Staying On At 16+: A hidden curriculum of tutoring

Staying on after minimum school leaving age has long been a key indicator of the distribution of educational opportunity and life chances. Its growing incidence has been a major component of the expansion of school and post school education in Britain in the closing quarter of the twentieth century. This article offers an overview of analyses of staying on and reports a recently completed study. This contrasts the overt and covert roles of schools and their tutors and identifies strategies of guidance and curriculum control employed by schools to select and retain able and committed students at 16+ and impede their transfer to further education. It also highlights strategies to discourage 'unwanted' students from staying on. Policy implications are considered in the light of British government plans for the major expansion of further education.