My school was very snobby, the teachers called us "gels"
We had to act like ladies while mingling with our pels.

We had a rebel in our midst, Joyce Minty was her name -
She found it hard to buckle down, her sister was the same.

One year on March the thirty-first our Joycie wrote a note
She sent it round to every class and this is what she wrote:

"Tomorrow morning please make sure your gels must all know that
When they go to Assembly they must all wear their hat".

We didn't know it was a prank, that things had been contrived
We just assumed - another rule - until the Head arrived.

She was a very portly dame and she looked down in shock
(She had two chairs to sit upon - a chair for each buttock!)

She looked down from the platform upon a sea of blue
Her face turned scarlet red, then puce and every other hue.

"Now gels, you all know very well", she gave a little cough
"It's really not appropriate, so please take your hets orf".

We didn't know until the day Joyce Minty left the school
That she had been the joker who'd played the April Fool.

So hats off to Joyce Minty and may she RIP
For sticking up two fingers at school authority.

© Mary Stewart