ABSTRACT

The Guidance in Music: A Pupil’s Entitlement to ICT (NCET/Ofsted 1996) publication which was circulated to all primary schools, suggested three important ways in which ICT could contribute to the enhancement of pupils’ perceptions, experiences and musical skills: 1 Using and investigating sounds and structures. 2 Refining and enhancing performance and composition. 3 Extending knowledge of different styles of music. Before a group of student teachers began their teaching practice, I asked the pupils, whose classrooms they would be working in, about their expectations of lessons in a number of foundation subjects. Their expectations were clearly influenced by their experiences of previous trainees. Children had responded enthusiastically to a history trip to York in connection with work on the Vikings. They had been given opportunities to examine evidence from a dig, and speculated on the possibility of similar work on another such trip. Others had enjoyed imaginative lessons in dance and PE based on Maurice Sendak’s picture book Where the Wild Things Are and hoped that the ‘new’ teachers would be planning similar experiences.