ABSTRACT
This and subsequent chapters focus on the themes that evolved from children’s comments and behaviour in the classroom. This material was collected through observations of and activities with the children. It was filtered through the analysis of the adults involved but, nevertheless, it helped to form a coherent picture of the issues which children in a reception class confronted in order to feel secure about their place in that environment. Thus, these themes are categorised under the headings of questions that children might ask themselves as they settle into school. In these themes, there is a deliberate movement from individual and expressive to social and structural aspects of reception classroom life. This aims to mimic the task of the child starting school, having to forge a new identity in a new social environment.
