ABSTRACT
The second half of the 1980s saw the conception and early development of a longitudinal ethnography of pupil learning and school careers, contextualized within the period of great educational change in the UK of the late 1900s. In 1987, with a group of 10 4-year-olds in a Reception class at Greenside School, their parents, teachers and peers, Andrew Pollard began research on the social influences on learning. Some 18 months later I approached Andrew to discuss some research I wished to undertake. So, in the Autumn term of 1989 I began researching in Albert Park School for a part-time longitudinal PhD study, which Andrew had agreed to supervise. My interest was in the tracking of the successive classroom assessment experiences of a group of 5-year-olds in the context of newly introduced national assessment procedures.
