In recent years an increasing number of music educators have drawn attention to the dichotomy between in- and out-of-school learning, and studies exploring the range of informal learning outside schools and institutions have resulted in the identification of implications for classroom teaching practice. Green’s Informal Learning approach aims to foster student agency by immersing secondary school learners in the informal practices of popular musicians. Conducted as an ethnographic case study, this project explored the implementation of Green’s Informal Learning approach in a primary school in the South- West of Sydney. Thirty children aged 10 to 12 years took part in ten researcher-led music lessons which were based on Green’s five Informal Learning principles and data were collected through researcher observation, focus group interviews and audio-visual recordings of student activities whilst engaged in the project. Children responded to the pedagogy’s inherent learner agency in an enthusiastic manner and all friendship groups were observed to be positively engaged in a range of meaningful music making activities. The data revealed that pedagogy of this nature provides teachers with an opportunity to “connect the contexts” between children’s music learning at home and at school. The results of this study support the need for teacher reconsideration of the place of informal learning approaches in primary school music
