Children's Attitudes to Work at 11 Years

Summary This paper reports on individual interviews with 175 children, from 33 inner London junior schools, at 11 years of age. The children were part of a large‐scale longitudinal study of educational progress based at the Thomas Coram Research Unit, and were also interviewed at 7 years. Children were heavily aware of the importance of school work, which figured prominently in views on the best and worst things about school. Only 17% were not looking forward to secondary school. They were looking forward to specialising in subjects not provided in depth at primary school. Maths was much the most popular subject, as it was at 7 years. There was no evidence that expressing a liking for a subject, or expressing a general interest in school, was associated with higher achievements. Success or not in academic work was perceived to be largely in children's own hands; external attributions were rare. Differences according to ethnic group and sex of children are discussed.