Starting School: What Do the Children Say?

As part of an ongoing study of young children's transition to school, a group of 50 young children who had recently started school were interviewed about their experiences, expectations and perceptions. Their responses indicated a strong focus on the rules they encountered in the school context and their feelings, or dispositions, about going to school. Children's responses are analysed according to the types of rules mentioned, the perceived consequences of infringing these rules and the nature of the dispositions mentioned. Underlying the study is a commitment to listening to the voices of children and a regard for their active role in research that seeks to understand the transition to school.