From Leaving CertiFiCate to Leaving SChooL a Longitudinal Study ...

Looking Back, Moving Forward 199
The extent to which gender and social class influenced post-school
intentions was also evident in the focus group interviews with students
and individual interviews with school personnel. In the remainder of this
section, we provide a detailed overview of student ambition and school
expectations by school social mix. We begin by examining the postschool
plans of students from the two middle-class schools, Harris Street
and Fig Lane.
6.4.1 Middle-class Schools
For the groups of students interviewed in the fee-paying middle class
school, Fig Lane, going to college was the natural trajectory. It was assumed
and expected by the students themselves and their families:
Interviewer: What do you think you’ll do after leaving school?
Go to college.
Go to college.
College.
College. (Fig Lane, coed school, middle-class intake)
Student planning at Fig Lane appeared to go beyond their courses in
higher education as they considered their entire career. One student had
realistic expectations of the points they would get but had devised an
alternative plan so they could still study what they wanted:
I wanted to get into property, or designing houses or stuff to do with
property, but then I was thinking of architecture, but I wouldn’t get
that high points, it’s 500 and something points, so it’s the next step
down from that and then you can go on to do that after a year. (Fig
Lane, coed school, middle-class intake)
This student’s second choice, however, differed considerably as it was an
arts degree which they felt could lead to a teaching career:
I was thinking of architecture technology in [name of IOT]. Or my
second option would be [name of university] but I don’t know, it’s
arts. I don’t know much about that yet, but I heard it’s supposed to