ABSTRACT
The way in which pupils treated and spoke of others leads us to suggest a 'polarities model' of identity construction. Pupils had their own conceptions of what constituted normal behaviour, belief and attitude, and projected their extremes along the two most important dimensions of attitude to school and gender. The major thrust of the study has been to reveal how formal and informal cultures become interwoven, and how pupils chart their individual courses within and between them. Pupils seemed to cope better within the informal culture if they had a sympathetic brother or sister already at the school. Other approaches are necessary to tackle pupils 'informal' perceptions of the curriculum, which effectively reduce their learning experiences and, in some instances, their life-chances. The informal passage is probably the more traumatic yet is least studied and understood, a fact reflected in its almost total negligence in Old Town's induction scheme.
