First Published in 1998. This work had its origin in the concern of one of the authors about those children who entered a certain grammar school in a high position on the entrance list and who therefore gave promise of good academic progress, yet were found at the end of the first academic year to have a very low standard of attainment. As well as looking at the grammar entrance exam, it also explores what make or mar educational promises at that critical stage of a young person's life-the transitional stage from primary to secondary education.