And she said she’d wed Don Gatto.

Then Don Gatto jumped so happily,

He fell off the roof and broke his knee,

Broke his ribs and all his whiskers, meow, meow, meow,

And his little solar plexus, meow, meow, meow,

“Ay carumba” cried Don Gatto.

Then the doctors all came on the run,

Just to see if something could be done,

And they held a consultation, meow, meow, meow,

About how to save their patient, meow, meow, meow,

How to save Senor Don Gatto.

But in spite of everything they tried, poor

Senor Don Gatto up and died,

Oh, it wasn’t very merry, meow, meow, meow,

Going to the cemetery, meow, meow, meow,

For the ending of Don Gatto.

When the funeral passed the market square,

Such a smell of fish was in the air,

Though his burial was slated, meow, meow, meow,

He became reanimated, meow, meow, meow,

He came back to life, Don Gatto.

Oh, This Day, This Day is Great

Oh, this day, this day is great,

Someone has a birthday,

Someone has a birthday.

Oh, this day, this day is great,

Someone has a birthday,

We celebrate.

Long may he/she be living

In the gloria

Inanay Capuana

Ina-nay capuana

Ay, Ay, Ay, Ula

Ula, Ula

Ula Ay, Yipee yay, Yipee Vay.

Goowana, goowana, goowana, goowana, gooa. Choo!

Au Revoir Mes Amis

Au revoir mes amis, au revoir

Au revoir mes amis

Au revoir mes amis, au revoir

Au revoir mes ami.

The Prehistoric Animal Brigade

Listen to the chorus of the brontosaurus

And the stegosaurus down by the swamp.

Along comes the dinosaur

Making such a loud roar,

Thumping with his feet

And going stomp, stomp, stomp

Pterodactyl flapping, long beak clacking,

Big teeth snapping, down from the tree.

Here’s a woolly mammoth, tusks all curly,

Joins the hurly-burly

Oh dear me!

What a noise!

It’s the boys- of the Prehistoric Animal Brigade!

Marra Boonggala

Mar-ra boong-ga-la mun-ninth boong-goo-ma

Gui-gee-loo thun-nan-tha mun-ninth boong-goo-ma

Gin-na gun-doo-ra mun-ninth boong-goo-ma

Gui-gee-loo thun-nan-tha mun-ninth boong-goo-ma

Mar-ra thoong-ga-la mun-ninth boong-goo-ma

Gui-gee-loo thun-nan-tha mun-ninth boong-goo-ma

Cheche Kule

Che che kule (hands on head)

Che kofi sa (hands on shoulders)

Kofi sa langa (hands on waist)

Ka ka chi langa (hands on knees)

Kum ale le (hands on toes)

Ah, Poor Bird

Ah, poor bird

Take thy flight

High above the sorrow

Of this sad night.

The Rainbow Snake

In the outback of Australia lives the rainbow snake

He can make lightning strike and he can fill a lake

Thunder is his mighty roar as rain comes pouring down

When he’s finished in the clouds he jumps back to the ground

Chorus:

Oh the rainbow snake brings water

The rainbow snake brings rain

Fills up all the waterholes

Across the outback plains

He has every colour made of sun and rain

His eyes are bright, so beautiful it makes you look again

Lying in the waterhole he spends each summer day

Then he goes and makes it rain and sends the drought away

I Sing Never Quite Alone

I sing never quite alone

Birds sing too in a clear bright tone

And the zephyr rustles the thousands of leaves

Of the eucalyptus and all the other trees

The world needs a song come sing along.

Entendez vous Dans Le Feu

Entendez vous dans le feu

Tous ces bruits mysterieux

Ce sont les tisons qui chantent

Soyons toujours joyeux

Listen all of you in the fire

To all the mysterious noises

It is the embers who are singing

Be always cheerful

Wake up, Wake Up

Wake up, Wake up, the morning is here

The rooster is calling you, my dear.

The Bean Song

The first thing I had was a little bean,

the first thing I had was a little bean.

The Lord’s going to bless my garden.

The next thing I had was a little root

The next thing I had was a little shoot

The next thing I had was a little vine

The next thing I had was a little flower

The next thing I had was a little bean

The next thing I had was a pot of beans,

The lord has blessed my garden.

My Grandfather’s Clock

My Grandfather’s clock was too large for the shelf

So, it stood ninety years on the floor

It was taller by half than the old man himself

Though it weighed not a pennyweight more.

It was bought on the morn of the day that he was born

And was always his treasure and pride.

But it stopped, short, never to go again

When the old man died.

Ninety years without slumbering

Tic toe tic toe

His life seconds numbering

Tic toe tic toe

It stopped, short, never to go again

When the old man died.

Shalom Haverim

Sha-lorn cha-ve-rim, sha-lom cha-ve-rim,

Shalom, shalom,

Le-hi tra-ot, le-hi tra-ot,

Sha-lorn, sha-lom.

Shalom my friend, shalom my friend,

Shalom, shalom,

Until we meet again my friend,

Shalom, shalom.

I’m a Little Prairie Flower

I’m a little prairie flower

Growing wilder every hour

Nobody cares to cultivate me

So I’m as wild as wild can be.