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Derrington 2012 thesis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

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faced, and which many continue to face, their optimism for the future is<br />

extraordinary.<br />

The mainstream school students felt able to reflect more. Guy said: “I don’t know, I<br />

just think it’s going to be better” (appendix 7.1.6, p.234), Andrew said that he felt<br />

better and “not as nervous as last year. I pay attention more” (appendix 7.1.32,<br />

p.460), Ollie felt more positive about the future and said that this difference in feeling<br />

had been made by music therapy (appendix 7.1.30, p.441).<br />

7.6 Students’ views on their world<br />

“Just get on” (Harry, appendix 7.1.11, p.279).<br />

In order to gauge insight into the teenage world and to provide further opportunity for<br />

conversation, students were asked to describe in three words what it was like to live<br />

in their world. Before music therapy, half of the words used by The Centre School<br />

students were positive, such as fun, good, happy and fine. The other half consisted of<br />

words that defined their world as difficult, for example annoying, disappointing and<br />

crap. More than half of the words (59%) which CVC students used to describe their<br />

world were positive adjectives such as good, energetic, exciting and easy. The<br />

negative words (40%) which they chose were sad, confusing, worrying and hard.<br />

These reflect how students with emotional difficulties find it hard to keep up in a<br />

mainstream school environment. 12% of all the students felt that it was too difficult to<br />

say what it was like.<br />

This question arose in fewer interviews after music therapy than before and the<br />

responses they gave were very different. They showed an increase in positive<br />

adjectives: among The Centre School students, 60% used the words good, chilled,<br />

free or fun, whereas only 30% described life as boring or difficult; 68% of CVC<br />

students used positive words such as energetic, good, fun, easy or exciting, 29% said<br />

that they felt life was hard or confusing, and overall, 19% of students said it was hard<br />

to explain how they felt. These answers are consistent with their feelings about the<br />

future (7.5) and this more positive attitude reflects greater self-esteem.<br />

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