One of the perennial themes in education is the extent to which differences in student achievement reflect home advantages more than differences in school learning opportunities.
This paper summarises some of the main trends found in the Competent Children/Learners longitudinal project, describes patterns of leisure use and interests for the project’s cohort at age 14, and explores how these relate to engagement in school and learning.

Paper presented at the New Zealand Association for Research in Education (NZARE) conference. Dunedin, 6–9 December 2005