Abstract Data for this presentation was derived from the Effective Pre-School, Primary and Secondary Education (EPPSE) project, a large scale, a longitudinal, mixed-methods research study that followed the progress of 3000+ children from the age of 3 to 16 years. The EPPSE project uses a mixed-methods approach to investigate how child, family, pre-school and school characteristics interact and contribute to children’s development. This keynote reports mainly on the 4 groups of Child and Family Case Studies (CFCS), a sub-study within the larger EPPSE programme of research. I report on 50 mixed-method cases that were conducted when the children were in secondary education, to extend our understanding of how child, family and school factors interact and contribute to explanations about why and when certain children ‘succeed against the odds’ while others fall further behind, and also when and why some ‘privileged’ children fall behind despite their positive circumstances (See Siraj & Mayo, 2015). A review of international literature from the fields of psychology, sociology and education, was conducted to identify themes and focus areas for in-depth qualitative interviews with parents, children and teachers. Additionally, trajectory analyses, survey and questionnaire data available from EPPSE and findings from the pilot study were used to create ‘case specific’ interview questions and retrographs, which provided a schematic overview of the child’s family, school and learning history and were used as memory aids during interviews. Analysis of the trajectories determined when the children from four groups in our CFCS sample started to show differentiation in their learning life-courses. The analyses of the qualitative interviews were used to explore why certain children succeeded academically while others did not. Through the ‘bottom-up’ analysis we investigated the perceptions of participants; taking into account the people, events and circumstances the children, parents and teachers identified as having had a positive or negative influence on the children’s academic achievement over the years. We analysed the occurrence of well-established ‘risk’ and ‘protective’ factors and the specific interplay and constellation of these factors in the learning life-courses of the children. The trajectories showed apparent differences between children before they started school. The succeeding children’s initial rankings were relatively high and their trajectories were characterised by improvement. The general pattern of decline observed for more vulnerable children suggested a poor goodness-of- fit between their specific needs and the ability of schools, teachers and parents to tailor to these needs. The study shows that in families with children succeeding against the odds, parenting is characterised by ‘active cultivation’ and that schools, teachers, peers and the wider community contribute to children’s academic success by providing emotional, practical and relational support. As a result of these, children are facilitated and encouraged to develop a combination of positive cognitive and socio-behavioural characteristics that helps them become active agents in their learning life-course. The CFCS provide information that can be of use to both policymakers and practitioners. It has implications for parenting and home-school relations and may serve to inform policies and practices that aim to increase the chances of children ‘at risk’ and help in closing the gap between those who are academically and socially advantaged and disadvantaged. The keynote will cover key findings:• low ses families fostering academic achievement• characteristics of parents engaging in active cultivation• parenting in homes with academically vulnerable children• early distinctions in the development of academic life-course trajectories• supporting children to become active agents of academic success• gender specific parenting and differences related to ethnic cultural heritage• foundations for academic success in the early years• teaching that promotes academic success• schools’ contribution to raising achievement• empowering relationships with peers and friends• additional gateways to social and cultural capital I argue that mixing-methods and utilising a transdisciplinary approach enabled stronger inferences. Providing information that can be of use to researchers, policymakers and practitioners. It has implications for parenting and home-school relations and may serve to inform policies and practices that aim to increase the chances of children ‘at risk’ and help in narrowing the gap between those who are academically and socially advantaged and disadvantaged.