ABSTRACT
Progress from home to compulsory schooling is an event that is significant for children, for whom it means new experiences and new relationships. It is also significant for parents as they first accompany their children to school and hand over responsibility for at least part of their children's child-rearing to a professional person and a formal organisation. Pupilhood is a specific phase of childhood and for most children it lasts for about eleven years. It is associated with secondary socialisation as the young child learns to cope with and internalise the role expectations of the wider outside world. Continuity exists in the way schools maintain the socially confirmed statuses of age and sex. In other words, what happens in school is comparable with treatment at home. Discontinuity occurs in school as a new socially conferred status is experienced, based on ability and attainment – for evaluation is a fundamental feature of schooling.
