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In this paper, we discuss views of pupils, parents and teachers in a deprived area, Coalton, in the North of England. Funding to regenerate the area was used to improve educational attainment, and as part of the work to assess its success a large-scale longitudinal survey was conducted. In this paper, views of 12-year-olds on transfer to secondary school and views of 16-year-olds on leaving school, as well as views of their parents and teachers, are presented. In addition, we examine differences in attitudes to school between the 12-year-olds and 16-year-olds. We conclude that pupil attitudes appear to deteriorate throughout the years of secondary education and that projects aiming to tackle this problem should be supported. We briefly report on one such project in Coalton.