ABSTRACT
In the course of our eighteen-month association with the school, called Albert Road, beginning in the summer term of 1985, the researcher spent one day a week, mainly with class 1. This chapter presents studies of four groups, but mainly that of the 1985–6 class 1. The accounts focus largely on the teacher who will be at the centre of their school lives over the next year. Over the year as a whole, pupils acquired new skills and knowledge, new behaviours and attitudes to learning, and promoted their identities in significant ways. Psychologists argue that there are two critical stages of children's friendships, one at age 3/5 when the focus is on momentary specific physical actions and physical accessibility, and the other at age 11/12 when friendships involve more psychological compatibility and longevity. In the construction of pupil identities, pupils from minority ethnic groups adapted to the majority culture in different ways.
